Off Topic: Local Web Cams

Couldn't think of anything to direct my hard hitting commentaries at today so I figured I'd go a little off topic and bring up the local web cams that are avialable for viewing. I started checking at least one of the local web cams regularly after I noticed Humguide.com started a new listing for local web cams.

The Trinidad Pier Cam is the one I have fun with as you'll often see things happening. The camera is high resolution and allows you to control it by clicking on the Control button and then shifting up or down, left or right as you do on a web page. You can pan left, right, up or down and zoom in (real close, I might add). You can see birds fly by and people loading up for a fishing trip. Well done, whoever did that one.

There's also a Castle Rock web cam that pans areas of the area around Moonstone Beach. Seems like half the time there's vegetation obscuring much of the view, though. Might be a fun one if they used the same camera set up the Trinidad cam uses and removed some of the surrounding vegetation.

The Old Town Eureka one is fixed, as well. Kinda boring looking at the corner of 3rd and F Streets (at least I think that's where that one is) all the time, but it was kinda fun watching the Old Town Farmer's Market get started yesterday.

The Eel River one on top of the River Lodge in Fortuna needs some work. It seemed ok today but the first time I checked it out the resolution was so poor the image looked like something someone painted. This one periodically changes views, which is good, but I think it would be better if the used the same setup the Trinidad cam does (as should all the cams I've seen), where you can take control of the camera and focus on what you want.

Used to be an Arcata Plaza web cam but, last time I checked, it wasn't up and running. I'll have to check after I get done writing this and see if it's back up again.

I wonder what it would take to set up a web cam in my upstairs window and give twenty four hour coverage of Trinity and E Streets in Eureka? That would probably generate a lot of interest, huh? I was thinking yesterday it might be fun to have one in Henderson Center in Eureka. Not sure just where you'd want to place one there, though. Maybe somewhere near Henderson and F Streets? I'll have to ask my computer geek brother in law just what it takes to set one of these cam sites up.

If you know of any other local web cams, send the URL to Humguide so they can add it to their directory.