By means of a Web cam (a camera that takes digital images,
which are automatically updated and saved on the server and delivered upon request),
this system behaves like the "crystal ball" of ancient fairy tales: one can see what
is happening in a distant part of the world. The HTML of the above page includes text,
images, and links, and it also displays the latest picture from the camera,
which has the following URL:
http://www.tuebingen.de/camera/markt.jpg
Here is an image link using an absolute link to this file:
The file, markt.jpg, is an image file, known as a JPEG (Joint Photographer's Expert Group) file. This file format is a way of compressing the information in a digital image so that the file will be small (for faster transmission) and still look "good" to the person viewing the file.
If you are more interested in viewing Southern California than Southern Germany, you can visit the following URL, which displays pictures of the first author's campus:
http://www.fullerton.edu/campuscams/
Below is current view of the Quad of the first authors campus.
Here is a link to Some other International Web Cams