Comment several options (Score 2) 508
I use a combination of Yawcam and Vitamin D. Neither are particularly great, but they serve my needs. And they're (mostly) free. I get images emailed to me when it detects motion in my apt and I can view live video remotely from my phone or a browser (via ssh or vpn). I use the Star Trek Enterprise (NCC-1701) webcam that I got from thinkgeek.
I've been thinking about adding something to monitor and record audio too. Also, been thinking about switching to use a kinect as the camera.
I'm glad this story was posted because sometimes I think I'm too paranoid for doing all of this. This is somewhat re-assuring.