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CVS Disposable Camcorder Hacked
ptorrone writes "We've been watching this on MAKE closely- and the king of the one-time digital camera hacks/analysis finally got his hands on a CVS Camcorder on Friday, the 24th via someone shipping him one FedEx. Within 18 hours, he had slurped the flash memory and has the unencrypted, XVID codec, 320x240, 30fps movies stored in the camera on his computer."
Now the obvious answer is "hack the camcorder. Then it doesn't cost so much and you get more value for your money." Hmmmm... I can get a 16 ounce sh*t-flavored milkshake for $3, but with a little trick, I can turn that into a gallon. What a bargain, so long as I don't mind that it's still sh*t-flavored. If I want more sh*t-flavored goodness, then darn, I better learn the trick. If I want a milkshake that doesn't taste like sh*t, I think I'd better save my pennies.
The ONLY reason I can think of getting this is to get a camcorder for your kid. If they break it, big deal.
It also sort of reminds me of that old Mattell video camera that recorded grainy B&W on audio cassettes. Though crappy, it has its own kind of retro cool if you can find one now. Perhaps these cameras have value as collectors items.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
...do they completely reformat the flash every time one of these is returning for processing. This could become a strange form of voyeurism.
Such cameras will bring a new dimension to bloggery. The extreme portability of these cameras, often smaller than the smallest commercially available MP3 players, will allow people to document their everyday lives in a very visual way. It will take videobloggery to a new dimension: a teatherless webcam, of sorts.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I figured someone would criticize me. You're seeing low-res version for slashdot - sorry, bandwidth trumps aesthetics today. Tomorrow the pretty pictures will go back up.
Check the file sizes:
-rw-r--r-- 38000 Jun 24 21:09 PICT0001-info.png
-rw-r--r-- 13343 Jun 25 12:36 PICT0001-info.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 10958 Jun 25 12:38 camcorder-icon-full.jpg
-rw-r--r-- 2334 Jun 25 12:38 camcorder-icon.jpg
-rw-r----- 4547 Jun 25 13:02 index.html
-rw-r----- 23960 Jun 25 13:25 flash.html
My low-res pictures are 13k vs 38k, and 2.3k vs 11k. Overall, loading flash.html is 40k instead of 73k. That means (roughly) 80% more visitors for the same bandwidth!
I also tried GIF and TIFF - they were pretty close in size to the original PNG.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
You know what I'm thinking... the PureDigital 20-minute film festival. It'd be interesting to see what a good videographer can do with one of those things, and they're a great choice for kids.
I always find it funny when people post rants about bloggery. Your whole point is that you don't care what others think, you don't think others should care what others think, and yet you post as if you think people to care about what you think.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Once they run me out of their stores, they never hear from me again.
I always hear businesses complain that Wal Mart kills their business. As a former customer of many of those businesses I hear complaining, I only wanted to say why, because I often never go in their stores anymore.
Example, I haven't been to a Sav-On drugs now in years... and it was a prime place for me at one time - until they got on this Albertson's Preferred Card bandwagon. I walked in there one day, tried to buy some batteries as I picked up a prescription, and noted the price was a buck higher than normal, but if I used the Card, it was back at normal price. Mental Note: Next time I'm in Wal Mart for catfood, check the battery price. Yup. The old price Sav-On used to charge me. Action: Get batteries at WalMart and check prices of prescription medicine at the WalMart pharmacy so if they are the same price it is at Sav-On, then if I move my prescription refills over to Wal-Mart, this will completely eliminate trips to Sav-On to pick up just one item. It was. Done. Sav-On is now completely out of my picture. They are now another non-descript building I pass by on the way to Wal Mart.
I still get my batteries, and my prescriptions filled.
And the important highly paid executive of Sav-On got his hand shook by an important Marketing Professional that convinced him of the value of forcing his customers to play unwanted games.
If Sav-On wants me back, they now have to wait for Sam Walton to screw up and drive away his customer base.
What it takes to drive a customer away - often forever - may be nothing more than an argument over a 30 cent coupon that expired yesterday.
What it takes to GET a customer is a completely different story. I can say customers are a lot harder to get than they are to run away, as you have to coax them away from where they are doing business now.
The companies marketing all this club card and coupon apparatus make it their business to target well-paid corporate executives who are not likely to relate with their customer base, which has nowhere near their level of income. They know how a corporate-level guy is likely to really underestimate the value of his customer base, and consider it just another expendible tool to be used as an economic prybar. They know we want a roll of toilet paper, so they start making us jump through hoops to get it.
Its my belief that most of the executive types that make these decisions are so high up the corporate ladder that they no longer hear the anguished cry of some poor woman pleading with some sales clerk over a 30 cent coupon.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]