Experience with the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 on Linux

I recently purchased the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000 to replace a very old 3Com HomeConnect webcam. I received the July 2008 version of the webcam, of which I was disappointed and surprised about considering that I purchased this in August 2009. This version apparently has some incompatibilties with many host controllers on Linux, so your experience may vary.

The install was simple enough. I compiled UVC support into the kernel, rebooted, and my camera was detected. The image quality is great - I am really pleased with it. When it comes to using it with applications, however, I have mixed results.

• Skype - works fine


• Cheese - Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. The colors seem a bit off.


• Camorama - Fails to connect to the device. I think this is more a problem with the program than the webcam.


• Luvcview - Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it doesn't. The colors seem a bit off. This is not marked as stable in Gentoo and the program showed errors while trying to adjust settings.


• Kopete - Works fine. I was able to adjust setting for the webcam here.


• Flash - Webcam crashes a few seconds after starting it. This appears to be specific to Flash on Linux, as I had the same problem on my Kubuntu laptop. I plugged the webcam into my Powerbook G4 running OS X and it worked fine there.

I hope to try it in Pidgin 2.6.1 or higher once it becomes stable to see how well it works there. I rarely use a microphone so have not tested it's functionality yet. I'm disappointed with the problems I'm seeing in Flash and hope future updates to Flash and/or the UVC drivers fix this.

Is my DSL Modem Dying?

For the past couple of days my connection would be slow to connect to sites and downloads. Once a download started, however, the download speed was fine. I rebooted my DSL modem and it appears to have fixed the problem. But my modem is six years old. I'll have to see if it starts having this problem often, like I did with my old router before it slowed my connection down.

Zumbox - The Paperless Postal System

Zumbox supposedly has an email address for every street address in the United States and is secure enough to meet PCI and HIPAA compliance.

An interesting concept, though I am a bit hesitant on using it for those purposes. While they may meet the same security standards as banks, I would rather not rely on one site for important mailings.