Bring your FI8908W paperweight back to life

If you're part of the numerous people who bricked their ip camera at any stage, maybe you kept it (as a door stopper, a paperweight or a dummy camera). In that case, there is one last thing you can try to make your camera functional again. It requires a small investment of less than €15 so I think it's really worth trying.I obtained some information recently, thanks to Foscam...

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Some branding at last!

Foscam is primarily a OEM producer and therefore always left their products open to custom re-branding.Over time, they acquired some popularity (probably due to both their firmware evolution and their present customer support) but it was nearly impossible to distinguish their products from others if you wanted to buy from them.This is about to change finally as, starting with...

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Digital Note Taker Pen

I got myself the"gadget of the month" from the local hard-discount shop and started to play with Medion Digital Note Taker (MD 86149).This 2nd generation model is similar to what appeared under the IOGear brand about 2 years ago but it became cheaper enough today to trigger an impulsive buy (€59.99).By opposition to the much more expensive (but cool) LiveScribe pen, which allows...

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The geek Xmas 2009 shopping basket

The festive online shopping deadline is coming fast (taking into account the shipping delay necessary to get those items from eBay, DealExtreme, Iwoot, Firebox, DX and such...)So here's my short list of gadgets of interest for this year. I hope it will help you finding the inspiration:Idea #1: A Cassette MP3 PlayerFor some reason, many new cars are still coming with an cassette...

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About winning "Hands Down" (WC2010)

You know, I think it comes from a cultural difference, this French way of winning their qualification to the FWC2010.In English, there's this expression "Winning hands down". The origin is supposed to come from the horse racing world where a jockey would win so easily that he could afford to release the grip on the horse's reins.I could not find the origin  of the French...

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Synology DS109 NAS

I became increasingly concerned by the safety of my data after that some loss and corruption occurred on my NexStar LX NAS, apparently following episodes of heavy disk activity. I'm still not sure who to blame: the NAS or the old Seagate Barracuda inside.So, I had in mind to find a new NAS and hard drive in the next few months. I first saw the QNAP TS-109 on DealExtreme.com, which...

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Bloody Blogger!

I don't consider myself very knowledgeable on Blogger stuff, with my first blog not yet six months old, I'm still a newbie. But I certainly learned a lot because of all the problems I had so far, and in particular this week.   I hope this short story of my recent misadventures with Blogger will help some of you:  I must have been on another planet, but I read only this...

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The War of the Clones

Foscam sent me a picture with the new sticker layout that comes with the FI8908W produced from October 2009. It was supposed to help identifying a Foscam camera from a clone. And, guess what? It does exactly the opposite !I was expecting to see their name on it, but instead it's actually a label we could already see on the non-Foscam clones:The Model: identifies the embedded Wi-Fi...

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Replacing the lens of your IP camera

This very simple tweak cost 5€ and was suggested by a Spanish reader of this blog (thanks Villamany!).The pictures he posted were not only demonstrating a much wider angle of vision but also a much better image quality than with the original lens (in the case of the Foscam fi8908w). So it convinced me to do the same.I bought a 2.1mm 160-degree lens from DealExtreme.com (M12x0.5...

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An original fi8908w and a clone side by side

Outside characteristics of Foscam camera have changed with time and the clues below are no longer valid. The best way to ensure that you buy a Foscam camera is to check their list of recommended resellers. The best way to find out if the camera you already bought is a Foscam is to contact them directly with your device ID. You will then know if you can use firmwares found on this...

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Another cheap GPS...

I recently had to replace my 4.3" GPS (bricked during an experimentation, doh!) withanother cheap one advertised as "Galaxy's Thinnest GPS Portable Navigator" and sold at roughly €68 on Chinavasion.com and eBay. Despite the usual 21.5% VAT on arrival and an unexpected gigantic hidden fee from UPS (€13.5 !!!), it ended up just the same price as my previous device.The main differences...

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Coding Horror: Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries

A recommended reading for all  rechargeable batteries users:Coding Horror: Adventures in Rechargeable Batteri...

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Triops: the living gadgets

I would have tried this earlier but simply didn't know about triops existence until recently and, to me, they look like the best invention since the mogway!So first, a short description for the late discoverers like me: the triops are small prehistoric crustaceans whose eggs can dry and stays viable for many years. They hatch in temporary water pools formed by rain, generally...

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