Those crazy cams
By Ahron Shapiro

(October 29) - No matter how hard you try to avoid it, it seems that if you have an e-mail account for long enough, you begin to receive spam - unsolicited junk mail that clogs up your mailbox.

The spammers try to peddle all sorts of crap, from get-rich-quick schemes and financial services to pornography and information retrieval services. Maybe you've seen those e-mails claiming to "find out anything about anybody."

It's fascinating to me that there is a perception that everyone's deeply personal information can be found and unearthed fairly easily on the Internet. It simply isn't true. At the same time, I would advise everyone to be extremely cautious about divulging any personal information to anyone while on the Web. Also, change your e-mail passwords often and always keep in mind that e-mail is not very secure.

STILL, I wouldn't blame you for feeling a little paranoid and thinking that someone might be watching you while you're surfing. Sometimes, they just might be! For example, a number of popular search engines allow you to look over the most recent queries that have been processed though their portal.

Metacrawler's Metaspy (http://www.metaspy.com) is one such eavesdropper. I picked this one because it plainly offers results that have been either filtered or unfiltered for offensive content. Since I'm not one to be easily offended, I chose the "exposed" option for realistic, unfiltered data. I was actually encouraged by the generally intelligent search queries, although as you might expect, there were more than a few on the smuttier end of the spectrum.

THE SEARCH spies notwithstanding, most of the voyeuristic activity on the Net is consensual, in the form of the ubiquitous Web cams. Not too long ago, Web cams, which broadcast constantly updating pictures to curious surfers, were considered innovative and chic.

These days, they're so common that the novelty has worn off somewhat. The challenge is not finding a Web cam - indeed you can find hundreds filed neatly into Yahoo-style categories at the Earthcam site (http://www.earthcam.com), among others. The challenge is to find particularly clever cams.

THE ANCESTORS of Web cams weren't on the Internet at all. They were probably in the back of your classroom in primary school. Ant farms have long been popular with educators for stimulating the minds of children.

Their glass sides offered a cross-section view into the fascinating inner workings of an anthill. Steve's Ant Farm (http://www.stevesantfarm.com) brings the ant farm to your computer, and that's undoubtedly close enough for some of you. If ants aren't your bag, then you might check out another early cousin of the Web cam: the Aquarium. Netscape, which is better known for its browsers, for some reason also studiously maintains a Fishcam (http://www.fishcam.netscape.com/fishcam/fishcam.html).

WITH THE proliferation of Web cams today, some of the more interesting sites for me still involve cameras that are aimed at non-human subjects. You've gotta love the Goatcam (http://www.teleport.com/~randyf/goatcam.html), which utilizes two cameras placed inside and outside the barn to ensure maximum goat coverage. The site's best feature isn't graphical, but audible. You can actually speak to the goats by typing in a message that the site claims will be spoken to the goats via a speech synthesizer. So for all you Dr. Doolittles out there, this site's for you! If you like the goats, you'll probably also get a kick out of IBM's Cattlecam (http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cattlecam) which is obtained from a camera they've aimed out of a window of their Almaden Research Center in Silicon Valley.

First Netscape looks at fish, now IBM eyes cattle. Are we seeing some sort of trend here?

CLOSING OUT the barnyard report, Iowa Farmer Today's site titillates Web surfers with their CornCam (http://www.iowafarmer.com/corncam/corn.html), which they keep aimed squarely at a cornfield. Undeterred by the fact that in late October the corn has already been harvested, the camera continues to snap away at a field of clippings and debris.

LOCALLY, there aren't all that many Web cams pumping out pictures to the Web. Jerusalem has a number of cameras, some of which I've already mentioned in a previous column. Outside of the capital, the best collection of local cams is found at Isracamera (http://www.isracamera.co.il/index1.htm). With nine cameras, you can observe Mount Hermon and several Mediterranean beaches, though their nicest link might be their Dolphins cam, taken from Eilat.

WHILE SIFTING though the myriad of cameras on the Web, I found that, very often, creative lens placement is what makes a site worth visiting. The Diner Cam (http://www.nj.com/dinercam) is an addictive site that held my interest a lot longer than I thought it would.

Broadcasting from a diner somewhere in New Jersey, you get a birdseye view of the counter and a picture that is so clear you can almost read the headlines on the customers' newspapers. For added effect, you can even watch the scene on streaming video, although the sound doesn't work, which is a shame.

ALL TOO many outdoor cameras are boring to look at, with either scenes that don't change enough, like a view of a waterfall, or a view that changes too much, like a highway. Similar to the highway cameras, but more interesting, are those that monitor train movements. Trainweb.com's camera links (http://www. trainweb.com/cgi-bin/top/tw-do.cgi?webcams.html) let you view train lines from a number of places around the world. They also have a nifty option that lets you look at all the cameras on one big page, a good idea if you're impatient to watch a train go by.

Another clever site is the Ultimate Taxi (http://www.ultimatetaxi.com), a specially outfitted Checker cab in Colorado that takes pictures of its passengers and transmits live to the Web, which is a cool idea.

THE CLEVEREST sites I've seen satirize the whole camera craze; such as the Web cam Cinemaplex (http://www.mich.com/~rrreibel/sudcinma.htm) whose four cameras watch grass and shrubbery grow, paint peel, and the continents drift. The next time somebody spams me offering to "find out anything," I think I'll send them this link, and tell them to get back to me once they've found Australia hitting India.

Send comments and suggestions to: ahron@jpost.co.il