[Beowulf] Web Cameras, water sensors?

[David Mathog]

We're moving equipment and people around and the
beowulf rack will be going into a room that used to be
a "computer room" (circa VAX).  It probably needs new
wiring and new A/C - we just started on this so there
are lots of unknows at the moment. The one thing that the
room has which I want to keep is a master over-temperature
switch on the electrical panel. Originally the room had halon
extinguishers but those have long since been replaced by water.

Do any of you know of a source for a "water sensor" that
can be piggy backed onto an over-temperature master switch,
so that if the sprinklers go off it will shut off the room
power?

My office will be pretty far away from this machine room.
It would be convenient to place a camera in there
so that I can at least see which lights are on.  This would
also be convenient for checking the room from home following
earthquakes, power failure, and other California'ish interruptions.
Do any of you have experience doing this with one of the
new Web cameras? I'm referring to those like the Veo Observer
which have built in web servers.  Do these have enough resolution
to show the disk and power lights all the way up a rack? 

Thanks,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech