The Westlake Pirates

So this weekend I went to Fry's and picked up a D-Link wireless webcam. I saw this item in one of their ads many moons ago, but at the time it was sold out, so when I saw it on sale again I zipped over, hoping that everyone who wanted one had picked it up the first time. What luck, they were in stock!

Now, it's a bit wonky in the setup (such that you can't access it without using a password), so I've got a bit of hacking to do on this end to seamlessly incorporate it into the website. But, for the time being, you can check it out by doing the following:

First, remember this word: cam. That will be both your username and password (all lower-case for both) for when it prompts you. Then, click this link (opens in a new window) and follow the prompts.

That's all! You'll see a nearly-live still image looking east-northeast from the top deck of our boat. At the moment, there's a few obstructions, such as the rail with lights wrapped around it in the foreground, and the neighboring boat (with the tan top), but that should be resolved once I build a little rain hut for the camera and mount it on the radar arch.

There's also two buttons on the left that will enable a live video feed from the camera. The 'Java' button is the more likely of the two to behave properly, but the ActiveX one supposedly gives a faster refresh rate. Either way the video will be a bit halting as it isn't really designed to do full-motion video, but it's still cool to watch the seaplanes and sailboats drift by, should you be quite bored. Stay tuned for when I've finished the hacking and there's better ways to access it, too!