Brain Candy #5 - Live Sites

My favorite site wouldn't be of interest to most people. It's the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 ( http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/lurker.html). If you aren't a fan of the series (which, by the way, is the best on TV) the incredible wealth of info about each episode wouldn't impress you. <G>

Instead let me offer up one of my favorite categories of sites - the live camera sites. These sites let you look in on some activity anytime you want to; in real time.

The grand daddy of the live sites is: The Trojan Room Coffee Machine at Cambridge University. This site was set up so professors could be sure there was coffee available before making the five floor trek in the elevatorless building. (Testing the concept and equipment was the less frivolous goal.)

If you love fish, but don't have an aquarium there is always The Amazing Fish Cam.

My boss, Dr. Ferree (who once spoke at a Final Friday Fling) spent six months in New Zealand. True to his reputation as bringing disaster where ever he goes, the volcano Mt Ruapehu broke dormancy almost as soon as he set foot on the island. I quickly found two web sites that had live cameras pointed at the volcano.

Just a few comments from Brian... Cams are ubiquitous on the Web. Check out the enormous list in Yahoo! Type "devices" in the search field. One of the matches will be "Computers and Internet: ... Interesting Devices Connected to the Net." Under "Spy Cameras" there are 520 listings! These are further broken down into indoor cams, outdoor cams, parodies and pets. Some really nice ones, but Catherine's favorite isn't on the list. The USC Roach Cam (South Carolina, one of Catherine's alma maters) shows a new picture of a nest of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches every minute or so. By the way, if you like what you see here, you can buy these little beauties locally. And you can lose all your friends, too.

Thanks for the column John!