CamCollect - Readme File for Release 1.1b - 20th July 1998 ========================================================== CamCollect is a new 32-bit Windows 95, Windows 98 and NT 4.0 package designed to download, display and save images from the many web cams appearing on the internet. While a normal web browser can be used to 'watch' maybe two or three web cam sites, there's a high risk of missing 'interesting' pictures and saving pictures for later viewing is painful since each must be individually file named as it is being saved. * CamCollect is designed to automatically monitor web cam sites, downloading, enhancing, displaying and saving images from each site. * CamCollect can monitor up to 100 pre-defined web cam sites that may be defined by the user or importing in bulk * Checks selected sites at pre-defined intervals, with up to four scheduling periods during the day * Tries to download only new images, but unchanged images are discarded (saves web bandwidth and disk space) * The latest pictures from up to 50 web sites are displayed on a tabbed dialog with age and site local time * CamCollect contacts up to eight web cam sites simultaneously (PC processing power permitting) to maximise internet usage and stop dead or slow sites effecting collections * Images may be automatically enhanced before being displayed, to increase brightness, or adjust the gamma * Displayed images are resized to fill the viewing window * Images may be automatically captioned with site name and time, to ease subsequent identification * Images are automatically saved on disk, with file names based on the date and time (fully customisable) or with sequential numbers * A log window reports sites visited, pictures saved and errors * A built-in image editor allows images to be viewed enlarged, cropped, have text added, be colour corrected, filtered or enhanced, and be saved in various image formats. * Supports JEPG, BMP, PNG and TIFF images (no GIF for license reasons) * A single button launches a web browser for the web cam site's home page * Supports authentication for members only password protected sites * Web cam site information can be imported from a text file to allow rapid set-up, and saved to text files to share with others * CamCollect is dial-up networking (RAS) aware, will open a connection if required, indicates which connection is being used, and will ensure it is closed down when the program is exited CamCollect is shareware, developed by Magenta Systems Ltd, in England. CamCollect may be evaluated for 30 days, but must be registered if usage is to continue. Until registered, CamCollect is crippled so that all images will be overlaid with nag text. Registration costs £15 (UKP) which is about $25, and is done from the Registration option within CamCollect via email with an encrypted credit card number or by printing a page to the faxed or snail mailed. Installation ------------ CamCollect comprises merely a single program file CAMCOLL.EXE (about 1.2 Mbyte in size, with no extra DLLs or other run time supporting files. Installation will therefore not effect any other Windows applications. No files will be installed in the Windows directory. The only prerequisite is Windows 95 (any version) or Windows NT 4.0, with TCP/IP networking and Dial-Up Networking (Remote Access Services) installed, and a web browser to check site details. CamCollect should work on Windows98, but has not yet been tested. CamCollect is distributed as a ZIP file which should first be unzipped into a temporary folder. If you do not already have it, the Winzip application from http://www.winzip.com/ (or from most magazine cover CD-ROMs, Tucows archives, etc) is strongly recommended. The program SETUP.EXE should then be run to install CamCollect. About 1.5 Mbytes of disk space is required for the software and documentation. However once running, CamCollect can easily use vast amounts of disk space for all the web cam images that will be downloaded! The standard installation installs an unillustrated help file. An illustrated version (screen captures) 500K larger may be downloaded from http://www.magsys.co.uk/camcollect/. Distribution ------------ CamCollect may be freely distributed via web pages, FTP sites, BBS and conferencing systems or on CD-ROM in unaltered zip format, but no charge may be made other than reasonable media or bandwidth cost. Any notifications must state that CamCollect is shareware with nags until registered with Magenta Systems Ltd. Please email Magenta Systems Ltd if you distribute CamCollect in some way, so you can be notified of upgrades or other important changes. Copyright Information --------------------- CamCollect is copyright Magenta Systems Ltd, England, 1998. Magenta Systems Ltd 9 Vincent Road Croydon CR0 6ED United Kingdom Phone 0181-656 3636 International Phone +44 181 656 3636 Fax 0181-656 8127 International Fax +44 181 656 8127 Email: camcollect@magsys.co.uk Web: http://www.magsys.co.uk/camcollect/ Download: http://www.magsys.co.uk/camcollect/camcol11.zip