Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.
So, I recently, basically ran through my plans and such for my recently acquired security cameras. The physical cameras are only half the equation. I only ended up making one box, and the other two I simply mounted up under the eaves in the appropriate positions.
The second step is the software. I’m currently using three pieces of software to monitor these cameras. First was the included myDlink service/software. This software is most useful for accessing the cameras from outside the house. It includes some basic notification ability but it doesn’t have an easy to way to record based on those notifications, at least not that I can tell. The cameras themselves can push files to an FTP, but it’s sort of an all or nothing deal based on a schedule. Running 1 shot a second creates a TON of files that are mostly useless. The Phone app is good though (works with Windows Phone even!)
So I set out to find a better solution for capturing during motion. I already run a private in house web server for testing, so I set out to find something that I could host there, on Ubuntu. I came across a nice piece of software called Zoneminder. It’s an OpenSource solution that will monitor cameras for motion and save files based on this activity. I believe it can also record actual video though I am just doing short term recordings. It may be a feature that I have not found, but my main issue is that I can’t bring up a view of all three cams at once. I’m also having the usual issues with the server and IPs, internal vs external, etc. It’s also tricky to set up.
For multicam monitoring I’m using some Windows Software called IP Camera Viewer. This simple software allows me to add IP based cameras and view them in a grid as desired. Simple, and effective.
Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.
Something I have been vaguely looking into over the years is a DIY solution to home security and automation. There are several places you can pay to have this sot of thing installed and they often include a subscription for monitoring and leasing the equipment.
We’ve been having some issues lately with kids in the neighborhood knocking on doors and windows and running off late at night. I had set up a temporary measure using my Sony Handicam on a tripod and even caught one of them once but the video was not clear enough due tot he darkness to really see anything. Plus, filling the memory card on a daily nightly basis is not likely very good for the camera, nor is leaving the thing plugged in constantly good for the battery.
I could also use my Panasonic DV100 to capture the low light video pretty easily but it takes tapes and would only record an hour max. Plus I don’t have an AC adaptor for it, so even if I hooked it up to a VCR or something, I’m still only looking at 2 hours max. Not to mention wear and tear on the camera.
What I really needed was a dedicated camera designed for this sort of thing, one with night vision. I’d tried using webcams hooked to PCs in the past but that doesn’t work in the dark either and the webcams I own are all ancient. Plus I am tethered to a PC by a USB cable. Amazon had a daily deal on some D-Link DCS-932L wireless cameras (which wasn’t as amazing as it seemed on paper due to Amazon’s pricing screweyness but whatever). They were wireless, they were day/night capable and for the price I could get 2-3 of them compared to one of the other cameras I had been looking at.
The cameras themselves are decent. They were cheap, which I liked, and thought they are not super cheap in quality, they are SD only, which I was aware of but its a bit more of a letdown than I expected. They were easy to set up, I plugged each into the router using the network cable, scanned for the IP address, and opened the GUI. From there was was simple enough to assign IPs to each camera and connect them to the WiFi. There is a myDlink service included for “anywhere access” but the cameras can be used independently from myDlink. I found some software which lets me view multiple cameras at once and may set it up on a TV using an old broken Netbook I have laying around for quick access.
After ordering and receiving the cameras, I had a realization that I had neglected to consider. These cameras are NOT outdoor cameras. Specifically, they are not deigned to be outdoor cameras. In my research, I knew simply placing the cameras in a window sill this would be a problem due to light reflection from the windows. Just because I can’t see the infrared light at night doesn’t mean it wouldn’t create a massive glare on the window.
It’s still light.
I didn’t even get far enough for that to be an issue, the cameras during the day were horribly obscured by the window screens and the street lights outside, while not bright, created a massive amount of reflection from the blinds.
Oh well, at the very least, I could use them indoors, though the point was to watch the doors and driveway at night.
Still, I didn’t give up. I did some research online and found many people had used these outside, for at least months and in one case years. The main concern was condensation and humidity, and to a lesser extent, temperature. One video even put the camera out on a table in the pouring rain for an hour with no ill effects.
So I set out to build a weather resistant enclosure for the cameras. I’ve used plastic electrical boxes in the past for other projects and this one was pretty much just drilling a few holes in some plastic. The boxes I found at Lowes came in 4×4 and 6×6 sizes. I had my wife measure the camera and she said it was not quite 4 inches tall minus the base, so I opted for the 6×6 box. The boxes themselves are pretty thick and I wasn’t sure the inner cavity was actually 4″x4″ on the smaller boxes. Plus going with 6×6 gives the cameras room to breathe a bit, since it is still an electronic device and will generate some heat. My main irritation wads that the 6×6 boxes were almost twice the cost of the 4×4 option.
I started by measuring out the center along one axis of the box lid, then measuring out the placement of the camera’s circular lens ring on the other axis. I then found the center point of the circular areas and marked the counterpoint of the hold I was going to drill. I measure the camera camera ring at 2″ in diameter and used a 2″ drill bit put apparently came up off somewhere because the hole was about an eigth of an inch larger all around. Slightly annoying because I wanted a tight fit but it was workable and I can always seal it later with some caulking or even just some foam weather sealing that I have laying around.
Next I drilled holes in the bottom of the box to match the screw hole mounts on the bottom of the DSC-932L camera mount. This size was dependant on the bolts I had handy that would fix in the screw holes. This would allow the camera to be bolted into place inside the box. Finally, I needed to get the power cord through. The largest normal drill bit I had was not quite large enough to make a hole for the power cord to fit through but I was able to ream out the hold enough to get the plug through. The benefit of this tight push was that the hole would be smaller and easier to seal up.
So after mounting the camera with bolts and pushing the power through and assembling the cover around the lens, I hade a self contained weather sealed box (the electrical box has a nice rubber seal between the lid and box). I am not real sure yet on the best way to mount the box but I placed it outside last night on a plant stand and let it run through a rain storm. Worked out fine and the video from outside the window worked fine.
This project definitely isn’t done but it’s off to a good start. Next will be finding an effective way to mount the boxes under the soffits, and, more important, providing power. The cameras are wireless to the network but they still plug in. I had some ideas about running extension cords through the soffits to the garage but I’m thinking it will be better to just install some outlets in the attic at the appropriate points. I have a motion activated light I took off of our rental property after the fire that I plan to install on the front door, so the front door cam may just get a hook up right there on the light, since the motion light will need to be on all the time anyway.
The project is working out pretty well though despite a few hiccups.
Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.
Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.
Published: 2007 | Pages:120
My Rating: 5/5
Description: Plus: Mary Jane Watson wasn’t always the girl she is today. How did she become the sort of person to push her problems away rather than face them? And how is it that Peter Parker, Spider-Man and Spidey’s origin itself all play pivotal roles? See the birth of the greatest modern super hero like you’ve never seen it before. Collecting: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 6-10
Published: 2011 | Pages:432
My Rating: 3/5
An ok read but nothing in this is overly surprising if you already follow Google. It also comes off as a bit repedetove in its layout of chapters, sometimes reiterating the same events from a slightly different point of view in different chapters. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of the company.
Description: Few companies in history have ever been as successful and as admired as Google, the company that has transformed the Internet and become an indispensable part of our lives. How has Google done it? Veteran technology reporter Steven Levy was granted unprecedented access to the company, and in this revelatory book he takes readers inside Google headquarters—the Googleplex—to show how Google works.While they were still students at Stanford, Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revolutionized Internet search. They followed this brilliant innovation with another, as two of Google’s earliest employees found a way to do what no one else had: make billions of dollars from Internet advertising. With this cash cow, Google was able to expand dramatically and take on other transformative projects: more efficient data centers, open-source cell phones, free Internet video (YouTube), cloud computing, digitizing books, and much more.The key to Google’s success in all these businesses, Levy reveals, is its engineering mind-set and adoption of such Internet values as speed, openness, experimentation, and risk taking. After its unapologetically elitist approach to hiring, Google pampers its engineers—free food and dry cleaning, on-site doctors and masseuses—and gives them all the resources they need to succeed. Even today, with a workforce of more than 23,000, Larry Page signs off on every hire.But has Google lost its innovative edge? With its newest initiative, social networking, Google is chasing a successful competitor for the first time. Some employees are leaving the company for smaller, nimbler start-ups. Can the company that famously decided not to be evil still compete?No other book has ever turned Google inside out as Levy does with In the Plex.
Published: 2008 | Pages:444
Description: For Captain William Riker, that choice has already been made. Haunted by the memories of those he was forced to leave behind, he must jeopardize all that he has left in a desperate bid to save the Federation.For Captain Ezri Dax, whose impetuous youth is balance by the wisdom of many lifetimes, the choice is a simple one: there is no going back — only forward to whatever future awaits them.But for those who, millennia ago, had no choice…this is the hour of their final, inescapable destiny.
Published: 2008 | Pages:433
My Rating: 4/5
Description: Half a galaxy away, Captain William Riker and the crew of the Starship Titan have made contact with the reclusive Caeliar — survivors of a stellar cataclysm that, two hundred years ago, drove fissures through the structure of space and time, creating a loop of inevitability and consigning another captain and crew to a purgatory from which they could never escape. Now the supremely advanced Caeliar will brook no further intrusion upon their isolation, or against the sanctity of their Great Work….For the small, finite lives of mere mortals carry little weight in the calculations of gods. But even gods may come to understand that they underestimate humans at their peril.
Published: 2008 | Pages:429
My Rating: 3/5
Description: Elsewhere, deep in the Gamma Quadrant, an ancient mystery is solved. One of Earth’s first generation of starships, lost for centuries, has been found dead and empty on a desolate planet. But its discovery so far from home has raised disturbing questions, and the answers harken back to a struggle for survival that once tested a captain and her crew to the limits of their humanity. From that terrifying flashpoint begins an apocalyptic odyssey that will reach across time and space to reveal the past, define the future, and show three captains — Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise, TM William Riker of the U.S.S. Titan, and Ezri Dax of the U.S.S Aventine — that some destinies are inescapable.
Published: 1974 | Pages:596
My Rating: 4/5
Been wanting to get to this for a while. Its a bit long 20hrs for the audio) but still pretty good.
Description:
Published: 2009 | Pages:320
My Rating: 3/5
Aside from the first 25% or so of this book, this is essentially Warcraft 3, the Book. the early section covers the early parts of Arthas’ life. As such, its an OK read adding a bit to the lore if you are mostly already familiar with it. If you are not familiar with it many of the later events may come off completely random and disjointed. For example, Illidan shows up and Art has sends him off on a mission, only to later reappear at the end of the book at the climax. None of Illidan’s story really is told though as to how he got to where he was.Probably the most interesting aspect is reading a story that follows the villain. Arthas is sort of the Darth Vader of Warcraft, except instead of saving Luke and redeeming himself he just is super evil. Its an interesting change from a story perspective as its not a common viewpoint.
Description: The uncanny elemental spirit drew its icy sword. “Turn away, before it is too late,” it intoned. * * *His evil is legend. Lord of the undead Scourge, wielder of the runeblade Frostmourne, and enemy of the free peoples of Azeroth. The Lich King is an entity of incalculable power and unparalleled malice — his icy soul utterly consumed by his plans to destroy all life on the World of Warcraft.But it was not always so. Long before his soul was fused with that of the orc shaman Ner’zhul, the Lich King was Arthas Menethil, crown prince of Lordaeron and faithful paladin of the Silver Hand.When a plague of undeath threatened all that he loved, Arthas was driven to pursue an ill-fated quest for a runeblade powerful enough to save his homeland. Yet the object of his search would exact a heavy price from its new master, beginning a horrifying descent into damnation. Arthas’s path would lead him through the arctic northern wastes toward the Frozen Throne, where he would face, at long last, the darkest of destinies.
Published: 2012 | Pages:320
My Rating: 3/5
_______ said…. _______ said…. _______ said…. _______ said…. _______ said….Cute story that has kind of a reduculous nonsensical resolution that doesn’t really make sense even with the self referencing plot elements. Essentially it works because the author says it works.
Description: Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that: (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expended on avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.
Published: 2012 | Pages:364
My Rating: 4/5
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Published: 2003 | Pages:352
My Rating: 4/5
Description: Aided by an achingly desirable half Brazilian, half Japanese exotic dancer he knows he shouldn’t trust, Rain pursues his quarry through underground no-holds-barred fight clubs, mobbed-up hostess bars, and finally into the heart of a shadow war between the CIA and the yakuza. It’s a war Rain can’t win, but also one he can’t afford to lose–a war where the distinctions between friend and foe and truth and deceit are as murky as the rain-slicked streets of Tokyo.”… a superlative job… entertaining and suspenseful enough to keep you turning the pages as fast as your eyes can follow.” –Chicago Sun Times
Published: 2003 | Pages:363
My Rating: 4/5
Description: Name: John Rain.Vocation: Assassin.Specialty: Natural Causes.Base of operations: Tokyo.Availability: Worldwide.Half American, half Japanese, expert in both worlds but at home in neither, John Rain is the best killer money can buy. You tell him who. You tell him where. He doesn’t care about why…Until he gets involved with Midori Kawamura, a beautiful jazz pianist–and the daughter of his latest kill.
Published: 2012 | Pages:20
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Published: 2013 | Pages:31
My Rating: 3/5
Description:
Published: 2011 | Pages:352
My Rating: 4/5
Description: All Hail Megatron storyline, plus the four CODA issues that followed.
Published: 1953 | Pages:158
My Rating: 3/5
Description:
Published: 2003 | Pages:537
My Rating: 5/5
Description:
Published: 2009 | Pages:120
My Rating: 5/5
Description: xkcd as a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language. While it’s practically required reading in the geek community, xkcd fans are as varied as the comic’s subject matter. This book creates laughs from science jokes on one page to relationship humor on another.xkcd: volume 0 is the first book from the immensely popular webcomic with a passionate readership (just Google “xkcd meetup”).The artist selected personal and fan favorites from his first 600 comics. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.The book is published by Breadpig, which donates all of the publisher profits from this book to Room to Read for promoting literacy in the developing world.
Published: 2012 | Pages:88
My Rating: 4/5
Description:
Published: 2010 | Pages:336
My Rating: 2/5
Admitedly, I.am not a huge fan of vampires and horror or history, but I do like gimmicks. the gimmick here is interesting but the execution leaves a little to be desired. Most Historical Fantasy works better if it works around history and not so blantantly in the middle of it.
Description: Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother’s bedside. She’s been stricken with something the old-timers call “Milk Sickness.””My baby boy…” she whispers before dying.Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother’s fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, “henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose…” Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.
Published: 2007 | Pages:96
My Rating: 3/5
Description: Collecting: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 16-20
Published: 2007 | Pages:120
My Rating: 5/5
Description: Plus: Gwen Stacy has a problem with Peter, and MJ has a secret. Collecting: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 11-15
Published: 2006 | Pages:304
My Rating: 5/5
Description: Marvel’s most mischievous melodrama, as featured in Entertainment Weekly’s Must List!Whether she’s going to school or hanging out with her friends at the Coffee Bean, Mary Jane Watson is always the center of attention. But what no one knows is that this gorgeous redhead’s exuberant personality is a shell designed to make her forget about life’s harsh realities. From her social life to her undying interest in becoming an actress to her crush on that costumed crime-fighter who swings along the New York City rooftops, it’s clear Mary Jane just wants to escape. Join MJ, Harry Osborn, Liz Allen, Flash Thompson and Harry’s nerdy friend, Peter Parker, as they experience the thrilling highs and the crushing lows of high-school existence in this electric teen drama! Collecting: Mary Jane 1-4, Mary Jane: Homecoming 1-4, Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 1-5
Published: 2006 | Pages:168
My Rating: 4/5
Description:
Published: 2006 | Pages:168
My Rating: 4/5
Description: Attack of the Bacon Robots, which includes strips, sketches, and creator commentary not available anywhere else!
Josh Miller aka “Ramen Junkie”. I write about my various hobbies here. Mostly coding, photography, and music. Sometimes I just write about life in general. I also post sometimes about toy collecting and video games at Lameazoid.com.
Ramen Junkie