It wasn’t my choice, but I was handed a Microsoft “LifeCam” today, as the original recipient didn’t want it. Figured I’d try to use it to make a Guinea Pig cam after seeing a nice setup and live streaming a few nights ago.
The software it comes with makes me want to vomit. Insert the CD, let it run. It installs the software and immediately shuts down the machine. No warning, doesn’t let you gracefully close running applications, just bam. The instructions say to run the software now.. but oh wait, it didn’t really install. It apparently had to install drivers that require a reboot, then you actually install the software. But the installation process looks identical, no way to know the 2nd time is actually installing it. Microsoft, it’s been 20 fucking years, and you still can’t produce halfway user friendly software? Nevermind that it finishes at almost 60 megs, nevermind that the picture quality is complete ass, nevermind that it can’t handle dimly lit rooms like competing cameras can. Forcing me to reboot w/o warning and install your software twice? All the while telling me I should install Windows Live Messenger?! Fuck you.
If I opt not to install Messenger, every time I accidentally hit the overly large button on top of the camera, I get a popup telling me that Messenger is required to use that functionality. If you are going to integrate this into Windows so heavily, the least you could do is not require the reboot.