the blog quebecois

there's no distance put between us
safe enough for you to hide
i'm watching all of your secrets

elton john

I've spent way too much time today playing around with this.

There is no shortage of webcams on the Net that people want you to look at. However, Smartypus McGnome (I believe that that's probably a fake name) posted a hack that allows you to search Google to find cameras hooked up to unsecured networks.

I doubt you'll find any top secret installations here -- just some sloppy sysadmin work.

The cameras are installed in various locations from restaurants to research labs. Others report seeing farms and veterinarians' offices. Some of the sites allow you access to the cam control panels, so you can pan and tilt to look around.

Enter this search string (or just click the link) at Google: inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode="

Another one (for a different make of webcam) is: inurl:"axis-cgi/mjpg"

Have fun, but remember, if you happen to witness a murder or see Osama bin Laden skulking around a cave somewhere, I retain the rights to option it out to Hollywood.

Via Feeeds and boingboing