Zoneminder

Zoneminder (www.zoneminder.com) a recording and security program was surprisingly easy to set up. Video4Linux the drivers for video capture cards for Linux, on the other hand, was a nightmare. Read More...

Software truth

There is an old maxim in computer science:

Good, quick, cheap; Pick any two.



It remains true. Read More...

Where it hurts

Developers can be a bit thin skinned about their work. Read More...

Contact sense in 24 Hours

Lots of quite expensive equipment used in telecommunications, television and security still use contact sens outputs for reporting error conditions.This project was put together in the space of 24 hours to allow Nagios to
monitor some contact closures.

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It is better when it is green

Monitoring systems are central to my happiness as a systems administrator. They tell me when things go wrong … hopefully before the phone rings … warn me when things are getting close to failing and can provide more directly useful information than direct customer reports. The major problem with monitoring systems is getting the information from the system to the human. Nagios’s web page will make noises and can provide a text based display; but sometimes you need a simple display that prompts you to go look for a problem. This is where traffic lights and other visual indicators are useful. Read More...