Chapter 32. Video Conferencing

Do you remember (2001: A Space Odyssey)?

Now that we are well and truly in the twenty-first century, I can't help but think about all of the promises that that particular vision of the future held, and it makes me a little sad. We have a space station, but it's not quite the movie's majestic wheel in space. There's certainly no lunar base nor orbital hotel, but at least we have webcams, video phones, and video conferencing.

The prevalent use for the webcam is on a web site, providing glimpses into the life of the individual running the site. Some sites provide a camera to reassure us that they are indeed working. Others are there to let parents observe their children playing at day care. The software that captures ...

Get Moving to the Linux® Business Desktop now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.