Screensaver displays security cam images

Michael says:

SurveillanceSaver is an OS X screen saver that shows about 400 live security camera videos from public accessible Axis network cameras. It shows surprising scenes from underwater pool cameras, cows in milking machines, to shopping malls and street cameras.

Link

• [nothingistrue]

  anyone with a mirror of the download? sounds awesome.

• [Bonnie]

  so has anyone here seen themselves on the security cam screensaver yet? :-p

• [Dave Parker]

  I wonder if it has a list for links or uses google.

  You can find open web cams using google. http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl:%22view/index.shtml%22

• [soulbarn]

  Not to bring the conversation down to a practical level, but if you’re wondering how to make it work, extract the ZIP; you’ll get a qtz file. Drag that into ~/library/screensavers, then activate it in system prefs.

• [DemiGuru]

  After a few very long minutes of staring at those surveillance camera images. I have to admit that I find this to be addictive. Very much like a gambling addict hoping that the next hand will be the winning one. Who knows maybe the next image might be a “candid” one.
  Back to staring at those images.

• [nothingistrue]

  I find the recordings of scanner (robin rimbaud) to be particularly apropos in the background while this is active on your screen:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Rimbaud

• [husayndas]

  this is awesome. it’s my new screen saver.

• [michael05]

  here is a mirror. sorry. i don’t know whats up with the server..

  http://i.document.m05.de.nyud.net/?p=418

• [michael05]

  sorry for the delay.. but make: posted it, too. now the cache works and the site should load faster.

• [michael05]

  http://i.document.m05.de.nyud.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/surveillancesaver_alpha_0.zip

• [alek]

  While it isn’t an AXIS Webcam, this one is probably the best for sheer excitement! ;-)

• [nothingistrue]

  thanks, downloaded and working… I love it! thanks michael, it’s a beautiful piece of work. look forward to future development (possibly with subtitled location data?)

• [Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator]

  Alek, that’s a good alternative, what with the Iowa Corn Cam being currently offline.

• [Robert]

  Heck with the security images… that’s an interesting-looking IDE!

• [fcummins]

  Software as art. It’s absolutely lovely!

• [abfo]

  For PC users, check out Catfood
  WebCamSaver. The same page also has Google Gadget and Vista Sidebar versions.

• [red_tom]

  Scanner was our neighbour in Bethnal Green for a few years. Lovely guy, although we did wonder if our conversations were going to end up on his next album.

• [Simon Greenwood]

  Neal Stephenson wrote about something like this in a Wired special back when all this was fields. The addition was that while you watched cameras from around the world, if you saw something suspicious, you could alert someone to do something about it. While you were asleep, other people were watching cameras near you and would do the same. He’s not pursuing the idea now, but there’s no reason that someone shouldn’t.

• [Flying Squid]

  It is a neat idea, but hurt by Apple’s brilliant displays which make a low-res image like one from a web security camera not look all that great.

• [deusdiabolus]

  Random real-time images of public places as idle entertainment for endusers. I like it.

• [WakA]

  hah, beautiful! Inset image is the view from the the entrance of the central public library of Groningen, The Netherlands :) Go figure :P

• [devolve]

  I wasn’t too pleased with watching just one cam at a time, so I made a Quad display of it. (it’s somewhat buggy)

  http://lost-found.se/showcase/surveillance-saver-quad-view/

• [Zaren]

  Looks like someone elese posted about the site as well, as it’s not currently responding.

  (Is there a documented “boing boing effect”? I’ve never seen a site linked from here go to pift before.)