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."

Oh, the humanity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it really too much to ask that people know when to use JPEG and when to use PNG? The person behind this article ought to know, but... I mean, just look at it [maushammer.com], it's the Screenshot From Hell.

Re:Hacking Cameras...

[__aaclcg7560]

Funny. I didn't think trolls had to be coherent. Beside, if the preview button has my name on it, it should be link to my website [creimer.ws]. :P

Re:Hours of crappy goodness

[Speare]

• The ONLY reason I can think of getting this is to get a camcorder for your kid. If they break it, big deal.
• Film events which are too dangerous to risk your real camera.
• Film from many vantage points at once, without massive cost.
• Film from vantage points which might be at risk of vandalism or theft.

Re:Hours of crappy goodness

[bill_mcgonigle]

Considering how many obvious artifacts were in the demo scene from the DVD, I am ready to boycott CVS just on principle. Charging that much money for such crap!

Wow, if you don't like a deal someone is offering, just don't take it. Show me a store that isn't charging too much for something or that offers something that doesn't present a value proposition that you accept. You're going to have to be self-sufficient if you start boycotting all of 'em.

I'm thinking of getting a weather balloon and tying one of these on to see what happens. $30 sounds good.

Re:Hours of crappy goodness

[Vellmont]

The video really isn't quite as bad as you're describing. Pict0004.avi is actually fairly decent (shot at the highest datarate) and is about the same quality as a VHS tape recorded at extended play.

Maybe that kind of quality isn't usefull to you, but for many people that kind of quality is decent enough to be usefull. For someone on a small budget, $30 ($20 with coupon) is actually affordable, where $200-$300 for a real digital camcorder isn't at all.

Re:The blogging applications of this are endless.

[nonymous Covvard]

Because blogs aren't gay enough already.

Really, I don't care that the bitch at McDonalds gave you attitude, or how your day at work went, or your opinion on anything. And I definitely don't want to see the video.

The few blogs I can think of that are marginally useful (like http://www.artima.com/weblogs/index.jsp [artima.com]>Artima.com ) wouldn't benefit from video anyway.

Blogs are like personal webpages 10 years ago. For a little while, everyone had one. Then they realized other than 2 or 3 of their friends, nobody cared. I give blogs about a year before all the bloggers realize that the vast majority of people still don't care.

I just wish it'd hurry up and die. If I see another fucked up word like "videobloggery" I'm going to scream.

Re:CVS sucks

[anubi]

Since you are AC, and I don't feel like I am correcting anyone by name in public, I'd like to comment on something that you typed, but you by far are not an isolated case. This is a paradigm dreamed up by some marketing "think outside the box" type that annoys the hell out of me.

"In short, most people who shop at CVS are middle-aged nutcase mothers who have nothing better to do than argue with me for 30 minutes on an expired 30 cent coupon she feels she's entitled to use."

There is another topic currently being discussed on Slashdot regarding Customer Service [slashdot.org].

That lady may have good reason to argue with you over a 30 cent coupon. Apparently CVS has been paying you enough you don't have to worry about every cent. Your customer obviously is having financial problems.

CVS was apparently willing to give her the benefit of the coupon at one time, why not now? Why is CVS forcing her to prostitute herself to you over thirty cents? Could it be the people who dream up all these games to play with their customers to be so well paid they have no idea that other people may not be so fortunate as to have such a well-paying career?

Personally, I would not have argued with her so much and gave her the benefit of the coupon, and personally taken it on myself to put it up the chain of how much frustration and anger amongst your customers ( as YOU see the Customer, not THEM!!! ) they are causing by coupon trickery.

Game Playing by Businesses ranks very high on my pet peeves of dealing with Business... and is also the number one reason I check Wal Mart for anything I need first. Yes, I will plug Wal Mart as they are one of the few businesses that don't make me feel like a nut for shopping there. You know, the old "I'm sorry, Sir, you don't have Our Club Card... the stated price is only for insiders - and you are not one... for you its ten dollars more" kinda shit. In my case, the Club Card was the quickest way to coax me out of their business and into Wal Mart.

It has been my observation that Club Cards are for businesses who have graduated beyond providing a service or product for their customer base and are now in the business of collecting marketing and demographic data. I do not go to a marketing analysis firm to buy a garden hose or a loaf of bread.