Can't afford to travel? randallfriesen.com to the rescue.

Some people see internet webcams as intrusions into their private life. I however, even after walking into the kitchen Christmas Eve in my boxers and dress shirt realizing someone had turned the Friesencam into the kitchen rather than out of the window, still see the webcam as a wonderful gift to the world.

Here are two cases in point.



This image is of a town in Switzerland, the name of which I've not been able to discover yet. (25 points to whomever finds it) Someone in that town has put a semi-live webcam up on their roof and you can see the most beautiful sights from there. The other morning it was snowing like crazy, and a more picturesque scene you've never seen.

(The java used in the site continues to ask you to refresh it, which can be a mite annoying. But pretty none-the-less.)



You might think that was fun, but what would happen if you could aim the camera in the direction you wanted to look. Zoom in or out, pan right or left. What are they drinking in their steaming mug of "Hot Chocolate?"




Here's a link to a "Sport and Wellness Hotel" which just happens to have a moveable webcam mounted on their building.

Go and try it out, or watch while somebody else on the Internet moves the camera around trying to make sure that their teens out on the slopes are behaving themselves.

Webcams.
They let you see the world, for only a few bucks a month.