Messenger used for MSNBC Wilma video

Dom pointed me to the MSNBC’s live "Watch Wilma’s approach" webcam.  That in of itself isn’t that odd, except that they appear to be using MSN Messenger 7.x’s full-screen webcam functionality (see the link or screenshot below).

 

I suppose that using Messenger saves having to setup anything else, not to mention being able to use an off-the-shelf webcam.  For those you aren’t familar with Messenger in full-screen view, the thing blinking (in the screenshot, the messenger pawn on the bottom right) indicates that there are messages waiting.  I guess someone wanted to talk to that client. 

 

It would be nice if you could remove the extra information on the screen for this particular scenario though (messages waiting, own webcam, etc.).

 

Here’s the full blown screenshot in case you don’t like Space’s small version.

 

Update (10/24/2005 12:58p GMT-4): Matthew pointed me to the link again and now it appears that the client has disconnected and hence the video stream stopped.  Also it appears that MSNBC didn’t bother to verify the e-mail address (tsk tsk tsk). See second screenshot below, or the big second version.