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Pet Peeve: "webcam"
Oct. 21st, 2008 03:24 pmThis is not specifically aimed at you, person who prompted me to post. It is aimed at the masses.
Having a camera, no matter how cheap, grainy, or spherical, attached to your computer does not make it a webcam. The defining trait of a webcam is how it is used, namely, to take photos or video directly to the web. If you take a snapshot to your hard drive, and eventually put it on your website, you are just using a really cheap camera in the same way any other camera would be used. Until I can see a real-time updated view of you (or your dog, or your garden, or whatever else the camera is pointed at) on the web, it is not a webcam.
</rant>
Having a camera, no matter how cheap, grainy, or spherical, attached to your computer does not make it a webcam. The defining trait of a webcam is how it is used, namely, to take photos or video directly to the web. If you take a snapshot to your hard drive, and eventually put it on your website, you are just using a really cheap camera in the same way any other camera would be used. Until I can see a real-time updated view of you (or your dog, or your garden, or whatever else the camera is pointed at) on the web, it is not a webcam.
</rant>
