Disqus - Latest Comments for CameraMan

Re: Young Wolf, Bad General: What Robb Stark Doesn’t Understand About War

CameraMan — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:07:14 -0000

The article is written from the perspective of all the facts The King in the North should be in possession of, and how he should have responded to those facts versus how he actually did. Intelligence failures that may or may not come to bite our general in the ass in the future is beyond the scope of the article, although there will certainly be another post mortem if events unfold poorly for the Northmen.

Re: The Mayors of Silicon Valley

CameraMan — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 10:16:02 -0000

What's the point of anything? It's just people having goofy fun with technology so advanced it would have been dismissed as bad science fiction were you to propose it in a pitch meeting ten years ago.

Re: Security: When the Bad Guys Have Technology Too, How Do We Survive?

CameraMan — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 09:19:11 -0000

The nicer parts of the city came through okay. Many poor and lower middle class parts of the city were either terribly damaged or wiped out completely- Belle Harbor, Seagate, Coney Island, the Rockaways. These communities were wiped out completely or nearly so, and may never recover. The entire borough of Staten Island was an undeclared, abandoned disaster area. The utter failure of the media to cover or even mention the fact that many of these neighborhoods are *still* ruined is astonishing.

Re: SimCity Blackout Is Just One More DRM Disaster

CameraMan — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:46:59 -0000

It's a company deliberately selling a nonfunctioning product, which may or may not be upgraded to a barely functioning product in the future. You wouldn't stand for it if it were any other industry, why should the gaming industry be treated differently? People who choose to purchase a frivolous item deserve the same consumer protections they get when they purchase a necessity.

Re: Unused Office Space Is Like A Massive Untapped Natural Resource

CameraMan — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:32:43 -0000

There's actually a glut of housing in the US, or at least that's what freefalling housing prices and widespread mortgage defaults would indicate.

Re: Installation Gun for Cabling (LaserLine)

CameraMan — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:33:58 -0000

Mike Sandman, the Mad Wizard of Telecom, used to sell something very much like this. A buddy of mine bought one, and we had a great time shooting each other with it, but it wasn't very practical. Not only did you have to have a steady hand and good aim to get it to where it needed to be, but it was only useful if you were running in open, empty ceilings. Very limited application.

http://www.sandman.com/inde...

Re: Software Only VMS Vs NVR Appliances

CameraMan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:41:11 -0000

Well the sentence "appliances
allow for simple deployment with minimal space as the cards for encoding analog
feeds and pre-populated into the appliance" led me to believe that there are appliances with built in encoders. I was a little surprised because I'd never heard of any. Am I misinterpreting the sentence?

Re: Software Only VMS Vs NVR Appliances

CameraMan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 13:18:12 -0000

Woah, two big updates in one day. I see someone was the designated driver yesterday, huh?

Now, question: which hardware appliances are prepopulated with encoders? I'm a little embarrassed to admit I don't know of any.

Thanks.

Re: Pelco's Wrong! Cries HDcctv Alliance

CameraMan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 12:26:36 -0000

While I acknowledge that HDcctv and HD-SDI are two distinct technologies, I think they should be lumped together when we compare sales and installs to analog and IP, because so far as I can tell, pretty much the only reason to buy HDcctv/HD-SDI is because you're scared of IP.

I left a comment on the referenced LinkedIn thread, asking if anyone has any other business cases for HDcctv. Hopefully Larry Graziano answers, that guy is HILARIOUS.

Re: Pelco's Wrong! Cries HDcctv Alliance

CameraMan — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:58:06 -0000

Are there any hard, verifiable numbers for the total IP, traditional analog, and HDCCTV-slash-HD-SDI (come on, it's essentially the same thing insofar as it comes from a place of wanting high resolution images but being unwilling or unable to learn IP) sales?

Re: Australian Security Corruption Scandal

CameraMan — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 10:04:21 -0000

Still no good way to verify if what your consultant is telling is the truth or not. At least, not without having to hire a panel of consultants to evaluate the first consultant's recommendations.

Re: Sued! Avigilon, Hikvision, Vivotek, UTC, More

CameraMan — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 17:58:01 -0000

Ah, the deepest-pockets theory of legal culpability.

Re: Sued! Avigilon, Hikvision, Vivotek, UTC, More

CameraMan — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 15:53:48 -0000

They've also apparently sued Nuvico, D-link, and... Officemax?

Re: IP Video 101 Training Course

CameraMan — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:22:36 -0000

Why don't you get a Creative Commons license? http://creativecommons.org/

Re: Measuring Wheels Examined

CameraMan — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 12:43:28 -0000

Or you could learn to walk a half-meter step and simply count your steps. Even less accurate, but at least you can watch where you're going.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:20:51 -0000

This is why I miss GVI (Samsung). I could never, ever stump their tech support guys.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:44:13 -0000

My dad says the same thing.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:30:55 -0000

Why was the DVR off?!?!?!?

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 09:07:35 -0000

Whenever I meet with a product rep, I ask to see the manual that comes with the popular products. Not the PDF, the actual physical dead-trees manual or quickstart guide I'll see when I open the box. If they don't have one, I'll ask to see the box itself, how the thing is packed.

I read manual PDFs for fun, and there is definitely a right way and a wrong way.

For the record- best manual? Panasonic PBX systems, at least as of a few years ago. Clearly written, well printed, illuminating illustrations.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:46:52 -0000

While manufacturers can and should be doing more to make product specific knowledge more available, teaching you networking isn't and shouldn't be their jobs. If you don't understand DHCP, you shouldn't be representing yourself as an IP video integrator, period.

I mean, alarm panel manufacturers will teach you how to program their alarm panels- I've been through Napco's excellent training program, and it was not easy- but they won't teach you how to wire up a door contact, because if you don't know that, you have no business programming alarm panels.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:42:07 -0000

Wait a minute. The PSP covers security surveys, CPTED, and other security concepts quite thoroughly. Knowing how cameras work is useless unless you understand where to put those cameras and why.

While I agree that you should be required to know more CCTV before ASIS will give you a PSP, let's not pretend that the PSP is entirely useless to any security practitioner. I view it as an augment to surveillance knowledge.

Re: Integrators Don't Know What They Are Doing

CameraMan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 15:52:01 -0000

It does not. It barely acknowledges the existence of DVRs, let alone IP video.

Assuming you mean PSP, not PHP.

Re: FIPS-201 Failure

CameraMan — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:29:53 -0000

So, essentially, this was a case of a specification relying on yet-to-be-invented technology, resulting in an embarrassing failure, with the industry collectively deciding to pretend it never happened? Won't be the last time.

Re: Popular Surveillance Cameras Open to Hackers, Researcher Says

CameraMan — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:34:15 -0000

For your next big story, you should do an expose on how easy it is to gain access to routers that still have the default password enabled.

Re: Pelco Sued by ObjectVideo

CameraMan — Mon, 14 May 2012 11:39:41 -0000

Does OV have the money to sustain this fight, or will they spend themselves to death? Obviously, the ideal outcome for OV would be for someone to settle out of court to make them go away, but for that strategy to work they should have picked someone with just enough money to make settling worth it but not enough to be able to afford to fight it out in court.

Given all that, picking fights with the manufacturers that have the very deepest pockets (deeper than OV, that's for sure) is exactly the wrong move.

Poor OV. They can't even do bullying and patent trolling right.