Testing A New Webcam

We have a new test webcam pointed at Mount Si. I’ve always been
bothered by the bizarre behavior of the QuickCam when it catches the morning
sun. Using an iSight may help this since it theoretically is smart enough to do
some aperture adjustment on its own. On the other hand, it’s ability to pick out
details in the dark has proven to be somewhat more sketchy.

It is worth noting that the new webcam setup I’m testing is using only open
source software (aside from the operating system). Or at least it will be once
I’m happy with the performance and release the script I’m using to fetch images
that are served with Gawker.

The resolution of this camera is about the same as the QuickCam, but the image is a lot sharper. I have a feeling that the image tag on that page isn’t shaped quite right for the size of the image that is output from that camera. But that’s why it says “testing” all over the page. A chance to work the kinks out.

def ParseDescription(self, desc_buffer):
  pass

We’ll see if that’s premature optimization some time soon…