File photo.(REUTERS/Beawiharta)

In these days of nonstop hacking, phishing and data breaches, it's easy to forget that regular old burglars are still lurking around to steal from your home. That's why I'm a big fan of home security systems, especially ones that let you watch your home from a distance and alert you when someone breaks in.

Of course, you don't always need a security system that covers an entire house. Maybe you want to watch a specific drawer or jewelry box, your cubicle at work, the door to your room (if you have roommates or a snooping contractor) or what's happening in your hotel room while you're out. In those and similar cases, you might be able to set up a quick security system for free with the right tools.

Getting started

The main thing you need is a smartphone (a tablet with a rear camera can work, too), a stand to keep the gadget upright and a monitoring app. Set up your gadget on the stand and point the camera in the direction you want to watch. Then start the app.If the app detects movement, it will alert you via email or text, take pictures of the thieves and even sound an alarm to scare them off.

If you already have an old smartphone or tablet lying around, you can be up and running in no time. You can also use your main smartphone if you want to guard something overnight while you're sleeping, like a hotel room door.

So, let's take a look at the apps that turn your smartphone into a security camera. At the moment, few monitoring apps work for both Android and Apple, so I'll tell you about one for each.

Android users first

Android users can grab the free Salient Eye app. The name is a little odd, but the features are top-notch.

It uses your phone's camera to sense motion and alerts you via email or text. Then it starts capturing photos of the thief and uploads them online to a free cloud storage account. A few seconds later, it triggers an audible alarm that, hopefully, scares the thief away. You need a password to shut off the alarm. Click here for a demonstration video.

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Digital life hack

Evicted four months ago from their Highland Park apartment, Louis Morales and his 18-year-old stepson, Arthur Valenzuela, live half-hidden by brush along the nearby Arroyo Seco riverbed.

Morales, 49, keeps a framed bible verse and a stuffed monkey in his tent. Water hauled by bike from a park heats up on the camp stove.

Next door, their friend Johnny Salazar fixes bikes and shattered computer screens on the cheap for people who live in the neighborhood. A brother and sister Morales has known for years live up the river, and three couples stay down by the bridge.

"Everybody here is from Highland Park," Valenzuela said. "We don't allow other people."

Over the last two years, street encampments have jumped their historic boundaries in downtown Los Angeles, lining freeways and filling underpasses from Echo Park to South Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, received 767 calls about street encampments in 2014, up 60% from the 479 in 2013.

Some residents believe the city is exporting its downtown homeless problem to their neighborhoods. But social service agencies and volunteers say it isn't that simple. They say that although downtown development and skid row cleanups are squeezing out some homeless people, many camps are filled with locals.

Soaring rents, closed shelters and funding cutbacks are pushing residents from neighborhoods such as Highland Park and Boyle Heights into the streets, where they cling to familiar turf.

"Homeless people, especially the mentally ill, they don't like new," said Senior Lead Officer Gina Chovan of the Los Angeles Police Department's Northeast Division. "They want to stay where they know all the nooks and crannies."

Bound by court decisions, the city has largely quit breaking up homeless groups and confiscating their trash and belongings, leaving the camps to grow and multiply.

Whether homeless people are more numerous or simply more visible could be answered by the biennial tally taking place this week.

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More homeless camps are appearing beyond downtown L.A.'s skid row

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(Bloomberg) -- As U.S. and Cuban diplomats met to begin restoring diplomatic ties after five decades, Havanas residents followed the developments with a fervor normally reserved for a Papal visit or a sporting championship.

Cuban media aired and rebroadcast briefings throughout the two days of negotiations, a rarity in a society where the press is state-run and people often get news from relatives or friends. While U.S. and Cuban officials said differences between their governments remain profound, participants from both sides smiled broadly for the public and said the talks were productive.

Clara Gonzalez Perez, a 56-year-old nurse, said she gathered around the TV with family for two days to get every bit of information about la apertura, or the opening, between the nations.

Theres not a baseball game that people here would watch with as much excitement as for these talks.

Clara Gonzalez Perez

Theres not a baseball game that people here would watch with as much excitement as for these talks, Perez said. Shes so enthusiastic she said she began hugging Americans visiting as part of cultural tour groups in the streets, saying, I love Obama! We love America!

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the highest-ranking diplomat to visit Havana since Jimmy Carters presidency, cautioned that the two sides need to overcome more than 50 years of a relationship that was not based on confidence or trust. She said it isnt clear Cuba is ready to move as fast as the U.S. in loosening economic restrictions.

What Cuba is looking for, first and foremost, is new economic activity, said Ted Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The U.S. economy, the largest in the world, is right next door and really important to their economic future. But they want to do it in a controlled way on their terms.

Even winning Senate confirmation for an ambassador could prove difficult for U.S. President Barack Obama. Cuban-American members of Congress, including Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, have assailed Obamas Dec. 17 move to reestablish ties, signaling a battle with Congress over the half-century-old embargo.

That uncertainly didnt damp the excitement among many Havana residents.

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