Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

catphones.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 343 posts

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#281

Post by yafbum »

nils-m-holm wrote: post #210
hnbad wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fun fact: in most of Germany this would have been a crime with a penalty of up to tens of thousands in EUR depending on the exact species.

Wasps have such a bad reputation. We have had nests of yellow jackets (vespula germanica), paper wasps (polistes dominula), and hornets (vespa crabro) directly on our terrace, and I have been stung once in ten years and that was my fault. There once was a nest of vespula germanica above the window of my study, a rather big nest that grew to a size of about 3000 or 4000 animals. The only thing I did about it was to cl…

When eating outdoor in the summer requires you to swat away the same wasps from your plate over and over again, it's definitely annoying. I was stung as a kid for no reason, it was a pain for me and my parents to deal with. My wife and kid were stung also by wasps they could not see.

We get rid of termites and insects by fumigating entire buildings. I don't see anything wrong with doing that to wasps as well. After all, in all likelihood, wasps will vastly outlive the human species...

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#282

Post by Denvercoder9 »

harry8 wrote: post #21

I've had the competition's ruggedized android phone with a flir camera for a couple of years now? [1] [1] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001227941445.html I don't love it like I did the nokia n900 but it is decent. It's an android that goes underwater, can take photos there and you can drop without being worried about breaking it including the screen - all phones should be like that. The flir camera pics look just…

> all phones should be like that.

No, let's have some choice. You pay for the ruggedness in size, weight and aesthetics. That's not a trade-off everyone wants to make.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#283

Post by rasz »

FeistySkink wrote: post #280
rasz wrote: post #276

$650 160x120 9Hz thermal imager why bother when Chinese are manufacturing ~$200 _25hz_ 256×192 standard USB3 microbolometers? Look up INFIRAY P2 Pro/T2S+, SNDWAY SW-8256 etc mikeselectricstuff: Infiray P2 Pro smartphone thermal camera review & teardown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMQeXq1ujn0 STS Telecom: Infiray T2S+ Thermal Camera Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt1JBA4W6n8 The 25hz part is important beca…

What does the frequency you mention affect?

Refresh rate. The idea was its harder to aim at 9Hz.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#284

Post by wlll »

mustyoshi wrote: post #267
throwaway85858 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. "in the last 5 years in NordRhein-Westfalen only once was someone fined 45 euros for destroying a wasps nest" https://correctiv.org/faktencheck/2018/07/24/nein-wer-eine-e... The fines for thousands of euros are the maximum possible fines, which massively differs to how fines are handed out in practice.

So they have a law on the books that isn't really enforced? That's almost worse imo.

It was though, a fine was levied. There's flexibility in the punishments that are dished out in a lot of justice systems and I suspect it's to take into account that the law is not really nuanced. It's hard to write down /all/ possible motives, reasons or contexts in which a law or rule has been broken, and allowing the punishment to be scaled based on judgement seems like a reasonable thing to allow. I guess that's what judges are for.

Of course this raises questions around who is making these judgements, and there's sometimes unfairness in how they are applied (eg. police in the US, broken tail lights and the colour of skin of the person stopped), but it doesn't mean that the underlying goal isn't sound, just the implementation.

Personally I've had experience of this. My car tax (UK) lapsed and I didn't renew it. An oversight during a busy time of my life (moving house), and one that I noticed and fixed independently once I noticed, it must have been after a month or two.

However, during the period when my car wasn't taxed the police noticed and reported it (to the authorities, not to me) who issued a fine (~£90) that was sent to me by post. Unfortunately though I'd told the authorities that I'd moved house, twice, they sent the fine and all followup correspondence to my old address and I ended up with a choice, pay debt collectors (they managed to find my new house /just fine/) for the now increased fine + expenses (in the region of ~£800) or go to court. Worst case either way was I'd have to pay the increased amount.

I went to court and the three justices deliberated my case (I could hear them) and though they decided that I could afford the increased amount, it wouldn't be in anyone's interest to levy it as the circumstances in which this happened mitigated my lack of attention to the increasing fines. I wasn't a deliberate law breaker and ultimately a large fine wasn't going to change my on consideration generally good behaviour, and they made me pay the original ~£90 rather than the substantially increased amount.

As the saying goes, the law is an ass.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#285

Post by JPLeRouzic »

mustyoshi wrote: post #267
throwaway85858 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. "in the last 5 years in NordRhein-Westfalen only once was someone fined 45 euros for destroying a wasps nest" https://correctiv.org/faktencheck/2018/07/24/nein-wer-eine-e... The fines for thousands of euros are the maximum possible fines, which massively differs to how fines are handed out in practice.

So they have a law on the books that isn't really enforced? That's almost worse imo.

In France there are a lot of new laws every year (~100) but at least on third of them will not be enforced, mostly because there is no budget to implement them, or it is political gesticulation to please some electors [0].

For example over the year 2009/2010, 59 laws, which provided for 670 implementing decrees, were promulgated.

According to a Senate report, as of September 30, 2010, only 3 laws had received all of their implementing decrees. And only 20% of these decrees had seen the light of day. However, a law without an implementing decree is useless: it is not applicable.

[0] https://www.bfmtv.com/politique/parlement/faute-de-decret-d-...

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#286

Post by wlll »

nils-m-holm wrote: post #229
TeMPOraL wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just reading this makes me sweat. Aren't hornets - and wasps, to a lesser degree - extremely territorial? How do you deal with one when it find its way inside you house? Not to mention, aren't hornets and wasps natural enemies? I imagine you didn't have the two set their nests near your terrace simultaneously ? I can intellectually process all the facts you wrote, but in my dealing with wasps and hornets, I find it h…

Yes, wasps are territorial, but this just means that they will defend their nests at all cost. As long as you do not rock their nest (or otherwise cause strong vibration) or stand directly in their flight path, you are safe. Different nests can be as close as a few meters and their inhabitants will mostly ignore each other. The hornets were about 7 or 8 meters away from the yellow jackets, and I have never seen them…

> directly in their flight path

My experience of sitting outside in the summer (modulo NW England) is that their flight path covers getting close to 100% of the airspace in my garden.

Though I'm sure there are other varieties I've only ever seen one type of wasp in the UK, and that's this one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket, and my experience of them is that they are irritating and aggressive bastards. I don't doubt that wasps are an integral part of the ecosystem, but I'd prefer it if they integrated into a geographically distinct part of the ecosystem from me and my lunch.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#287

Post by lostapathy »

nils-m-holm wrote: post #270
rascul wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another fun fact: wasps will not spend much time around their nests. They usually leave the nest at high speed (do not stand there!) and then roam an area of multiple square kilometers. When they come back they immediately go back into the nest. Sometimes a single animal may inspect the closer area, but this is rare. Not the wasps here. There's always a few wasps flying around the nests when I find them. It also do…

If you mean directly in front of the entrance, yes, there will always be a bunch of wasps waiting for their turn to get in. And, yes, do not get too close to that spot unless you know what you are doing. In particular: know their flight paths and do not stand there.

So when they built a nest near my back door, I'm just supposed to surrender my back patio so them so I can stay out of their flight paths?

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#288

Post by InitialLastName »

yetihehe wrote: post #181
hoseja wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come around on wasps. They just do their thing. You got stung? Don't tread on them.

Sometimes wasps have other ideas about "treading on them" like "You are near and made a sudden move, you are threat". It gets worse when you are allergic to wasps. I've worked near a place where transport company cleaned their syrup and milk carrying trailers, so we sometimes had a lot of wasps and one of coworkers had to constantly have adrenaline with him. If he got stung and couldn't do it himself, we were trained…

> one of coworkers had to constantly have adrenaline with him. If he got stung and couldn't do it himself, we were trained on how to jab him and call ambulance.

FWIW, this bit is true of everyone I've known who was aware of an anaphylactic allergy, independent of their likelihood of exposure to the allergen. "Carry an EpiPen, know how to use it, make sure some of the people around you are aware of your allergy and know how to handle a reaction" is a very light-weight and reliable solution to "something relatively common could easily kill me".

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#289

Post by ljf »

jstrong wrote: post #129
matthewaveryusa wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a flir as well and I've used it a lot while insulating my house, but the coolest thing I've done was find the exact location of a wasp nest between my walls and annihilating it by injecting a pesticide directly in the middle of the nest with a tiny drill hole. It seems gimmicky at first but it's been a real money-saver.

I love stories about smiting wasps

I dislike wasps - BUT the good thing if you find a nest, is the knowledge that they will never return to a nest the following year - so the next actually becomes something that will help prevent future wasp infestations.

When we bought our last house I changed a light fitting and live wasps poured out - I was freaked out, and put the fitting straight back.

A few days later I went into the attic to put some boxes up there and found a HUGE nest near the light fitting. I put my hand on it and could feel and warmth and buzz of the wasps. It was already mid summer so I just left it (there were not loose wasps in the attic - their entrance/exit was into the eves of the house).

By autumn they were gone, and we never again had a wasp issue in our house in the 10 years we lived there. I changed the light fitting the following spring.

Re: Caterpillar offers phone with built-in FLIR camera

#290

Post by zejn »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #209
newaccount74 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have experience with such a hob? I'd like to get one, but have found little info except marketing from manufacturers. I would assume those would be mostly useful for frying/searing meat, vegetables, and eggs with little oil. As soon as you have more liquid in the pot you won't be able to control the temperature by measuring the temp at the bottom. Do they work well with different pans?

> As soon as you have more liquid in the pot you won't be able to control the temperature by measuring the temp at the bottom. That sounds like an interesting engineering challenge! Assuming we have a stove with a fast-acting heat source (e.g. induction) and high-frequency thermometer (> 1 Hz), what can we learn about the contents of the pot/pan? I'm thinking: dump a set amount of energy into the pan (say, 0.5 second…

Actually, I have a portable induction stove that I can set the temperature and it kind of works exactly the way you described it.
Post reply on HN