AJays Webcams

Call it Web 2.0, resurrection of the dot coms, or even the demise of TV as we know it.
Just don’t call it boring. Seems like everyone has decided to jump on the internet video bandwagon trying to make that next multi-billion bucks. Google proved that you could take a handful of decent web based apps, and make tons of money by selling click adverts to go along with them. People said…, “Damn! It’s that easy?” Well not quite…, however every schmo that can surf the net, or had an extra $100,000 laying around to fund a project was looking for some geeks that had a general ideal to make money off the internet to be the next you tube founders Chad Hurley,Steve Chenor Jawed Karim,which the latter of the 3 sounds like a type of fish.

The majority of the thrust to get video on the net started in early 2005. Grant you.., there were some earlier tries, however the major “kick the fat pipe and lets pump some video in some form” got going in Febuary of 2005 when the three aforementioned folks activated the domain name You Tube. The public was offered a preview in May of 2005, and 6 months later it was pumping viewer content, and got a 3.5 millon cash infusion from Sequoia Capital. That was the begining of the uploaded viewer content.

At about the same time in 2005, Apple Inc. had anounced that it would begin selling video content to the masses, even though it had been speculated over the last year, that Apple was going to do this. People knew Apple’s ability to maket cool, hip items, and they had done so well with music, and iTunes, that they didn’t want to be left at the dock with the ships pulling out, so the industry scrambled to throw money at any project that could make money like Google, You Tube, and Apple.

Some of these projects are half baked, and variations of stuff that are already out there. But hey…, competition is a good thing, and some of these projects including video, and popular blogging sites and trackers need to go under (”cough-Tecnocrapi”) if they can’t keep with the publics demand of them.

A new site that’s on the bleeding edge that I’m keeping an eye on, but is only in their Beta as of this writing is a site called Joost. They describe theirselves as a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We’re in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programmes, channels and adverts. You can also see some things that we think will enhance the TV experience: searching for programmes and channels, for example, as well as social features like chat.

Now, I don’t know if it will go over, but if I had to make a bet, I’d think it would. Here is my reasoning as for why it might work. I love the internet…, and when I say love, I mean it very, very, affectionately! Good thing I’m married. I hardly watch TV anymore. Maybe 2 to 3 hours of programing a week. Most of all my entertainment come in some form from the internet. So all these people have been going out and dropping $2000 to $8000 dollars on flat screens, and I’m thinking that is nuts, because I’m still very happy with my 27 inch tube from Sanyo, that I’ll watch maybe a few hours a week.
Someone asked me about TIVO, and why I did not have it. Well…, I have EyeTV on my computer and it does the same thing, and I have this wonderful 23 inch HD Cinema Display from Apple…, so there is not much reason to buy a flat screen. However that may change soon with Apple’s soon to be released AppleTV, that will take everything from your computer and place it in your living room with the flat screen.

I digress…, anyhow Joost could soon replace my $60 a month cable fee, if the content was good and captivating. You can see the screen shots of Joost here.

Anyhow, it looks to be a interesting project if they play all their card right. I was hoping to be a Beta tester, however I just found out that they don’t have a Mac PowerPC, or Linux port yet. If you have a intel Mac, or windows you are good to go to sign up to be a beta tester. Mannnn…., anyone want to lend me a couple of thousand dollars to buy me a new intel MacPro? Well at least click a google ad for me so I can be on my way…, a few cents at a time.

I told myself I would not post about this, but I gave in and decided to post anyhow. Our family lost a true friend and companion this past week. Our 15 year old female cat was euthanised because her kidneys were failing, and according to our vet she only had a few weeks to live at best, and it would not have been a good quality of life for her to let her suffer. I find myself walking through the house looking at the usual places that she layed, and kind of half expecting to see her there…, but seeing an empty space instead. Remy was a good cat as cats go…., she acted more like a dog than a cat.

Mans best friend?

Yeah…, I’d go with that.

You will be missed Remy.

This week we travel to the US Capital of Washington D.C., where Taxation without representation, isn’t just a saying in this city of 600,000, it’s a reality.

Washington, D.C. is the capital city of the United States of America. “D.C.” is an abbreviation for the District of Columbia, the federal district coextensive with the city of Washington. The city is named after George Washington, military leader of the American Revolution and the first President of the United States. It is commonly known as D.C., The District, or simply Washington. Historically, it was called the Federal City or Washington City. To avoid confusion with the state of Washington, located in the Pacific Northwest, the city is often called simply D.C., and the state referred to as “Washington State.”

Our cam location this week goes to the college campus of George Washington University where we get a bonus extra cam at the campus radio station WRGW. Take a look into the DJ booth and see what they do, (not much apparently) and also take a look into the Radio Guest Studio. Want to listen while you watch? Pick your media player and connection here. Better yet…, amuse yourself and send them an e mail at wrgw@gwu.edu and tell them that you are watching them. You can also IM the DJ through AIM by using the tag, RGWradio.

DJ booth

Radio Guest Studio.

Robert Adler, the co-inventor of the TV remote control passed away February 15th.
The cause of death was heart failure at age 93. Apon hearing this, a fellow nursing home patient suggested putting new batteries in him to work again.

It was a sad day for many a couch potatos.

Adler spent a unheard of 60 years career with Zenith, and held 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his Zenith Space Command remote control which was thought to be the last time someone would have to get up to change the channel, but was proven a little premature though because you still had to tell someone to go adjust the rabbit ears and hold their left arm up while kneeling on the ground, until the advent of cable.

Adler joined Zenith’s research division in 1941 after earning a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna. He retired as research vice president in 1979, and served as a technical consultant until 1999, when Zenith merged with LG Electronics Inc.
He was a pioneer in Surface Acoustic Waves (SAW) tecnology. The same stuff that goes into touch screen technology, and even used in cell phones. Can you say “iPhone”?

The U.S. patent office published his most recent patent February 1st for advances in touch screen technology

Adler wished he had been recognized for more of his broad-ranging applications that were useful in the war and in space and were building blocks of other technology, but then again, the remote control changed the life of every man.

In a related note…, Police were called to a Long Island man’s house, and discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set. (apparently he didn’t have a remote control)

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said his body was discovered on Thursday when they went to the house to investigate a report of a burst water pipe. Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering he had not been heard from since December 2005.

I was doing some casual reading through news and information sites, and happend upon Bob Browns Open Source Ministry site. He had an interesting blog about Web Cam Security.
Normally, I would have heard about what he was talking about in his blog through my news feeds and other feeds, however, the news about the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and the FBI specifically using face recognition and anomaly recognition software with public web cams to determine if something has happened based upon whether there are many fewer people or many more people in the scene than statistically expected caught me off guard.
(see PDF) The way it caught me off guard was not so much that it was a suprise to me that the FBI does this kind of thing as much as the time they spent researching it and using funds for it, when that money could have been spent more resourcefully. It’s like these federal grants you hear about where in Alaska they wanted to build this $315 million bridge that connected a town of 8900 to an island of 50 inhabitants saving a 7 minute ferry ride.
The money ( Tax payers Dollars) can and should be spent more effectively.

I digress…, This is wasted money in DHS & the FBI, when they could take what ever they spent on that study, and put more personel on the streets with their ears to the ground. It was said in the last few years by Bob Baer and Greg Treverton, former case officers for the CIA that while technology is good, it does not replace people in the field, and that the FBI’s main job is to basically be a law enforcement operation and do forensics, and do investigations of crimes. But they’re not supposed to be out there poking around groups that might break the law.

Anyhow, I got a little deep with this subject, however, I think the FBI needs to focus on their primary mission, and leave the face recognition and anomaly recognition software to other departments that specialize in that field.

Ok…, guess I can expect a black sedan to pull up in front of the house tomorrow, if carnivore is secretly still in action.

Those crazy Ruskies.

They drive crazy! Just take a look at this Streaming Web Cam located at an intersection in Vasilevsky Island, St. Petersburg Russia.

St. Petersburg is located in Eastern Europe, on the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. (Gulf of Finland) It is sometimes known as “The Venice of the North.” It was founded in 1703 and is the most Northern city in the world with a population over 1 million. It was named in honor of St. Peter and not Peter the Great, the founder of the city.

St. Petersburg Florida, was named in honor of St. Petersburg Russia, by Russian-born railroad builder Piotr Dementyev. (Peter Demens)
It has changed names several times in it’s 304 years.
May, 1703 - August, 1914 St. Petersburg
August, 1914 - February, 1924 Petrograd
February, 1924 - July, 1991 Leningrad
July, 1991 - Present St. Petersburg

If you would like to see more of St. Petersburg and it’s history more than what you can see at the intersection Web Cam, take this virtual tour of the city, and make sure you check out the stunning 360º photo’s here as well.

Click here to see the live stream

This SEC options thing must be chafing co-founder and número uno Steve Jobs at Apple Inc really bad.

Last week he essentially tore the record industry a new hole, by blasting them about DRM on downloaded music and challenged them to abandon the DRM strategy, which I think a majority of consumers and device makers want as well.

This week he took a swing at educators, blasting the teachers unions and the state of public schools by saying “that schools were never likely to improve until principals could fire bad teachers.” Steve shared the stage with rival CEO Michael Dell to deliver their vision of technology in classrooms. Jobs’ comments drew loud applause during an education conference, but while Jobs’ comments seemed to be drawing support from the crowd, Dell’s CEO, sat quietly with his hands folded in his lap.

Steve Jobs was reported to use the term, ” Off the charts Crazy” when referring to the unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers.
After making that statement, Steve admitted that “Apple just lost some business in this state, I’m sure.”

One thing that you must admit about Steve Jobs is he calls it how he sees it, even if it’s not necessarily the way that it is. But then again that’s part of the legendary Steve Jobs Distortion Reality Field. You can read the whole article here…and more here…

Last week Steve Jobs of Apple inc. (formally Apple Computer) put out an open letter to consumers, and music companies about the need to dump DRM (Digital Right Management).
He made some valid arguments about the reason to dump DRM. Grant you, they were probably self serving, but Steve is no idiot. There are plenty people out there that feels the same way about DRM, but they be damed to give Steve Jobs any credit for coming out and saying it, considering the fact of who he is, and that he holds 70% of the music download business. There are many folks, including the music label big 4 and other competing music devices that would love to see Apple knocked off it’s throne, just so they could increase their profits and prestiege. John Gapper of Business Day wrote this interesting article, that seems to sum up a lot of what most people feel about DRM. The only people I hear complaining about having DRM are the music companies, and people that offer a solution for inoperability between devices, all which are self serving. Interesting that we have not heard from any big name musicians on the DRM topic, but I sure they are being kept in line and told to follow the script that their bosses (big music) are advocating.
Much like the Berlin wall, the cracks are already showing in DRM, and it will be just a matter of time before digital downloads become DRM free and the wall comes down.

I finally got around to finishing the Web Cam link check. While I did not add any new Web Cam links this go around, I verified links that were still good and links that were still down, and links that had came back up since my last check. In my next verifying check, (next month) I will dump the links that have been down for over 3 months. If they have been down that long, there is a good chance that they will not be back up.
Also at that time I will add a batch of new links that I have came across.

Philip Greenwood of Big Trouser Design suggested I need a little more POP, BANG, BAM, DAZZLE to my AJayswebcams.com site. So he came up with this nifty little header for me.

I think movie star John Travolta said it best from the 1996 film Broken Arrow…,
“Ain’t it Cool”.

Again, a big hearty thank you to Big Trousers Design

Speaking of hearty…, Today just happen to be Valentines Day.
I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but here in the states it a big holiday for women…, uhhhhh, and for men as well. : )
Not to mention the greeting card companies, flower companies, chocolate companies, and any stuffed fuzzy little animals companies.
Some folks have referred to it as Singles Awareness Day, or SAD for short. Anyhow, If you have not given your significant other something that shows your love or affection for them, you are in a world of hurt! You will be in the Dog house for quite some time.
If you do not have any love or significant other…, I guess you just save yourself a Fist Full of Dollars.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone!

” I get by with a little help from my friends” so goes the lyrics from the beatles song “with a little help from my friends” from the Sgt. Pepper’s lonely heart club band album.

This is the case with my good friend and mate from down under Philip Greenwood of Big Trousers Designs. Philip encouraged me to take the next step up from learning basic html, and start learning about CSS and using WordPress. With Philip’s help and guidance I have started putting together my old html site ” Webcams of the world ” and applying it to my new WordPress site. Philip has been a very resourceful source of information and help, and he sure does know his stuff pertaining to web design. I’d highly recommend him for any of your web design needs. The great thing about web design is the fact that your designer can live on the other side of the world in a different hemisphere, and you can still do business with them. Which is the case with Philip and I. He lives in Melbourne Australia, while I reside in Virginia in the USA. Not only do we have regular e mails, but we also communicate through video conferencing through iChat.

Philip, along with his lovely wife and business partner Petrina at Big Trousers Design does a variety of other stuff as well, including, but not limited to, print, video, photography, (Philip’s Specialty) and IT/hardware.

In Short, I’d like to thank Philip for helping me take my basic web design skills to the next level. While most knowledable people would say what’s the big deal in learning this, and any 5 year old could learn this, it has been a very hard learning curve for myself being self taught in most of all my web design I have learned.
Thanks Philip for all your help and being a friend.