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The End Of Passwords

March 26, 2013 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

I you are anything like me you probably have dozens of passwords stored in your head. Or, if you like to gamble, you may have them all on a file stored secretly on your computer in a password protected folder. A little hint here, if you are one of these people with a password file on your computer, get rid of it really fast. A few weeks ago I heard a hacker refer to password files as the holy grail!

Back to my point though. Passwords are a huge problem. Every website seems to have its own preference when it comes to password details. Some have an eight character minimum others four characters are fine. Some sites require capital letters and symbols while others forbid them. It is impossible to live in today’s world with only one password. Which is why it is nice to see there are people working on solving this dilemma. The password is an antiquated tool. Easily defeated, it is incredible it has managed to survive for so long.

It appears to be that the battle to replace the password is now down to NFC (Near Field Communication) and bio-metrics. I will place my bets on NFC since I have used both and, I just cannot see bio-metrics ever becoming as cost effective and speedy as NFC. Take a look at the CNET video below and let me know what you think?

Activist Destroy CCTV Cameras In Germany

January 15, 2013 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

A group of activists in Germany have start a ‘game’ to destroy as many CCTV cameras as possible before February 19th, the day of the European Police Congress.

They are so proud of themselves that they are posting photos and videos on their blog as they slowly dismantle and destroy surveillance cameras around the city.

Too bad for these criminals that they obviously don’t know anything about CCTV cameras. Otherwise they would realize that the cameras they are so proudly destroying are really just junk in the first place. Take a look at this picture from the official blog Camover.

They seem very excited about destroying these three cameras, one of which is covered in rust and clearly wouldn’t have worked in the to begin with. The second (with the little red light on it) is a dummy camera… exactly. And the third is a very cheap no-name camera which, at 320×240, would not have been collecting any valuable evidence in the first place.

So good news for these vandals, if all you’re going to destroy are broken cameras, dummy cameras, and useless no-name junk, you no longer have to bother disguising yourselves and wearing masks. These cameras would not have caught you anyway.

There is one upside to all of this, after the European Police Congress I’m sure any working cameras that were destroyed will be replaced by IP megapixel cameras, which should really help in fight crime.

Netgear VueZone Is Not For Security

January 7, 2013 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

Netgear just announced and addition to their existing VueZone camera system. It feels like a sin calling it a camera system because it’s barely any better than a webcam. Netgear however, would beg to differ.

Netgear is walking a fine line. While marketing the system at CES 2013 as a “video remote monitoring system” they are careful to specify on the FAQ section of their website that “VueZone is not intended to be used as a security or surveillance device”.

The new addition to the VueZone system is a night vision camera with a separate infrared lamp that can illuminate up to 25 feet. Pity the camera can only sense motion up to 15 feet. For $200 (a basic one camera and receiver kit) and another $130 (for the night vision camera) you can monitor a whopping 30 linear feet.

Not to mention you will need to spend another $50 per year to record video or receive motion alerts by email otherwise the camera really is just a webcam. The system is also extremely restrictive in that it does not support constant recording. Video is only recorder on motion alarms, live viewing, or preset events.

There is no way I can justify spending $330 and $50 per year on this system. As an alternative to the Netgear VueZone camera kit I would recommend picking up one or two Axis M1013 IP cameras. They are not wireless but, you can get two of them for around $320. They support video motion for the cameras entire field of view. Email alerts and Axis’s dynamic DNS service (axiscam.net) are entirely free. Using an SD card and Axis Camera Companion (also free) you will have a far superior camera system that has no annual fee. The Axis M1013 does not support night vision but we are talking about your home here, and security, leave a light on when you go out!

The Zeecure Show Holiday Special

December 21, 2012 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

Happy Holidays!

Honeywell Video
Avigilon Video [Read more...]

Basler Ball Catching Robot

December 4, 2012 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

Basler uploaded this unique video to YouTube a few days ago and I couldn’t help but think I should share it with everyone along with a few of my thoughts below.

So I really don’t think Basler can take credit for the entire project, but they should be proud that their product was used in this… err… ground breaking experiment?

This is what happens when really smart people get bored. We end up doing something with a robot that we should be doing with a human child. Worse yet instead of paying catch with said child we end up designing video games to entertain them so we can play catch with robots. Way to go Basler, changing the world, one human-computer interaction at a time.

What Were You Thinking Arecont Vision?

November 27, 2012 by Colin Bodbyl Leave a Comment

UPDATED Nov 30th 2012: Please see Arecont Vision’s response at the bottom of this post.

I was browsing SDM Magazine a few days ago and saw this terrible advertisement from Arecont Vision. I’ve seen many camera manufacturers use this exact technique to showcase the resolution of their cameras, but this advertisement looks like it was put together by the producers of CSI. Take a look and see if you can spot the difference.

Can you see what I mean? Here’s an enhancement of the “actual image” versus Arecont Vision’s… well their “actual image”

It’s marketing material like this that gives our business a bad name. Arecont Vision, I implore you to pull this ad or re-shoot it and do it properly.

UPDATE:

After posting this article yesterday I was quickly contacted by a representative from Arecont Vision. He acknowledged the flaw in the advertisement and assures me that although the two images are obviously not from the same camera, they both are from actual Arecont Vision cameras. As evidence he provided me with the two videos below.

It does appear that both images are taken from Arecont Vision cameras; however, the ad is still misleading because it makes the “actual image” look like it comes from an overall shot of the store, when in fact it does not. To achieve this shot it actually requires two cameras which Arecont Vision should have made clear. I will say that it sounds like they’ve taken my criticism seriously and will be making some changes. Time will tell, but for now I’ll anxiously await my December issue of SDM Magazine to see what Arecont Vision’s next ad will look like.

UPDATE Nov 30th 2012:

I received one more email from Arecont Vision who wanted to clarify. “The image inside the circle that says “actual image” is the actual image from the Arecont Vision camera installed over the retail counter in the bakery. The wider shot is a digital photograph of the store but it is not from an Arecont Vision camera.” He added “We have re-laid out this advertisement so both pictures are from Arecont Vision cameras and the image in the circle is more appropriately labeled.”

Again, it sounds like my criticism was taken seriously and though it doesn’t justify the advertisement above, I am glad to hear something has been done to rectify it.