I recently bought a D-Link DCS-5300W webcam.

I decided that I wanted to be able to capture images from this cam and post them to a website for future viewing - sort of a home-brew security system. One of the (many) features I really like about this camera is its ability to pan back and forth, up and down. After sniffing the network, watching what the included applications were doing, I've figure out the following http based commands:

/cgi-bin/sysinfo.cgi
This url returns basic information about the current webcam configuration. For example, on my cam right now it returns the following:

Model=PT31x3-DLNK-0104c HostName=JonesHome Location=JonesHome Preset1=FrontDoor Preset2=LivingRoom Preset3=Deck Preset4=Skylight Preset5=Kitchen PTZEnabled=15

The most interesting thing in there are the Preset parameters - this is a list of camera positions that you've previously set up with the D-Link software in the camera. It's useful to be able to loop through these from your scripts.

/cgi-bin/video.jpg
This is the URL to the image currently being captured by the camera. It takes an optional paramter ?size=n where n can be 1 (176x120 pixels), 2 (352x240) or 3 (704x480) (default is 1). The different parameters specify the size of the image.

/cgi-bin/recall.cgi?recall=preset-name
This command moves the camera to one of the positions you've previously configured with the D-Link software. It can be one of the "Presets" returned by the sysinfo.cgi call.

/cgi-bin/camctrl.cgi?move=[home, up, down, left, right]
This command lets you return the camera to its home position, or move it in a given direction. This is what the D-Link web application uses to point the camera.

One thing to keep in mind when executing these commands is that the HTTP server built into the webcam seems to only allow a single activity to be going on at a time. If the camera is being contacted by one user, subsequent users are likely to time-out on their connections. Also, you need to wait for the camera to stop moving after giving a recall.cgi or camctrl command. Even when including time-outs, you occasionally will not be able to connect to the camera. I don't know if it's performing internal housekeeping operations or what, but if you just wait for a few seconds and try again you can usually successfully perform what ever command you were attempting again.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 1:04 PM | Comments (1)

Totally amazed by how nice my new PowerBook G4 was, I broke down and bought an iPod. The excuse I used was that while I'm traveling the backroads of Montana, Idaho, and British Columbia this summer, I'll want music to listen to in my car. Since I have an aux-in jack in my truck, I thought this would be great. And it is!

Somebody on the Industrial Design Team at Apple deserves a huge bonus. The ID on the iPod is just as slick as on the PowerBook. As you've undoubtedly heard from many different fronts, the little music box is sweet. It feels good in your hand, looks very clean, and has totally intuitive software. It integrates seamlessly with my PowerBook. I've heard that Paul Mercer, an old friend of mine from my days at Apple is responsible for the UI. I'd totally believe that; Paul was always pushing the edge on minimalist UIs for small devices. His work on the iPod is perfect. I especially enjoyed the little surprises, like the auto-downloading of my address book. I don't have a Palm or other PDA and I don't think I'll ever need one, I've been using the calendar and address book in my iPod and it's great.

I've heard some people complain about the battery life on the iPod. I can attest that I was able to listen to music on a fully charged battery for the full length of a flight from Seattle to Miami. That's enough for me.

Apple's cooking with gas these days, I really hope the public pays attention and Apple's success continues.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)

While I'm usually partial to electronics which have a computing bend to them, I can also be intrigued by audio equipment. So when I recently bought a new Ford F-150, I decided that I wanted to replace the really horrible sound system that came from the factory with something a bit better. After a lot of research, I decided to get MB Quart Premium Series Speakers, a JL Audio 450/4 amp, and a Kenwood KDC-X969 receiver/face plate with Sirius.

Sirius is interesting. My thinking was that while I wander around the Northern Rockies this summer, far from any radio entertainment other than bad country music stations, satellite radio might be a good thing. I chose Sirius over XM since they advertised NPR programming and I can't live without my Morning Edition and All Things Considered. I assumed that the music programming on both would be roughly equivalent.

Well after living with Sirius now for a while, I've got some thoughts. First, neither of the two NPR channels on Sirius have my two favorite shows: Morning Edition and ATC. They have plenty of other NPR programming, but these two shows are missing. I assume this is so that local stations can provide them along with their regular fund drives, but it's pretty irritating. The whole purpose of satellite radio for me was access to programming when I was beyond normal terrestrial ranges. I probably should have checked out the Sirius website in more detail before jumping in.

Second, the sound quality of the talk radio stations seems to be AM quality and gets tiring after a while. I'm accustomed to the rich FM sounds of NPR and other talk or news radio stations and the Sirius channels sound flat and tinny in comparison. The music channels sound great so the bandwidth is there, Sirius is just not choosing to use it on talk radio.

I'll post more updates as I form opinions about the music programming.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)

My friend Rand Wacker and I were recently talking about our websites and blogs. I commented that I'd probably post to the blogs more often if I had an easy way to write them while on the road, then periodically upload them to my server at home. Rand suggested I look into an application called "ecto" written for Mac OS X. Well, I've downloaded it and am playing with it now.

So far, it looks like exactly what I wanted. I'm writing this onboard a plane from San Francisco to Seattle, and I'll try uploading it when I get home. It's got a spell checker, can handle all of my categories, and seems to be a well behaved Mac OS X application. The version I'm using has a 20 day trial period; if I don't find any big problems, I'll be buying this.

ecto's website is here.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 1:29 AM | Comments (0)

After leaving Amazon and deciding that I was going to spend a lot of time on the road, I bought myself a new Apple PowerBook 12" G4 Notebook computer.

This is the first Mac I've purchased since I worked at Apple 9 years ago and I'm happy to say they've gotten oh-so-much nicer. The industrial design on this little puppy is totally amazing. I love the little details like the gently throbbing light on the front, the LED power-level indicator on the battery, and the smooth satiny finish that just begs you to stroke it.

And Mac OS X is probably the best piece of software I've ever used. The O.S. seems to be rock solid, and the applications that come bundled with the machine are perfect in what they do. The programs like iCal, Mail, iPhoto and iDVD won't win prizes for having every feature know to man, but they should win awards for doing a nicely defined set of functions very well. And again, they seem to be very bug-free.

I've taken this little puppy on 3 trips now and I just love having it on the road with me. The next step is to get a new cell phone that I can connect to via Bluetooth and use as a modem.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 10:13 PM | Comments (0)

Technology | Posted by bjones at 1:56 PM | Comments (0)

Last weekend I went out and bought an Iwill XP4. I've been wanting to add a PC to my home enteratinment system for quite a while. I have speakers built into many of the rooms around my house and I regularly pump music through my AudioTron Ethernet Digital Music Player for Home Networks .

I like the Audiotron a lot; I have my CD collection ripped and on a Linux Samba server and the Audiotron encourages me to play music I've forgotten about. I also have become an Internet Radio addict and have even gotten into the habit of listening to local Seattle radio stations over the net instead of through a tuner.

I was also an early adopter of PressPlay which has recently been bought out by the new Napster. This is a great service. For $9.99 per month I have unlimited streaming access to zillions of songs. It's a great legal way to hear new music without having to buy the CDs. But the only problem is that it only works on a PC, I can't play the Napster streaming audio through my Audiotron. The hope of fixing this sent me on my journey to buy a new PC. What I wanted was a small, good looking machine.

It always bothers me that the PC industry only seems to be able to build ugly boxes. Say what you will about Macintoshes, Apple does kick-ass industrial design. I've always wondered why there weren't more form factors available in the PC world. You'd think that in a market which sells tens of millions of units there would be plenty of niche players building pcs in every size and type of industrial design imaginable. All I wanted was a nice little PC that would fit into my audio rack. That led me to the IWill XP4.

The XP4 is what they call a barebones system. You buy the box which includes a power supply and motherboard then add your own processor, memory, and disk drives. I've never done this before, and it was a lot of fun. I bought everything at the new Seattle Fry's Electronics and as you would expect, they had everything I needed under one roof. (What you might not expect is that I got good customer service at a Fry's -- those of you who have been to one know how amazing that is.)

One thing that really annoyed me with the system was the loud CPU fan. The Vantec GSN-7015 I bought with the box made a nasty, loud, high-pitched whine. I did some searching around the net and found the Nexus PHT-3600 which I bought from EndPCNoise.com and had on my doorstep two days later. It made a world of a difference; the system was quiet enough to put in my AV room.

One more modification I made was to add a video card which supports S-Video. I chose the ATI Technologies 100-711041 All-In-Wonder VE Radeon 7500 64MB DDR PCI Graphics Card because it was relatively cheap and seemed to have decent support for recroding as well. I've got it hooked up to my big 70" Sony rear-projection TV and it's working just fine. DVDs especially look surprisingly good. And playing streaming video over RealPlayer or with Windows Media Player works better than expected as well.

After I was done with this adventure, I stumbled upon the Hush computer. This thing is GREAT! This is the first company I've seen building an attractive looking PC. The mini-ITX they have available today is interesting, but it won't run a P4 processor. Hush's new system, the ATX, which will be available in January looks like just what I had hoped to find for my AV room. Sleek good-looks, quiet, and plenty of features.

I suspect that when the ATX starts shipping, I'll buy one and move the Iwill XP4 to my computer room and possibly use it as my Linux box. Regardless, the Hush is headed for my audio stack.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 5:17 PM | Comments (0)

I spent the afternoon trying to get the MTAmazon MT plugin working. The prospect of using Amazon's webservices accessable from my bookblogs was very tempting. After about 4 hours, I've finally got all the problems solved and I can now embed links to Amazon in my blog entries.

Some hints: First, make sure you follow the basic instructions for getting plugins working as described on MT's site. After you know plugins work, use the MTAmazon site to get the pieces you need. Once you've got the MTAmazon plugin installed, use it for something simple in a template -- like an entry in a 'div class="side"'. Don't bother trying to use MTAmazon in a blog entry until you've got it working in a template. Finally, to enable MT to use the new plugin tags in blog entries, you'll need the Process Tags plugin.

I highly recommend doing this one step at a time. Good luck.

Technology | Posted by bjones at 7:32 PM | Comments (0)