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Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

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Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#151

Post by fab1an »

It's incredibly annoying that you can't use your APPLE iPhone camera as a webcam for your APPLE Macbook, but instead are forced to use the atrociously terrible cam that comes with the Macbook.

I've tried workarounds using the excellent OSB, but there's currently no software that let's you reroute video on a Mac (like Loopback does for audio)

EDIT: I stand corrected, as user wolfhumble points out below, EpocCam seems to do this - thanks! https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epoccam-webcamera-for-computer...

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#153

Post by user5994461 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #143
user5994461 wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home broadband has not improved much in the past 10 years. Home users simply couldn't stream a 720p video back then and most still can't as of today. So there is no point in making higher resolution cameras, that won't run 5 frames per second. Besides, high-end phones have very good cameras nowadays but they sell for a $1000 and upward. The typical webcam budget is rather in the $20-30 range. If you're willing to put…

This doesn't appear to be accurate. https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-... Anecdotally, my local ISP has gone from everyone getting 10/1 to 100/5 in the base package in the last few years.

Average is meaningless. Either you have broadband and you're physically capped at 1 Mbps upload, or you have fiber and it's -roughly- unlimited.

The average of 9 households having broadband and 1 having gigabit fiber may be 100 Mbps theoretically, but practically that's 9 people who can't use a HD webcam.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#154

Post by ceejayoz »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #144
ceejayoz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't appear to be accurate. https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-... Anecdotally, my local ISP has gone from everyone getting 10/1 to 100/5 in the base package in the last few years.

Upload bandwidth for 95% of homes in the US is the same as it was almost 20 years ago. It’s so bad it’s not even advertised. If you have access to fiber, then you’re very lucky in the US. I would also say 5mbps upload is hardly an upgrade. A single FaceTime call uses a couple mbps, so it’s probably just enough for that, assuming everyone in the neighborhood isn’t uploading too, which they are nowadays.

Again, anecdotally, mine's gone from 1 Mbps upload to 30 in the last ~10 years or so. I don't have fiber, I've got Spectrum over the cable lines, in a small market with not much competition. (It's either Spectrum, or the local phone company's shitty DSL offering. There's one local fiber company, but only in a couple percent of households... including literally my neighbor, but not me.)

Specific data on upload speeds is harder to come by, but https://www.tomsguide.com/us/internet-speed-what-you-need,ne... says "According to Ookla, the average U.S. broadband download speed is 96 Mbps and average upload speeds are now at 33Mbps."

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#155

Post by timonoko »

Spivak wrote: post #77
timonoko wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do this and wait for days and pray you have not created some nasty poisonous culture. Or you can use human gut microbes to generate instant safe yeast.

Sourdough starter isn't some nasty poisonous culture lol. It's perfectly safe and every grocery store and bakery have huge tubs of it. If you're really concerned just go to your grocery store bakery, ask for some starter, and feed it.

Never even heard of "sourdough starter". I use them small dry-yeast packets from Lidl. The point is that human shit and saliva are the surest way start right kind of fermentation of moonshine and hooch if approved products are not available. E-coli and other critters die anyways in the anaerobic process or in the oven.

BTW. My "local bakery" is probably in Estonia. In another country that is. Wider Helsinki area is under lockdown and yeast may not be approved essential.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#156

Post by ceejayoz »

user5994461 wrote: post #153
ceejayoz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't appear to be accurate. https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-... Anecdotally, my local ISP has gone from everyone getting 10/1 to 100/5 in the base package in the last few years.

Average is meaningless. Either you have broadband and you're physically capped at 1 Mbps upload, or you have fiber and it's -roughly- unlimited. The average of 9 households having broadband and 1 having gigabit fiber may be 100 Mbps theoretically, but practically that's 9 people who can't use a HD webcam.

> Either you have broadband and you're physically capped at 1 Mbps upload, or you have fiber and it's -roughly- unlimited.

This is... not the case?

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#157

Post by cesarb »

dan-robertson wrote: post #138
cesarb wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You will also need a USB a-a cable that I didn't know existed or was legal. They exist, but are not allowed by the USB standard. The basic premise of the classic USB standard is that the A side provides the 5V power, while the B side consumes that 5V power. With an A to A cable, you are shorting both power supplies together. (USB-C changes that to resistors; IIRC, the side with the pull-up resistors will initially…

I’m slightly confused by this. At first you seem to be using A and B to describe whether the connector is male/female but in the next paragraph you use the letter C to refer to the shape of the connector. I assume in the first paragraph you mean a usb A cable with plugs on both ends

They are different shapes, each shape has both a plug and a corresponding socket. USB A is the traditional rectangular plug/socket, while USB B is the bulky somewhat square shape usually found in printers. There are also mini and micro versions of both A and B, each having both a plug and a socket.

The traditional USB connection has a host with a USB A socket, which provides power; a cable with a USB A plug in one end and a USB B plug in the other end; and a device with a USB B socket. All traditional USB cables are A to B cables, with a USB A plug and a USB B plug; an A to A cable would allow connecting two hosts together, and both would try to provide power at the same time, which might damage the hardware.

USB-C is completely different; all cables have two USB-C plugs, while both hosts and devices have USB-C sockets. Which side provides power is negotiated through a dedicated configuration channel.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#158

Post by sloaken »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #144
ceejayoz wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't appear to be accurate. https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-... Anecdotally, my local ISP has gone from everyone getting 10/1 to 100/5 in the base package in the last few years.

Upload bandwidth for 95% of homes in the US is the same as it was almost 20 years ago. It’s so bad it’s not even advertised. If you have access to fiber, then you’re very lucky in the US. I would also say 5mbps upload is hardly an upgrade. A single FaceTime call uses a couple mbps, so it’s probably just enough for that, assuming everyone in the neighborhood isn’t uploading too, which they are nowadays.

They say 95% of statistics people quote are made up (including mine here).

So to quote a source, that is not my brain: from 2017 to 2018 upload speeds went up 22%

https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-f...

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#159

Post by JCharante »

It's been like this for 1.5 months. It's been commonly brought up at universities when some professors require webcams for exams but some students don't already have them.

I imagine professional headsets are under similar price constraints because on the BBC I've seen at-home reporters using gaming headsets with RGB LEDs.

Re: Tell HN: Toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and now web cams

#160

Post by flanbiscuit »

post_break wrote: post #147

Also bidets, nintendo switches, instant yeast, powdered milk, etc. I actually snagged some wine yeast on amazon and I'm on my third loaf of bread. Bidet was the best "waste of money" I have spent in a long time. My TP usage has been slashed.

yeah i finally got on the bidet (attachment) wagon and the ones I wanted on Amazon were sold out (the were the top sellers). I ended up ordering from a company that did not sell on Amazon and was cheaper than a Tushy. (Tushy has since lowered their price but it's still slightly more expensive)

https://myomigo.com/products/element

Has not arrived yet so I can not say if I recommend it yet or not but from the research I did it seemed like people who tested the different range of attachments pretty much liked all of them regardless of price so I probably overpaid. The one criteria we had was that my girlfriend wanted a front spray as well which the Omigo has.

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