webcam
Watch the Video
uh, probably there are other things I wanted more, I got a webcam. actually I was thinking of my mom, and how she mentioned video chat ever-so-briefly... I saw it in the store and though, oh! I can get a webcam for my mom! so I got it, but then I realized, the webcam should be for *me* because I'm the one she wants to see. a new twist on buying things that you want for other people. I'm not being very successful at this christmas shopping thing.
it's the "Logitech Quickcam for Notebooks Deluxe" (they add "deluxe" on to that but it's pretty non-deluxe. it was $50 at office max ($43 at amazon). I downloaded macam to make it work with my mac. (mostly: just on the left usb port, and there's no 'on' light.) the quality of the cam itself is acceptable I guess; at least it's bright. I was sitting in my dimly lit kitchen when recording the video above. for comparison, the picture my camera (canon powershot s230, still) takes in the same kitchen:
kb made a point thursday about webcams are weird because you never make eye contact. very true.
UPDATE: skype crashes a lot (three times in an hour) using this camera, macam 0.9.0, os x 10.4.7 on a g4 powerbook, and skype 2.0.0.6. also, ichat doesn't recognize the camera at all, even with macam. I might return the web cam, because without skype and/or ichat, it's no good to me. also: there is a mic in the camera, I just had the sound input of my computer set to the built in mic (and I guess macam only records from the camera -- makes sense -- but sound was off... so there's no sound in the video above.)
