Jamie Thingelstad

I’ve had a Dropcam now for several months and I really like the device. It is super simple to setup, has a very small and manageable form factor and it is one of those things that “just works”. I have it setup in our house pointing at the garage and alley with 7-day continuous video recording and motion detection. We live in South Minneapolis and garage theft is a common occurrence. The Dropcam keeps an eye 24x7 on activity around our garage and through our alley.

The biggest challenge I had was figuring out where to mount it. It has a really nice metal stand that provides a lot of options, but we have it placed in a bay window and there just wasn’t any place I really had an option to screw the mount into. I finally decided to use some double-stick tape and attach it to the window.

Once I did this it really struck me how nice it would be if Dropcam made a proper window mount for the camera. The camera itself is relatively light and fairly thin. It is like a small hockey puck that sits in the metal stand. It could easily be set directly onto a window.

I have to think a lot of Dropcam units end up pointing at the outside through a window. This mount I did works okay, but has some real shortcomings that a proper mount would remove.

Dropcam Window Mount

Here is what I wish I could exchange US currency with Dropcam to have.

1. A circular mount that attaches to a window with suction cups (probably 4 or 6 suction cups). Imagine something that is shaped like a ring flash and holds the Dropcam in the middle.

2. The mount should allow a degree of swivel to the Dropcam itself so that it can be mounted directly on the glass, but still allow pointing the Dropcam a number of degrees one way of the other.

3. A little cable management to route the USB power cable in a way that limits the impact of a tug on the cable on the direction the camera is pointed.

4. It should shield against ambient light in the room. This is the biggest issue with my mount. Since there is about 1" of space between the glass and the camera, at night when the lights are turned on in the room a reflection bounces off the glass and into the camera which messes up the picture but more importantly the camera detects it as motion so you get a false positive of motion.

That is easily a $20 to $30 add-on that would be a “no brainer” for many installations.

If you like IFTTT and Launch Center Pro you should check out Workflow. Having fun with it.

Waiting for PayPal security code to arrive via SMS wishing there was support for proper 2-factor auth.

Tammy got this custom made Einstein cabinet by artist Paul Carbo this week. I love it. I think this might be the coolest piece of furniture we have.

Starting day at Salesforce World Tour in data analysis session!

Overview from Billy Cripe of Field Nation use of Salesforce.

Salesforce Tour keynote starting.

Disappointing Salesforce Tour session on Wave / Analytics. How about adding one data source? All sizzle, no steak.

Deciding to refuse Comcasts modem to wireless router “upgrade”. Like what I have now.

Had such a great evening hanging out with Layne Kennedy, Dennys Bisogno, and Steve LeVahn! Great laughs!

I’m dumbfounded that it took me 42 years of life to realize how well a pairing knife works to take the pith off an orange.

My friend Garrick Van Buren has published a book, Rebuilding Blocks.

Didn’t know Kindle supported Family accounts. Nice to see services figuring this out!

Have an old iPhone that I want to use without a phone plan, but it needs a SIM card. Can you get a card you never plan to use?

Just got a haircut without a single word of small talk from the barber. So awesome. Double tip!

Great breakfast this morning with David Hussman! We are lucky to have a talent like him in the Twin Cities!

Quiet house, kids at gymnastics, listening to Bach. Ahhhh…

Having long given up on optical media is there really no way for me to watch Star Wars with my kids?

Trying to use the Square website as a consumer, not a business, is nearly impossible. Can’t even find my profile. Now updated my profile and somehow I’ve now become a business.