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this is a live feed (15 second delay) from my current apt in downtown pittsburgh pa (modern-day nomad). went full atlas shrugged for this one ... the building is a remodeled train station (thePennsylvanian.com). and the tallest building in the city, and right out my window, is the 'steel' building (the amount of ayn randism is huge). cam will either be on my devbox or downtown. went for the skyline view to promote the megalomaniacism, to promote bigger ideas. code is easy, ideas are hard. speaking of ideas, let me get some checks back in me, and ... im thinking robotic camera with zoom lens. just got to find one that publishes the serial protocol

you must have the latest windows media player, as i am encoding using the latest codec (if you only hear audio, try the link below the in-page media player to open the feed in a stand-alone player). recently set it up to rollover to a recorded vid if i am coding, because the encoder is CPU intensive, so i turn it off at times. the recorded vid is here. also, the sign displays the time the last message was posted, so it is working correctly

you can send a message to the sign. and then see it over the live video feed about 15 seconds later. it works by hitting a web page, that grabs the message, then communicates to the sign over a serial port. the sign beeps to let me know a message is coming in, so i can look up to see what you posted. it then displays the message you sent with a timestamp. just updated it so that i can send messages from my cell phone now, as well as creating an xml file to archive all messages that are sent to it. i do not log IPs, and I cannot tell whom is watching me. on my dev box, i can tell when somebody is watching me, but that is it. if i walked over to my server, 15 feet away, then i could see your IP ... but i really dont care

i was accused of not being able to kung foo, so i had to implement the following to prove otherwise by allowing you to play an mp3 over my feed. if i am there running my instance of winamp, and you shoot over a song, both songs will be played simultaneously. if it is britney spears, i will kill your song. if it is some hardcore drum and bass, i might pause my player to let yours run. if we are both playing hardcore drum and bass, i might not be able to tell the difference. if somebody else has uploaded a song and it is playing, the song you upload will take precedence and kick theirs out of the way

click here to upload an MP3 to play over the live feed!

(this no longer works with my current network setup)

the live video feed is over 2 boxes. 1 box is my dev box and runs media encoder. My vid cam is connected to it with usb. box 2 is my server and runs iis and media server. the sign is connected to it with serial. the encoder is connected to the server with crossover to keep it off big I, and to reduce external network traffic. the encoder only has to send 1 feed to the server, and the server can support multiple feeds. the program to communicate with the sign is the new Microsoft .NET stuff. an ASP.NET application written in C# with Mobile.NET controls to render on regular browsers, as well as wireless devices (e.g. my cell phone). the maker of my sign Adaptive, provide an Active X control to code against. got my sign from Sams for $150. they also provide VB examples of how to do it using MSComm32.ocs. i opted for more control and ease of deployment ... so coded against the low level protocol using a serial class somebody else had written

VS.NET C# source code

since people keep asking, here is why i let you invade my privacy:

1. insomnia - have you ever seen fight club? casey's overactive brain

2. 5cr1p7 k1ddi35 (script kiddies) - have to prove i am l337

3. 3rd person paranoia - get more done when i think somebody is watching

4. hot slutty chicks - if i build it, they will come (pun intended)

5. telecommute - please let me work at home

nobody has asked, but i do not have it running for:

1. gay males - darwinism is letting me down! lesbians are welcome, dykes are not

2. so my friends can see that i am spending another weekend night coding instead of partying with them, and then proceed to call me a loser on my own sign

3. for pencil neck punks to tell me to 'put a shirt on'