Mr Scum's Cam Grabber 
for Windows'95
 
 By Jeff Anderson, Copyright 1998
 Home Page - http://cheesy.simplenet.com/grabber
 email - grabber@jeffanderson.com

When I heard about JenniCam I decide to see what all the fuss was about, so I wrote a program to automatically fetch her web cam pictures so I could look at them all at once.  I showed the  program to my friends and they liked it and started to use it.  Since then I have found that there are many different cams on the web.  I changed my program so that it could be configured for  different web sites and store the information in a list.  Thus, Mr Scum's Cam Grabber was born.  It's a simple program.  To use it, just run it, pick a site, and at the given intervals it will download  the cam pictures.  The grabber will automatically figure out if the picture has changed and will only save the different ones to the hard drive. 

Cam Grabber Features: 

  • Easy to use. 
  • Support for sites that are password protected.
  • Checks with server to see if file has changed before it downloads, also checks files after download, only saving pictures that are different. 
  • Lets you review the pictures and deletes unwanted ones. 
  • Comes with list of web cam sites already programmed in (Thanks to simmerdown!) 
  • Mr Scum approved. 
  • It's Free! 
Directions: 

Before using this program, make sure you are connected to the internet (just like when using your web browser).  When the programs first comes up you will get the configure dialog.  Select the site you want or change and add sites using the save and delete buttons. When you have selected a site hit OK (this automatically save the current site's information).  The program will then go and fetch the first picture, then wait for the specified time to elapse to get the next one.  It a connection fails it will try again after a small delay. Use the arrow buttons or the arrow keys to step though all the pictures that have downloaded.  You can delete unwanted ones by using the delete button.  Double click on the picture area to select a different site (you can only do this when a connection is not already in progress). 

Important: When you set the local file name in the configure screen, you can do two things. 

  • Name the file a normal name like temp.jpg, doing this will cause the program to save over the previous file (because it has the same name). This is good if you don't wish to save all the images and just want to watch the cam. 
  • Name the file using the special commands listed below.  Doing this will cause the file name to change over time, thus saving each picture with a unique file name.  Example: jc%m_%d_%H_%M_%S.jpg becomes jc06_11_21_32_15.jpg when the date is May 11 at 9:32pm and 15 secs. 
Note: For sites that change every few minutes you don't need to put seconds in the file name,     but if  it changes a few times a minute then you will need seconds or all the pictures might not be saved because some of the file names will be the same. 
 
Here is the list of special commands for the local file name: 
 
 %a   Abbreviated weekday name  
 %A   Full weekday name  
 %b   Abbreviated month name  
 %B   Full month name  
 %c   Date and time representation appropriate for locale  
 %d   Day of month as number (01-31)  
 %H   Hour in 24-hour format (00-23)  
 %I   Hour in 12-hour format (01-12)  
 %j   Day of year as number (001-366)  
 %m   Month as number (01-12)  
 %M   Minute as number (00-59)  
 %p   Current locale's A.M./P.M. indicator for 12-hour clock  
 %S   Second as number (00-59)  
 %U   Week of year as number, with Sunday as first day (00-51)  
 %w   Weekday as number (0-6; Sunday is 0)  
 %W   Week of year as number, with Monday as first day (00-51)  
 %x   Date representation for current locale  
 %X   Time representation for current locale  
 %y   Year without century, as number (00-99)  
 %Y   Year with century, as number  
 %z, %Z Time-zone name or abbreviation; no characters if unknown  
 %%   Percent sign 
 
If you are having trouble getting a certain web cam picture to show up, try the "Check URL" button on the configure screen.  This will bring up your default web browser, and it will try to display the URL.  This can be very useful in figuring out what has gone wrong. 

The easiest way to I have found to add urls, is to go to the web page that contains the web cam picture, right click on the picture, and select "Copy Image Location"  from the pop up menu (this works for newer Netscapes browsers).  Now you go to the Cam Grabber's configure screen, and paste (Ctrl-V) the URL into the URL box.  Now all you need to do is give it a title, set the refresh rate and hit save.  Your new entry is ready to go. 

Support for password protected sites is now available.  For most sites you can leave the user name and password fields empty, but when using a pay or otherwise protected web site, you must enter the correct user name and password.  If you don't have the correct user name and password entered you will most likely get a Unauthorized (401) error.

When using the "Check URL"  button or help, if you get a message saying can't start or find web browser, this probably means you have no Window's default web browser (you should set a default one or reinstall it).  It is also possible that you don't have help.htm in the same directory as grabber.exe. 
 
 Not responsible for content of pictures, damage to files, problems that may happen, or marital issues,  use at own risk. 

Check "http://cheesy.simplenet.com/grabber" for updates and more features coming soon!