Saturday, February 16th, 2008
This morning, the nice UPS man dropped off a little package for me at the door. This has been a busy week for him, because I ordered four things. It’s not my fault, I just keep coming up with these great ideas.
In case you were curious, he dropped off the webcam I told you about in my last post. I was fairly excited to hook it up, but since the whole webcam thing happened yesterday, I already knew what to expect. The webcam I ordered was the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. Here are the features as per the Logitech website:
* Carl Zeiss® optics: Get more detail and clarity from Carl Zeiss® optics. Logitech’s glass lens designed in collaboration with Carl Zeiss®, the global leader in camera optics.
* Premium autofocus: Your images stay razor-sharp, even in close-ups.
* HD video: Video calling and sharing has never looked so real at 960 by 720 pixels.
* Higher megapixel performance: A true two-megapixel sensor. Up to eight-megapixel* photos (enhanced).
* RightLight™2 Technology: Adjusts intelligently to produce the best possible images in dimly lighted or poorly backlighted settings.
* Integrated microphone with RightSound™ Technology: Enjoy crystal clear conversations, free from echo** and annoying background noise.
* Ultra-wide field of view and intelligent face tracking: Keeps you right in the middle of the action.
I installed the software and hooked it up. I went through all the setting and then plugged in the USB cord (of which ports I have run out of). Then, I saw myself…about 20X more clear than yesterday. Wow. The lighting is really good as compared to the lighting yesterday. The clouds may have caused that. This one is two megapixels and has a nice microphone. It was built just for the purpose I am going to use it for…talking to James.
Now, I am just waiting for Stephanie to call me so I can try it out live.
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Friday, February 15th, 2008
This is pretty neat. The other day, I was fooling around with my laptop. I noticed that it had a built in webcam, but had no idea how to use it. There didn’t seem to be any program associated with it.
I emailed my sister, Stephanie, and asked her to look into this because she has a very similar laptop. We got them at about the same time (I am actually writing a post from it for the first time). A few days later, she told me she figured out how to use the webcam. She said any program that needed it would automatically use it. Cool, I thought.
Around the same time I was fooling around with the webcam, I downloaded and installed Skype. I told Stephanie about it and she downloaded it as well. Basically, (if you aren’t familiar with what Skype is), Skype is a program that allows you to talk to a computer from your own computer. It also allows for video communication. I wasn’t having much luck trying to call Stephanie through Skype because she wasn’t logged in.
Today, I was just sitting there doing some work on my computer, when I heard this weird noise coming from my computer. It was sort of like a phone ringing. Then, I saw this box in the middle of my screen…it told me that Stephanie was trying to call. I clicked the green button to allow her to connect. I faintly heard Stephanie trying to talk, when I saw this little box pop up. It was a video of her and my nephew, James, sitting at the table looking at her laptop. They were waving and saying something I couldn’t hear. I starting laughing with such joy. I know that sounds lame, but it was really exciting. I started yelling at my computer, “Hey, can you hear me…CAN YOU HEAR ME???” She couldn’t hear anything, or see anything for that matter, so she ended the call. I didn’t have a webcam or a microphone on that computer. I instantly picked up the phone and called her. She answered and I started yelling, “I saw you. I saw you and James!!!” She was pretty damn excited. I got on my laptop and asked her to call back.
To make a long story short, we “video talked” about four times today. I got to see Steve, Steph, Storm, James, Matthew, my mother and my father. That was a thrill. I carried my laptop around the house and showed them all my stuff. All for free. Skype doesn’t charge for computer to computer calls. I think this is very cool.
Anticipating this, I already ordered a nice video webcam from Circuit City a few days ago. I am going to hook that one up to my desktop. I have to get a headset for that computer as well. I think this is going to come in handy when I have to talk to people from now on.
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