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GANNETT
NEWS SERVICE
ELIZABETH
WEISE
Can’t
make it to Paris? Click www.tfi.fr/livecam/index.html
and
see the Eiffel tower from the top of French television’s office
building.
Need
something serene when you’ve just missed an important FedEx pickup?
Nothing beats five minutes on a snowy pass staring out at Mount Everest,
courtesy of www.m.chiba-u.ac.jp/class/respir/eve_e.htm
And
if you’re a bush pilot in Alaska (or just in need of a view from your
cubicle), check run way conditions in Anaktuvuk Pass at www.flightcam.net/anaktuvi.htm
Webcams
— cameras that post continuous
pictures on Web pages —
are booming. Although no one keeps
an authoritative count, the directory www.Earthcam.com
lists more than 5,000
sites; the listings have been doubling annually the past three years.
Webcams
are put up by tourist boards, TV stations, college students and anyone
else with a digital camera and a 24-hour Net connection.
Greg
Truelson of Greece, for instance, has had a Webcam off and on for about
a year. “I
did it just to see if could,”
says
Truelson, . “I was just
curious.”
So
was Lee Drake. He set up a Webcam in his office at Aztek Computer
Solutions in Pittsford and one at his Brighton home.
“I’m always curious about new technologies, and that was one of the
new ones back when they first came out,” says Drake, 39.
It
seems there’s something compelling about sitting in front of a
computer and seeing a place far away (or close to home) at exactly the
same time. The pictures may be fuzzy and may change only once every 10
minutes, but they offer the closest thing possible to time travel.
“It’s enormously more than not having anything
better to do,” says |
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Nico
Spinelli, a computer science professor at the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. These images “expand our
consciousness, they expand our range of vision.”
Simply
put: “People like to look,” says Drake.
Lookers
won’t see much by way of Drake or Triielson, however. Neither
of them is after JenniCam like fame. (Washington, D.C., resident Jennifer Ringley developed a. cult following a few years
ago, thanks to her JenniCam trained on her apartment.)
Truelson
(who declined to be photographed because he’s a bit
camera-shy) says he switches on his Webcam only a couple of
times a week when he’s chatting online. “It depends on what
kind of mood I’m in,” he says.
The
Webcam in Drake’s home is clicking when he is online gaming
and a competitor wants to see his face or when he’s chatting
online with his brother in Buffalo.
As
for the Webcam inside the computer consulting firm where he is a
partner, Drake likes to turn it on for “video conferencing”
with clients.
Be
it for work or play, one of the best things about Webcams is
that you can use them to get away — far away.
How
far? Visit www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncg/Earth
, where a Webcam
on a satellite shows the simple image of the Earth.
“On
that blue stuff there are boats with people, on the brown
stuff there are millions
and mil lions of people, and we’re all in visible,” Spinelli
says. “It gives you pause.”
Includes
reporting by staff writer Sheila Raywn.
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Where’s
the Webcam?
Do
you or someone you know have a Webcam in the Rochester area? If you do,
we want to hear from you.
Send
the Webcam Web site, along with your name, address and daytime phone
number to:
Webcams,
Features Department, 55 Exchange Blvd., Rochester, NY 14614.
Fax us at 258-2554. Or send e mail to Webcams
at features@Democratand
Chronicle.com Get
local eyefuls at these Web sites
BY
STAFF WRITER
SHEILA
RAYAM
Taking
an Internet peek at Paris is cool, and so is checking out a location
that’s a little closer to home.
We
searched several Internet engines for Webcams in our area. Here are a
few:
•
The State University College at Brockport Webcam site ( www.brockport.edu/photowebcam.html
) posts a view of the campus from the Allen Administration
building every 45 seconds.
•
If it’s playtime, you’ll see Lee Drake ( www.leedrake.com
) of Brighton. Drake turns on his Webcam only when he
is doing role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons. When the
camera’s on, the image refreshes every 90 seconds.
•
The Humane Society at Lollypop Farm’s Webcam ( www.lollypop.org
) in
Perinton is aimed at a puppy in need of a home. Click onto “Puppycam” for
a
glimpse of the cuddly pooch of the day. The image will refresh every
three to i6 seconds.
•
You may catch a live glimpse of Greg Truelson of Greece ( www.frontiernet.net/~gregt/gcam.htm
). He turns the camera on only once or twice a week. The image
refreshes every 20 seconds.
•
The live “Birdcam” ( www.kodak.com
) on top of Kodak tower is
disconnected because the three young peregrine falcons have flown the
nest box there. Kodak is up in the air about whether the camera will
zoom in on the birds should they return next spring. However,
bird-lovers can check the “Birdcam” in March or early April to see
whether the birds are back in town. Until then, highlights of this
year’s bird action are posted in the “1999
Gallery.”
S
Every three or four minutes,
WHEC-TV’s
Webcam ( www.10nbc.com/tower.html
)atop
the station’s Tower on Pinnacle
Hill snaps a shot of Rochester’s
downtown skyline.
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