[sudo-discuss] DOORCAM README (redacted for SR security)

[johanna faust]

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NOTE PLEASE:

‡  means the actual exact details are in the confidential readme, attached,
whose password you should know, which i strongly encourage SRers read
instead of this. plus the layout didn't get screwed up.  in particular,
what looks like redactions below is merely what happens when you cut and
paste graphics.

‡'s are where the info was.  ok.

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*Concernynge The Camera, &c,*

*or,*

*Some Obseruations *

*Happily Pursuant *

*to a *

*Greater Securitie*

**

*a hopefully platform-independent explanation *

*of her work so far*

*by*

*a female faust*

*
*

* introduction*

because i only did what i knew i could, of all i conceive may be true about
this setup, certainly it needeth a readme, by way of explanation.

therefore, upon well founded advice i hereby attempt to document my work
(something i have never done before in this realm) & thus enable & invite
help to advance the cause......


* what about that machine downstairs?*

warning : if that cam is not recording i will have to go back in & do some
more cobbling, more frankensteinian *(/fræ*ŋ*k-*ɛ*n-*ʃ*t-ēē-nē-*ə*n/)** *than
faustian no doubt.  because it has to work.  a. s. a. p...

and because it doesn't work if

    - it doesn't work
      - it isn't persistent, or
      - it doesn't record

and would be better if

    - it can be (securely) accessed from elsewhere other than the computer
      to which it is attached
      - it auto uploaded so we didn't have to worry

* *

* the way i did the doorcam:*

the [image: Picture 3.png] is running the smartest OS X (which means that
the eminently useful OS 9 has already been broken on it, but can be
reinstalled).   (however the *Terminal* on it should have most if not all
of what you would expect from a 'nix box).

An awesome & awesomely painless tutorial that introduced me to *QuickTime
Broadcaster*, courtesy of murphymac.com, may be found
here<http://murphymac.com/slib/quicktime-broadcaster.htm>;
consider it a readme on the program.  The version of it that i used came
from here <http://ftp.iinet.net.au/pub/apple/quicktime/qtbroadcaster/>; the
pro version of QT from
here<http://www.oldapps.com/mac/quicktime.php?old_quicktime=20>*
(it says you don't need QT pro but I think you do); the macam download from
here <http://sourceforge.net/projects/webcam-osx/?source=dlp>.


 *more specifically *

the relevant files in the box's Apache Webserver (*
Library/Webserver/Documents/*) that were used to create what was semi up &
running are all called "*works" -- *no filetype for the program-specific *
settings* files; the .*sdp & the .mov *for the exported files upon which
one must click should one want to stream the image.

if you want to change any of the settings you can only do so when it is NOT
broadcasting.  audio has been  disabled by default, to save cpu goodness.

i was doing multicast with auto generated IP addresses -- it generates two,
one for video & one for audio anyway -- & assigns port numbers
automatically. i don't know how this is supposed to work if the audio is
enabled, the two address thing.

the exported file "*works.mov*" is easily parsed by QuickTime, on a machine
running OS X,  & on one running Vista.

the exported file "*works.sdp*" is easily parsed by VLC, on a machines
running OS X, & on a machine running i-didn't-ask-but-possibly-linux.

please see the awesome & awesomely painless murphymac tutorial mentioned
above, if for no other reason than the awesomeness. well, that & that it
tells you almost everything you need to know.


 *because i wanted it to stream painlessly*

i needed the stream to not be overly consumptive of bandwidth: i was
looking for a way that it could be served by an intermediary computer.  i
am relatively new at this (no! really?) so i am not sure without further
study if my solution accomplished this....  it would have to work well
first... but here's what i did (with some detail in case any one wants to
follow up on one of the other alternatives so they can have what benefit
may be had from my work).

*youtube*

i tried to upload the .*mov *to youtube but it was not fooled by the
Quicktime wrapper.


 *blogger version one*

ditto blogger.


 *ustream*

i had tried to stream using the camera &  *ustream.tv* originally, on the
account i made just for that purpose, but *'/%@ ustream, probably in an
effort to make the user either go pro or upgrade or both, makes it
extremely (*extremely) *difficult.   could not log in -- buttons
unclickable or missing, kept redirecting to a sign up page.  i hate it when
i am told i cannot do something for no ≈®&/?†&$! reason.  so i logged in
with my other, slightly newer power-pc laptop -- whilst sniffing the
exchanged packets -- studied the results & cobbled together some urls.

so if you want to log into ustream, there's a file with a couple urls in it,
‡ & there's a folder with some relevant cookies in it‡. i really don't
think the cookies are that relevant, but if they are, replace the ones
already there with them.‡

the file is visible.‡ open it & you will find the following two url's‡ --
enter the long one & then the short one into the address bar of
*Safari* ([image:
Pasted Graphic 5.tiff].in the dock, or click on the Finder, or on the
Desktop background, & go to /Applications/Safari) (sure, install Firefox,
but it will be slow!)  the long one will return a whole bunch of plaintext,
or it will download it.  ignore that & enter the shorter one anyway. ‡

you are then on the dashboard. *et voila.*

however, i found had the same problem again when i wanted to broadcast
or *go-live
*as the natives call it, & no longer had the patience.  if someone wants me
to i can sniff & cobble for that as well -- shouldn't be hard.  whatever
that means.  i may do it anyway -- then we wouldn't have to worry about
recording -- & wouldn't need an application running on the box  -- or would
at the very least, if we ran both, have a backup.


 *what i ended up doing*

was taking the .*mov*‡ & encoding it in base64, something that i have been
known to do & may in fact be quite... *fond...* ....of.  let's leave it at
that for now, hmmm?  in any event by doing so, that is, by borrowing the
structure of the old embed code that youtube, which is google, still
supports (because untold millions of embeds would break otherwise), &
plugging in the *data-encoded URI*, i was able to get it past Blogger.  the
html:‡

*<object height="315" width="420"><param name="movie"
value="data:video/quicktime;base64,blahblahdataencodedblah"></param>*

*<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param>*

*<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param>*

*<embed src="data:video/quicktime;base64,blahblahdataencodedblah"
type="video/quicktime" width="420" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always"
allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>*

and the result was live (at least on the boxes i tested, more on that
below) at my least visited (and least used) blogspot.‡


 *if the camera becomes unrecognized *

at first -- way at the beginning, after i set up the [image: Pasted
Graphic.tiff] -- the camera went unrecognized, since it was not firewire;
it became recognized & remained so after i futzed with it.  here's what i
did:

   - renamed the top usb port with *open firmware* so that open firmware
   thought it was firewire ‡
       - (*sudo nvram*  probably has a way but
         - i did it by booting into *open firmware *by holding down the "o"
         & "f" keys at startup & then
             - entering "*devalias*" &
               - noting the pci hw address of the top usb port which one
               could tell because the keyboard & mouse were in the
other one, & then
               - "*devalias [whatever-i-nicknamed-the-firewire]
               [/the-old-firewire-address]*"‡ to save the address somewhere
               i wouldn't misplace it & everyone else could get to it &
               - "*devalias fw [/whatever-it-was/hub@
               -whatever-wasn't-the-keyboard]*"‡ to name the usb port the
               traditional "*fw*" which all the other routines would expect
               firewire to be called
               - "reset-all" which restarts the machine
             - AND
      - by opening Terminal ([image: Pasted Graphic 9.tiff]  in the *dock**
      *or* /System/Applications/#1Utilities/Terminal*) & piping the command
      at the heart of the application  *macam *to the command at the heart
      of *QuickTime Broadcaster, *a terminal command that looks like
"*/Applications/macam
      | /Applications/QuickTime\ Broadcaster*)‡

after which it FINALLY recognized the camera, & has ever since.


 *if a way cannot be found to record the stream*

pipe it over the network to the upstairs computer (watch that tutorial & it
will be a snap -- there's a setting to broadcast to just one machine) &
record it from there.  DO NOT TRUST the "*save to disk*" feature unless you
personally verify that the resultant files may be played.  they are
certainly fat enough to be movies, & they look like movies when i opened
them as text (something i love to do), but i could not get functioning
videoplayback.

if that fails just attach a big enough hard drive externally, quit *quicktime
broadcaster & *either use *quicktime** *(a pro version is installed on the
box) or better yet, *macam*, which leaves a smaller footprint.

waaa.  i wanted streaming!  but last i checked, there was this problem:


 *the stream cannot be seen from outside*

as the kind soul who chatted with me‡ & others are well aware, though when
i actually did leave, one SRer‡ was able to get the stream on his machine.
he was, however, inside.  the SRer i chatted with earlier‡ pointed out that
only being able to get the stream from inside may be all for the best; i
will leave that up to what people think.  i do not, however, consider it a
detriment to my privacy.  as a matter of fact, this is one of the rare
cases in which i find that i feel the surveillance *enhances* my security,
rather than threatening it.

that said, i have thought quite a bit about why it seems the stream was not
available from outside the local network, & have come to the conclusion
that the camera needs to be assigned a static domain-style URL, that points
to the LAN ip address, even though the broadcast addresses that the program
assigns are static.

there is a place i think in the netherlands that has a free dns updating
service for just such eventualities, & gives static addresses like DYNDNS
used to give, with a freeware updater.  & i will probably test this theory.


 *remember*

if you change any of the settings, in order to stream you have to go to the
menu along the top of the screen while it is broadcasting & hit *export.  *

*please *leave me a note if you do, attached to this thread if possible or
privately.  i will be ever so happy to do the weird data encoding stuff to
get the webpage up & running as well.  (i think that's cool).  & if it all
the well no hitch, perhaps then it can graduate & be official on the SR
website!


 *other notables*

   - the camera needs a drape or divider behind it to block out
   backlighting, which interferes with the image.
   - we could use more cameras of course
   - a real extension cord would rock
   - locking is good
       - i was thinking the happy-sudoers-and-oakland-folks-together altar
         that i made to inaugurate the new era of beefier security
could go on top
       - there needs to be a cabinet or something to put the computer &
   associated equipment in
       - i have one in mind that just needs doors put on
         - that is why i positioned the sign as i did on wednesday, i
         realize that is not a daytime solution
         - if anyone else has cabinet ideas please feel free, only do drop
         me a line please so i don't do unnecessary work


   - i welcome any ideas, suggestions, comments:
       - of course i would prefer if others built on what i have done, but
         - i know what is really important.
         - i did this because it needed to be done,
         - i really don't want another incident, however minor, to occur &
         catch us with our camera down.
         - it isn't over until the fat lady, after drinking her celebratory
         pint of Guinness & going outside for a smoke,
         - finds that the video camera downstairs catches her likeness,
         - clearly, as she leaves,
         - and records it.**




be seeing you.


**

*notes*

**

*‡  means the actual exact details are in the confidential readme which i
strongly encourage SRers read instead of this. *


 *and here: www DOT keygenguru.com SLASH sn SLASH apple_quicktime_7_4_1 DOT
html

**and then it isn't over; it just began.......
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