The Last Octet

Catching a Thief

bfitzhugh — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 03:54:33 +0000

My Dad has an old farm shop that is now used irregularly by a relative who now farms in the area. Recently thieves have been boldly driving trucks in and stealing valuable old scrap metal that has accumulated on the property over the years. While the theft of my father’s property is a large concern, the fact that they’ve begun to take bits of farm machines that belong to the relative who now uses the old shop is a greater concern. Wanting to help my dad and the distant cousin, I thought I would put my hacking skills to use and see if we could capture some footage of the wise guys in the act.

So here’s the plan. I’ve got a bunch of spare computers floating around, so I’ll install some Linux distribution on one and configure Motion to capture images from two old webcams I have on the shelf. I got started the other evening, and configured Linux Mint on an old Dell GX250 that my in-law’s company was throwing out. I choose the GX250 because it is a small form factor machine, and depending on where I have to tuck it, I may be limited on space. Here’s a shot of a new one:

I’m not sure whether there will be a weather proof area for me to mount the webcams, so I’ve sealed them using a trick a friend showed me. A tumbler glass or glass jar seems to be the perfect container to keep the weather and varmints out. Here’s a couple of shots of the Quickcam camera sealed up in their new housings:

Quickcam in Salsa Jar Top View

Quickcam in Salsa Jar Side View

As you can see in the pics, I used some real (metallic) duct tape to smooth the edges of the holes I had to cut in the lids to plumb the USB cables through. I used the same tape to seal the holes up once the cables were in place. Here are is a few pics of the newer of the two cameras.

Camera in Spaghetti Jar

Camera in Spaghetti Jar Lid Sealed

I opted for a spaghetti sauce jar for this camera since it is longer than the Quickcam. With both cameras I used some old plastic packing envelopes to fill in around the camera to keep them held in place. I figured the packing material approach would survive longer than trying to tape them to the inside of the glass jars, we’ll see.

For what is worth, Motion does all the heavy lifting concerning the image capturing…I just modified the configs a little so I wouldn’t fill the hard drive if a bird flew by. Here are the configs if anyone is interested (press Ctrl-END to skip past these if you could care less):
——————————————————————————————
Main Montion config file – motion.conf
# Rename this distribution example file to motion.conf # # This config file was generated by motion 3.2.12


############################################################

# Daemon

############################################################
# Start in daemon (background) mode and release terminal (default: off)

daemon on
# File to store the process ID, also called pid file. (default: not defined)

#process_id_file /var/run/motion/motion.pid 
############################################################

# Basic Setup Mode

############################################################
# Start in Setup-Mode, daemon disabled. (default: off)

setup_mode off
###########################################################

# Capture device options

############################################################
# Videodevice to be used for capturing  (default /dev/video0)

# for FreeBSD default is /dev/bktr0

videodevice /dev/video0
# v4l2_palette allows to choose preferable palette to be use by motion

# to capture from those supported by your videodevice. (default: 8)

# E.g. if your videodevice supports both V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8 and

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG then motion will by default use V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG.

# Setting v4l2_palette to 1 forces motion to use V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8

# instead.

#

# Values :

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_SN9C10X : 0  'S910'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8  : 1  'BA81'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG   : 2  'MJPEG'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_JPEG    : 3  'JPEG'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_RGB24   : 4  'RGB3'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_UYVY    : 5  'UYVY'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV    : 6  'YUYV'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV422P : 7  '422P'

# V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV420  : 8  'YU12'

v4l2_palette 8
# Tuner device to be used for capturing using tuner as source (default /dev/tuner0)

# This is ONLY used for FreeBSD. Leave it commented out for Linux

; tunerdevice /dev/tuner0
# The video input to be used (default: 8)

# Should normally be set to 0 or 1 for video/TV cards, and 8 for USB cameras

input 8
# The video norm to use (only for video capture and TV tuner cards)

# Values: 0 (PAL), 1 (NTSC), 2 (SECAM), 3 (PAL NC no colour). Default: 0 (PAL)

norm 0
# The frequency to set the tuner to (kHz) (only for TV tuner cards) (default: 0)

frequency 0
# Rotate image this number of degrees. The rotation affects all saved images as

# well as mpeg movies. Valid values: 0 (default = no rotation), 90, 180 and 270.

rotate 0
# Image width (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 352

width 1024 
# Image height (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 288

height 768 
# Maximum number of frames to be captured per second.

# Valid range: 2-100. Default: 100 (almost no limit).

framerate 1 
# Minimum time in seconds between capturing picture frames from the camera.

# Default: 0 = disabled - the capture rate is given by the camera framerate.

# This option is used when you want to capture images at a rate lower than 2 per second.

minimum_frame_time 4 
# URL to use if you are using a network camera, size will be autodetected (incl http:// ftp:// or file:///)

# Must be a URL that returns single jpeg pictures or a raw mjpeg stream. Default: Not defined

; netcam_url value
# Username and password for network camera (only if required). Default: not defined

# Syntax is user:password

; netcam_userpass value
# The setting for keep-alive of network socket, should improve performance on compatible net cameras.

# 1.0:         The historical implementation using HTTP/1.0, closing the socket after each http request.

# keep_alive:  Use HTTP/1.0 requests with keep alive header to reuse the same connection.

# 1.1:         Use HTTP/1.1 requests that support keep alive as default.

# Default: 1.0

; netcam_http 1.0
# URL to use for a netcam proxy server, if required, e.g. "http://myproxy".

# If a port number other than 80 is needed, use "http://myproxy:1234".

# Default: not defined

; netcam_proxy value 
# Set less strict jpeg checks for network cameras with a poor/buggy firmware.

# Default: off

netcam_tolerant_check off
# Let motion regulate the brightness of a video device (default: off).

# The auto_brightness feature uses the brightness option as its target value.

# If brightness is zero auto_brightness will adjust to average brightness value 128.

# Only recommended for cameras without auto brightness

auto_brightness off
# Set the initial brightness of a video device.

# If auto_brightness is enabled, this value defines the average brightness level

# which Motion will try and adjust to.

# Valid range 0-255, default 0 = disabled

brightness 0
# Set the contrast of a video device.

# Valid range 0-255, default 0 = disabled

contrast 0
# Set the saturation of a video device.

# Valid range 0-255, default 0 = disabled

saturation 0
# Set the hue of a video device (NTSC feature).

# Valid range 0-255, default 0 = disabled

hue 0
############################################################

# Round Robin (multiple inputs on same video device name)

############################################################
# Number of frames to capture in each roundrobin step (default: 1)

roundrobin_frames 1
# Number of frames to skip before each roundrobin step (default: 1)

roundrobin_skip 1
# Try to filter out noise generated by roundrobin (default: off)

switchfilter off
############################################################

# Motion Detection Settings:

############################################################
# Threshold for number of changed pixels in an image that

# triggers motion detection (default: 1500)

threshold 1500
# Automatically tune the threshold down if possible (default: off)

threshold_tune off
# Noise threshold for the motion detection (default: 32)

noise_level 32
# Automatically tune the noise threshold (default: on)

noise_tune on
# Despeckle motion image using (e)rode or (d)ilate or (l)abel (Default: not defined)

# Recommended value is EedDl. Any combination (and number of) of E, e, d, and D is valid.

# (l)abeling must only be used once and the 'l' must be the last letter.

# Comment out to disable

despeckle EedDl
# Detect motion in predefined areas (1 - 9). Areas are numbered like that:  1 2 3

# A script (on_area_detected) is started immediately when motion is         4 5 6

# detected in one of the given areas, but only once during an event.        7 8 9

# One or more areas can be specified with this option. (Default: not defined)

; area_detect value
# PGM file to use as a sensitivity mask.

# Full path name to. (Default: not defined)

; mask_file value
# Dynamically create a mask file during operation (default: 0)

# Adjust speed of mask changes from 0 (off) to 10 (fast)

smart_mask_speed 0
# Ignore sudden massive light intensity changes given as a percentage of the picture

# area that changed intensity. Valid range: 0 - 100 , default: 0 = disabled

lightswitch 0
# Picture frames must contain motion at least the specified number of frames

# in a row before they are detected as true motion. At the default of 1, all

# motion is detected. Valid range: 1 to thousands, recommended 1-5

minimum_motion_frames 1
# Specifies the number of pre-captured (buffered) pictures from before motion

# was detected that will be output at motion detection.

# Recommended range: 0 to 5 (default: 0)

# Do not use large values! Large values will cause Motion to skip video frames and

# cause unsmooth mpegs. To smooth mpegs use larger values of post_capture instead.

pre_capture 2
# Number of frames to capture after motion is no longer detected (default: 0)

post_capture 2
# Gap is the seconds of no motion detection that triggers the end of an event

# An event is defined as a series of motion images taken within a short timeframe.

# Recommended value is 60 seconds (Default). The value 0 is allowed and disables

# events causing all Motion to be written to one single mpeg file and no pre_capture.

gap 60
# Maximum length in seconds of an mpeg movie

# When value is exceeded a new mpeg file is created. (Default: 0 = infinite)

max_mpeg_time 0
# Always save images even if there was no motion (default: off)

output_all off
############################################################

# Image File Output

############################################################
# Output 'normal' pictures when motion is detected (default: on)

# Valid values: on, off, first, best, center

# When set to 'first', only the first picture of an event is saved.

# Picture with most motion of an event is saved when set to 'best'.

# Picture with motion nearest center of picture is saved when set to 'center'.

# Can be used as preview shot for the corresponding movie.

output_normal on
# Output pictures with only the pixels moving object (ghost images) (default: off)

output_motion off
# The quality (in percent) to be used by the jpeg compression (default: 75)

quality 75
# Output ppm images instead of jpeg (default: off)

ppm off
############################################################

# FFMPEG related options

# Film (mpeg) file output, and deinterlacing of the video input

# The options movie_filename and timelapse_filename are also used

# by the ffmpeg feature

############################################################
# Use ffmpeg to encode mpeg movies in realtime (default: off)

ffmpeg_cap_new on
# Use ffmpeg to make movies with only the pixels moving

# object (ghost images) (default: off)

ffmpeg_cap_motion off
# Use ffmpeg to encode a timelapse movie

# Default value 0 = off - else save frame every Nth second

ffmpeg_timelapse 0
# The file rollover mode of the timelapse video

# Valid values: hourly, daily (default), weekly-sunday, weekly-monday, monthly, manual

ffmpeg_timelapse_mode daily
# Bitrate to be used by the ffmpeg encoder (default: 400000)

# This option is ignored if ffmpeg_variable_bitrate is not 0 (disabled)

ffmpeg_bps 500000
# Enables and defines variable bitrate for the ffmpeg encoder.

# ffmpeg_bps is ignored if variable bitrate is enabled.

# Valid values: 0 (default) = fixed bitrate defined by ffmpeg_bps,

# or the range 2 - 31 where 2 means best quality and 31 is worst.

ffmpeg_variable_bitrate 0
# Codec to used by ffmpeg for the video compression.

# Timelapse mpegs are always made in mpeg1 format independent from this option.

# Supported formats are: mpeg1 (ffmpeg-0.4.8 only), mpeg4 (default), and msmpeg4.

# mpeg1 - gives you files with extension .mpg

# mpeg4 or msmpeg4 - gives you files with extension .avi

# msmpeg4 is recommended for use with Windows Media Player because

# it requires no installation of codec on the Windows client.

# swf - gives you a flash film with extension .swf

# flv - gives you a flash video with extension .flv

# ffv1 - FF video codec 1 for Lossless Encoding ( experimental )

# mov - QuickTime ( testing )

ffmpeg_video_codec swf
# Use ffmpeg to deinterlace video. Necessary if you use an analog camera

# and see horizontal combing on moving objects in video or pictures.

# (default: off)

ffmpeg_deinterlace off
############################################################

# Snapshots (Traditional Periodic Webcam File Output)

############################################################
# Make automated snapshot every N seconds (default: 0 = disabled)

snapshot_interval 0
############################################################

# Text Display

# %Y = year, %m = month, %d = date,

# %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second, %T = HH:MM:SS,

# %v = event, %q = frame number, %t = thread (camera) number,

# %D = changed pixels, %N = noise level, \n = new line,

# %i and %J = width and height of motion area,

# %K and %L = X and Y coordinates of motion center

# %C = value defined by text_event - do not use with text_event!

# You can put quotation marks around the text to allow

# leading spaces

############################################################
# Locate and draw a box around the moving object.

# Valid values: on, off and preview (default: off)

# Set to 'preview' will only draw a box in preview_shot pictures.

locate off
# Draws the timestamp using same options as C function strftime(3)

# Default: %Y-%m-%d\n%T = date in ISO format and time in 24 hour clock

# Text is placed in lower right corner

text_right %Y-%m-%d\n%T-%q
# Draw a user defined text on the images using same options as C function strftime(3)

# Default: Not defined = no text

# Text is placed in lower left corner

; text_left CAMERA %t
# Draw the number of changed pixed on the images (default: off)

# Will normally be set to off except when you setup and adjust the motion settings

# Text is placed in upper right corner

text_changes off
# This option defines the value of the special event conversion specifier %C

# You can use any conversion specifier in this option except %C. Date and time

# values are from the timestamp of the first image in the current event.

# Default: %Y%m%d%H%M%S

# The idea is that %C can be used filenames and text_left/right for creating

# a unique identifier for each event.

text_event %Y%m%d%H%M%S
# Draw characters at twice normal size on images. (default: off)

text_double off
############################################################

# Target Directories and filenames For Images And Films

# For the options snapshot_, jpeg_, mpeg_ and timelapse_filename

# you can use conversion specifiers

# %Y = year, %m = month, %d = date,

# %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second,

# %v = event, %q = frame number, %t = thread (camera) number,

# %D = changed pixels, %N = noise level,

# %i and %J = width and height of motion area,

# %K and %L = X and Y coordinates of motion center

# %C = value defined by text_event

# Quotation marks round string are allowed.

############################################################
# Target base directory for pictures and films

# Recommended to use absolute path. (Default: current working directory)

target_dir /data/images
# File path for snapshots (jpeg or ppm) relative to target_dir

# Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-snapshot

# Default value is equivalent to legacy oldlayout option

# For Motion 3.0 compatible mode choose: %Y/%m/%d/%H/%M/%S-snapshot

# File extension .jpg or .ppm is automatically added so do not include this.

# Note: A symbolic link called lastsnap.jpg created in the target_dir will always

# point to the latest snapshot, unless snapshot_filename is exactly 'lastsnap'

snapshot_filename %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-snapshot
# File path for motion triggered images (jpeg or ppm) relative to target_dir

# Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q

# Default value is equivalent to legacy oldlayout option

# For Motion 3.0 compatible mode choose: %Y/%m/%d/%H/%M/%S-%q

# File extension .jpg or .ppm is automatically added so do not include this

# Set to 'preview' together with best-preview feature enables special naming

# convention for preview shots. See motion guide for details

jpeg_filename %v-%Y-%m-%d-%H%M-%S-%q
# File path for motion triggered ffmpeg films (mpeg) relative to target_dir

# Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S

# Default value is equivalent to legacy oldlayout option

# For Motion 3.0 compatible mode choose: %Y/%m/%d/%H%M%S

# File extension .mpg or .avi is automatically added so do not include this

# This option was previously called ffmpeg_filename

movie_filename %v-%Y-%m%-d%-H%M-%S
# File path for timelapse mpegs relative to target_dir

# Default: %Y%m%d-timelapse

# Default value is near equivalent to legacy oldlayout option

# For Motion 3.0 compatible mode choose: %Y/%m/%d-timelapse

# File extension .mpg is automatically added so do not include this

timelapse_filename %Y%m%d-timelapse
############################################################

# Live Webcam Server

############################################################
# The mini-http server listens to this port for requests (default: 0 = disabled)

webcam_port 8081
# Quality of the jpeg (in percent) images produced (default: 50)

webcam_quality 50
# Output frames at 1 fps when no motion is detected and increase to the

# rate given by webcam_maxrate when motion is detected (default: off)

webcam_motion off
# Maximum framerate for webcam streams (default: 1)

webcam_maxrate 1
# Restrict webcam connections to localhost only (default: on)

webcam_localhost on
# Limits the number of images per connection (default: 0 = unlimited)

# Number can be defined by multiplying actual webcam rate by desired number of seconds

# Actual webcam rate is the smallest of the numbers framerate and webcam_maxrate

webcam_limit 0
############################################################

# HTTP Based Control

############################################################
# TCP/IP port for the http server to listen on (default: 0 = disabled)

control_port 8080
# Restrict control connections to localhost only (default: on)

control_localhost on
# Output for http server, select off to choose raw text plain (default: on)

control_html_output on
# Authentication for the http based control. Syntax username:password

# Default: not defined (Disabled)

; control_authentication username:password
############################################################

# Tracking (Pan/Tilt)

############################################################
# Type of tracker (0=none (default), 1=stepper, 2=iomojo, 3=pwc, 4=generic, 5=uvcvideo)

# The generic type enables the definition of motion center and motion size to

# be used with the conversion specifiers for options like on_motion_detected

track_type 0
# Enable auto tracking (default: off)

track_auto off
# Serial port of motor (default: none)

; track_port value
# Motor number for x-axis (default: 0)

track_motorx 0
# Motor number for y-axis (default: 0)

track_motory 0
# Maximum value on x-axis (default: 0)

track_maxx 0
# Maximum value on y-axis (default: 0)

track_maxy 0
# ID of an iomojo camera if used (default: 0)

track_iomojo_id 0
# Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the X-axis

# with auto-track (default: 10)

# Currently only used with pwc type cameras

track_step_angle_x 10
# Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the Y-axis

# with auto-track (default: 10)

# Currently only used with pwc type cameras

track_step_angle_y 10
# Delay to wait for after tracking movement as number

# of picture frames (default: 10)

track_move_wait 10
# Speed to set the motor to (stepper motor option) (default: 255)

track_speed 255
# Number of steps to make (stepper motor option) (default: 40)

track_stepsize 40
############################################################

# External Commands, Warnings and Logging:

# You can use conversion specifiers for the on_xxxx commands

# %Y = year, %m = month, %d = date,

# %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second,

# %v = event, %q = frame number, %t = thread (camera) number,

# %D = changed pixels, %N = noise level,

# %i and %J = width and height of motion area,

# %K and %L = X and Y coordinates of motion center

# %C = value defined by text_event

# %f = filename with full path

# %n = number indicating filetype

# Both %f and %n are only defined for on_picture_save,

# on_movie_start and on_movie_end

# Quotation marks round string are allowed.

############################################################
# Do not sound beeps when detecting motion (default: on)

# Note: Motion never beeps when running in daemon mode.

quiet on
# Command to be executed when an event starts. (default: none)

# An event starts at first motion detected after a period of no motion defined by gap

; on_event_start value
# Command to be executed when an event ends after a period of no motion

# (default: none). The period of no motion is defined by option gap.

; on_event_end value
# Command to be executed when a picture (.ppm|.jpg) is saved (default: none)

# To give the filename as an argument to a command append it with %f

; on_picture_save value
# Command to be executed when a motion frame is detected (default: none)

; on_motion_detected value
# Command to be executed when motion in a predefined area is detected

# Check option 'area_detect'.   (default: none)

; on_area_detected value
# Command to be executed when a movie file (.mpg|.avi) is created. (default: none)

# To give the filename as an argument to a command append it with %f

; on_movie_start value
# Command to be executed when a movie file (.mpg|.avi) is closed. (default: none)

# To give the filename as an argument to a command append it with %f

; on_movie_end value
# Command to be executed when a camera can't be opened or if it is lost

# NOTE: There is situations when motion doesn't detect a lost camera!

# It depends on the driver, some drivers don't detect a lost camera at all

# Some hang the motion thread. Some even hang the PC! (default: none)

; on_camera_lost value
############################################################

# Common Options For MySQL and PostgreSQL database features.

# Options require the MySQL/PostgreSQL options to be active also.

############################################################
# Log to the database when creating motion triggered image file  (default: on)

sql_log_image on
# Log to the database when creating a snapshot image file (default: on)

sql_log_snapshot on
# Log to the database when creating motion triggered mpeg file (default: off)

sql_log_mpeg off
# Log to the database when creating timelapse mpeg file (default: off)

sql_log_timelapse off
# SQL query string that is sent to the database

# Use same conversion specifiers has for text features

# Additional special conversion specifiers are

# %n = the number representing the file_type

# %f = filename with full path

# Default value:

# insert into security(camera, filename, frame, file_type, time_stamp, text_event) values('%t', '%f', '%q', '%n', '%Y-%m-%d %T', '%C')

sql_query insert into security(camera, filename, frame, file_type, time_stamp, event_time_stamp) values('%t', '%f', '%q', '%n', '%Y-%m-%d %T', '%C')
############################################################

# Database Options For MySQL

############################################################
# Mysql database to log to (default: not defined)

; mysql_db value
# The host on which the database is located (default: localhost)

; mysql_host value
# User account name for MySQL database (default: not defined)

; mysql_user value
# User password for MySQL database (default: not defined)

; mysql_password value
############################################################

# Database Options For PostgreSQL

############################################################
# PostgreSQL database to log to (default: not defined)

; pgsql_db value
# The host on which the database is located (default: localhost)

; pgsql_host value
# User account name for PostgreSQL database (default: not defined)

; pgsql_user value
# User password for PostgreSQL database (default: not defined)

; pgsql_password value
# Port on which the PostgreSQL database is located (default: 5432)

; pgsql_port 5432
############################################################

# Video Loopback Device (vloopback project)

############################################################
# Output images to a video4linux loopback device

# The value '-' means next available (default: not defined)

; video_pipe value
# Output motion images to a video4linux loopback device

# The value '-' means next available (default: not defined)

; motion_video_pipe value
##############################################################

# Thread config files - One for each camera.

# Except if only one camera - You only need this config file.

# If you have more than one camera you MUST define one thread

# config file for each camera in addition to this config file.

##############################################################

# Remember: If you have more than one camera you must have one # thread file for each camera. E.g. 2 cameras requires 3 files: # This motion.conf file AND thread1.conf and thread2.conf. # Only put the options that are unique to each camera in the # thread config files. thread /etc/motion/thread1.conf thread /etc/motion/thread2.conf ; thread /usr/local/etc/thread3.conf ; thread /usr/local/etc/thread4.conf

Thread file for Camera 1 – thread1.conf
# /usr/local/etc/thread1.conf # # This config file was generated by motion 3.2.12


###########################################################

# Capture device options

############################################################
# Videodevice to be used for capturing  (default /dev/video0)

# for FreeBSD default is /dev/bktr0

videodevice /dev/video0
# The video input to be used (default: 8)

# Should normally be set to 1 for video/TV cards, and 8 for USB cameras

input 8
# Draw a user defined text on the images using same options as C function strftime(3)

# Default: Not defined = no text

# Text is placed in lower left corner

text_left CAMERA 1
# Image width (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 352

#width 1280
# Image height (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 288

#height 960
############################################################

# Target Directories and filenames For Images And Films

# For the options snapshot_, jpeg_, mpeg_ and timelapse_filename

# you can use conversion specifiers

# %Y = year, %m = month, %d = date,

# %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second,

# %v = event, %q = frame number, %t = thread (camera) number,

# %D = changed pixels, %N = noise level,

# %i and %J = width and height of motion area,

# %K and %L = X and Y coordinates of motion center

# %C = value defined by text_event

# Quotation marks round string are allowed.

############################################################
# Target base directory for pictures and films

# Recommended to use absolute patch. (Default: current working directory)

target_dir /data/images/camera1
############################################################

# Live Webcam Server

############################################################
# The mini-http server listens to this port for requests (default: 0 = disabled)

webcam_port 8081
# Command to be executed when a picture (.ppm|.jpg) is saved (default: none)

# The filename of the picture is appended as an argument for the command.

on_picture_save /usr/local/motion-extras/camparse1.pl

# Command to be executed when a movie file (.mpg|.avi) is closed. (default: none) # Filename of movie is appended as an argument for the command. on_movie_end /usr/local/motion-extras/mpegparse1.pl

Thread 2 config file for Camera 1 – thread2.conf
# /usr/local/etc/thread2.conf # # This config file was generated by motion 3.2.12


###########################################################

# Capture device options

############################################################
# Videodevice to be used for capturing  (default /dev/video0)

# for FreeBSD default is /dev/bktr0

videodevice /dev/video1
# The video input to be used (default: 8)

# Should normally be set to 1 for video/TV cards, and 8 for USB cameras

input 8
# Draw a user defined text on the images using same options as C function strftime(3)

# Default: Not defined = no text

# Text is placed in lower left corner

text_left CAMERA 2
# Image width (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 352

width 1024 
# Image height (pixels). Valid range: Camera dependent, default: 288

height 768 
############################################################

# Target Directories and filenames For Images And Films

# For the options snapshot_, jpeg_, mpeg_ and timelapse_filename

# you can use conversion specifiers

# %Y = year, %m = month, %d = date,

# %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second,

# %v = event, %q = frame number, %t = thread (camera) number,

# %D = changed pixels, %N = noise level,

# %i and %J = width and height of motion area,

# %K and %L = X and Y coordinates of motion center

# %C = value defined by text_event

# Quotation marks round string are allowed.

############################################################
# Target base directory for pictures and films

# Recommended to use absolute patch. (Default: current working directory)

target_dir /data/images/camera2
############################################################

# Live Webcam Server

############################################################
# The mini-http server listens to this port for requests (default: 0 = disabled)

webcam_port 8082
# Command to be executed when a picture (.ppm|.jpg) is saved (default: none)

# The filename of the picture is appended as an argument for the command.

on_picture_save /usr/local/motion-extras/camparse2.pl

# Command to be executed when a movie file (.mpg|.avi) is closed. (default: none) # Filename of movie is appended as an argument for the command. on_movie_end /usr/local/motion-extras/mpegparse2.pl

——————————————————————————————

Finally I needed a script to keep the images manageable, so I slapped together this very robust piece of art and scheduled it in cron:

mkdir /data/images/archive/`date +%Y-%m-%d` mkdir /data/images/archive/`date +%Y-%m-%d`/camera1 mkdir /data/images/archive/`date +%Y-%m-%d`/camera2 mv /data/images/camera1/* /data/images/archive/`date +%Y-%m-%d`/camera1 mv /data/images/camera2/* /data/images/archive/`date +%Y-%m-%d`/camera2

It makes some dated folders and camera subfolders, and then moves the day’s shots into the appropriate subfolders.

So that’s it, hopefully with this evening’s worth of lite duty hackery I’ll be able to get the system in place this week and capture something interesting. I’ll post anything interesting I capture including all the details I discover about the thieves if I manage to get shots of them.

PC with the Two Sealed Webcams

The coming war on general computation

bfitzhugh — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:09:37 +0000

I’d intended to post this a while back when it came out, but other things got in the way. Regardless, Here is Cory Doctorow on the war on general purpose computing. It is a very well done talk, on a situation that I tend to believe is creeping in on us from all angles. I’d be interested in hearing the thoughts of others out there.

Tribal knowledge, what is it?

bfitzhugh — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:18:13 +0000

It’s things in your head now that you haven’t written down because you are reading this. It is the issue you resolved quickly yesterday that you told yourself, “That’s taken care of, no one will need to do that again”. It is the description that you didn’t enter when you closed the ticket out. It is the resolution decided in a hallway meeting. It is the received email that uses improper nouns referring to that things only you would know about. It is that workaround that was so ingenuously constructed that only the creator knows how it operates. It is also, that clattering noise indicating that something is wrong that only you can recognize because you’ve listened for 4,745 days and never heard it before. It is the patterns of those around you as well as the meanings of those patterns. It is the oops, that could have been prevented if there had just been “prior knowledge”. It is the files that are trashed because they are “no longer needed”. It is the information you wished you had, but can’t read, buy, steal, or quickly glean from those around you. It is the false alarm, that you know is a false alarm and not something to be worried about. It is that port on the panel, that did that weird thing once. It is the meta that is never archived. It is the thing, that without it, will makes you feel like it is your first day. It is why you recreate the wheel. It is the knowledge, that if you had now, would probably keep you from trying to improve things. It is the weight the bears down upon those who haven’t shared their knowledge and cages them in. It is the thought you had last week about the repair that you told so-and-so about that was never confirmed. It is the undocumented day-to-day, and the oil our business machines cannot function without.

How is it all connected?

admin — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:31:37 +0000

Thought that this was a timely find since many of us would be seeing less tech savvy family and friends through out the holidays. It is a short documentary by Ben Mendelsohn as to how the Internet and digital communications converge into many interconnecting hubs around the world.

Bundled, Buried & Behind Closed Doors from Ben Mendelsohn on Vimeo.

What do Those Exchange Recipient Icons Mean

bfitzhugh — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:42:55 +0000

This is probably a “captain obvious” post, but I’ve never paid attention to the icons in the Exchange 2010 EMC. Wondering what about their meaning, I searched around and figured it out:

This icon simply means that the mailbox move request is still lingering. If you clear the old move request the icon will change to a mailbox without the green arrow.

This icon without the arrow is the standard user recipient mailbox icon without the existence of an old move request.

Obviously a group

A room

IT as a Service and Realistic Expectations

bfitzhugh — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 22:34:10 +0000

The other month Read Write Web posed the question, “What is IT-as-a-Service and how do you determine its value for the enterprise?” My response was:

IT-as-a-service is yet another broadening phrase used to describe the commoditization of information technology resources. Over the years we’ve seen the IT products and services industry market themselves in ways that liken their products to familiar proven resources such as telcos and electric companies. Now the IT industry is leveraging these comfortable commodities to smooth over rough edges of IT as a whole and sell the world the whole shebang. When company X brings you “IT-as-a-service” they aren’t just bringing “storage as a utility” or “software as a service”, they are saying that they can do it all; top to bottom. While there is inherent value in having one throat to choke, and possible reuse of common resources there may also be downsides. Put another way, it is entirely possible that those touting themselves as providers of IT-as-a-service may be just saying, “We’re the jack of all trades, but master of none.”

My response was among the many which did not win, but it did get me thinking about the topic of IT-as-a-Service. Many of the traditional PC technologies that organizations are accustomed to consuming are being rolled up into a single annually renewed line item. In some scenarios these agreements hit the nail on the head by the wholesale offloading of some component in which an organization does not have the resources to address. In other cases, these agreements can leave business line staff holding the bag if there isn’t a technically savvy staff member to own and oversee the agreements.

Personally I’ve seen both sides of the coin. There have been scenarios where my company was the sole provider for all technology and services needed by our customers. I’ve also been one of those customers and have been in the position to chose which resources were to be handled by staff and which resources were to be managed externally. While I would bet there are many who have found a reasonable balance between outsourced services and internally managed resources, I have never witnessed these agreements pan out completely without concessions or compromises having to be made by some or all of the parties involved.

This is not to say all of these services agreements were bad; far from it. What I mean is, with agreements such as this, there will be times in which the customer has to own some component of the outsourced service they were looking to offload; or the service provider has to provide some varying level of support which does not fit the cookie cutter template they had intended to sell. I mention these points not to sound like “sour grapes”, but to convey the fact that setting realistic expectations is in the best interest of all involved parties.

If you are in IT or are responsible for managing some aspect of a hybrid services agreement, how do you weight the option of handing IT over to outside parties when the outsourced technologies are requirements of your core business operations? If you are not in IT, but facilitate your operation’s tech resources through agreements like this how do you find the services agreements that are right for your business and your staff’s ability?

Thanks Michael Babb for the review of this post.

When do you scale?

bfitzhugh — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:20:34 +0000

When do you scale up or down? This is a struggle we all deal with in our personal lives and jobs on a regular basis. Sometimes the answer is simple, for example, if you starving at the end of the week and the cupboards are bare, you should probably scale up you grocery shopping quantities. On the other-hand, if you have food spoiling in the fridge at the end of the week you should probably scale down your quantities. Common sense will most likely steer you in the right direction in these scenarios, but what happens when common sense still leaves you scratching your head?

If you have ever had to make the decision to shrink or expand some aspect of your job, you have most likely weighed a number of the variables to make the decision. At their core, these variables often boil down to: resourcefulness versus the need to acquire resources. To put it another way, decisions often occur around how resourceful an asset is versus the perceived need for resources. Unfortunately this common sense approach leads many to loose focus of the critical aspects that influence the need to scale and ultimately results in a lesser deliverable. It is not unusual to see short sighted approaches like this unfold in the manner outlined in the diagram below.

The cycle typically unfolds like this:

(1) Asset with an abundance of resourcefulness is able to (2) supply the work required to address the needs at hand. When the asset’s ability to satisfy the needs are recognized (3) the demand for yet more deliverables rises. This is natural when we recognize a valuable asset that is able to produce. Unfortunately there is a tipping point in which the demand will overtake the asset’s resourcefulness forcing a (4) need or requirement to obtain additional resources. This is a point where one of two things should occur; either the demand is reined in or additional resources are obtained. What does not need to occur, is the re-tapping of existing inundated assets. Re-tapping of existing assets and resources creates a cycle which should not exist in the first place; a cycle which fools many into thinking needs are being addressed.

The need to scale cannot be thought of in a circular manner. To put it another way, you can’t scale up by tapping already taxed resources and you can’t scale down by continuing to use unused resources. Attempting to scale in a circular manner is much like Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Scaling occurs in a spiral like pattern.

If we force ourselves to consider the supply and demand aspects that impact resourcefulness we can easily realize that the decision to scale is not much of a decision at all…either change to scale is made or you are stuck with cyclical insanity.

Websense Email Security – Personal Email Manager – SQL Access Denied

bfitzhugh — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 21:39:42 +0000

If you are installing the Personal Email Manager component of Websense Email Security 7.3 you may encounter the following error message on the “SQL Server Connection Details” screen of the wizard:

[DBNETLIB][ConnectionOpen (Connect()).]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

The source of the problem doesn’t present many (any?) clues. Fortunately I was able to hunt down the changes needing to be made to allow the installer to talk to the SQL database.

The changes that need to be done are performed within the “SQL Server Configuration Manager” utility. Can be launched from Run with:

“C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mmc.exe /32 c:\Windows\SysWOW64\SQLServerManager10.msc”

Within the SQL Server Configuration Manager, navigate to:

“SQL Server Network Configuration” -> “Protocols for MSSQLSERVER”

From the list of protocols presented, make sure TCP/IP is enabled. This can be done by right clicking on the TCP/IP entry and selecting enable. With this completed, restart the SQL Server service.

Finally, with all of this done, restart the Websense Personal Email Manager installation and you should make it past the ”SQL Server Connection Details” screen and complete the installation.

Powershell Script to List All ActiveSync Devices in Exchange Organization

admin — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:34:45 +0000

Here’s a powershell script I pieced together to do a dump of all the Exchange Activesync devices in an organization.

C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -noexit -command ". 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V14\bin\RemoteExchange.ps1'; Connect-ExchangeServer -auto; Get-ActiveSyncDevice|Export-Csv -Path $home\Documents\ActiveSync-devices.csv -NoTypeInformation; exit;

The resulting output is a CSV file that you can open in your favorite spreadsheet app.

Windows Updates on 2008 Server Managed By WSUS GPO

admin — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:24:24 +0000

I, like many others, have servers and workstations that are configured via GPO to obtain updates from a WSUS server. Our servers are managed by an update GPO that allows the appropriate admins greater flexibility to install WSUS provisioned updates (than say the restrictions of the workstation GPO). This is done to allow admins to quickly bring a server up to spec without having to wait for the GPO scheduled install time. In 2003 this worked well because the update notifier on the server would provide notification of updates and the ability to install those updates (typically disabled on a workstation update GPO).

On 2008 the notifier only informs you that your WSUS server has updates waiting to be applied, and offers no way to install them (unless you wait for the GPO schedule). There are GPO options that can be tweaked to allow the manual installation of updates from the 2008 control panel, but none specifically address the manual “Update and Restart” scenario that most admins would like to perform on new servers.

To address this situation, you can jump to the command line and execute:

wuauclt /UpdateNow

It will install updates provisioned from the WSUS server to the GPO managed 2008 server. The Windows Update notifier will inform you that the updates are installing. Hover over it to see the percent complete or if a restart is required. When it is done, restart the server as usual and you are all set.