Pooper Troopers part deux

So my plan was a success. I got up the day after setting up the camera and checked the basement before getting ready for work and I found a stinking pile greeting me on the floor so the first thing I did was to check the camera shots. I caught her!
Looking at the log of camera shots and all the other cats have no problems using the box except this princess.

Here she is looking at what to do.













Here she is going into a box. Looking at more pictures, she goes in and comes out one minute and thirty seconds later.

And here she is pooping on the floor!
GAH!

So now the big question is, how do I stop her from doing this ?
Well I opted for the teach a dog theory. Nose in the poop, put her in the box, do it twice with a strict voice and when I came home today. Looking good; No poop. I think she got the point.
That point being, don't be a princess and just use the damn box.

Not a very technical blurb I know, but a success of a small project.

-Colin.

Furry poop machines

So, last night I cleaned out the cat boxes. A task I'm sure you are all dieing to know about.
Got the good multicat litter, gave them all a good cleaning in the hopes that the cats will stop pooping just outside the box.
I came home today to find more poop on the floor and only 1 box touched.
4 cats, which one did it. I can yell at all of them, which I did but I know it's only one little idiot doing it.
Now I could sit for hours on a pooper stakeout, waiting and watching for one dingus to poop on the floor, but I've got better things to do with my time.

Webcam to the rescue!
I dug out my old webcam and set it up on the server in the basement.
Because it is so old there are no Windows7 drivers and the Vista drivers were all but crap. What the hell, let's try the WindowsXP drivers. Ten seconds later and I have an image. Awesome.
Next up, find some decent open source security software.
A little googling revealed a program called Dorgem found at http://dorgem.sourceforge.net/. It's been discontinued but I figured I'd try it out anyway as it had some pretty good reviews and was the first free one to come up. Yes I'm lazy. Thankfully it's a great and easy program.
Start it up, choose your camera, image store location and image interval and if you want motion capture or not plus a web server.
I chose motion capture and webserver for those times I want to check in on it.
You can get a sample of it at this address http://24.102.45.2:22559 (Excuse the lumber and mess, we are renovating. 1970's out, 2011 in. More to come on that in the future.)

I can think of a few other circumstances this would be beneficial other than the poop patrol. Watching the car in the driveway, catching people leaving trash and bottles in our hedge and keeping an eye on the baby to come in the crib or playing in the toy room when she is older. If you are of the younger audience, you can use it to catch those nosy siblings/parents on your computer or in your room. Wish I had this when I was growing up, it would have been easier than building my own sister catching security system.

If you've got a webcam give it a shot and see what you can do with it and let me know if you have any success or questions.

-Colin.