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

news.ycombinator.com

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

#341

Post by PAPPPmAc »

Arelius wrote: post #301
PAPPPmAc wrote: post #260

I ran into that the other week as well. Get a UVC industrial camera with a M12 or CS mount lens to use as a webcam, most are better cameras than the "webcam" models and not everyone has noticed UVC cameras _are_ webcams so the prices are normal. I grabbed one with an OV2710 sensor (does 1920x1080@30fps, 1280×720@60, and so on) and a 2.8-12mm CS lens for $65 that took a little over a week to arrive (I paid a slight pr…

Neat, where did you order yours from? I've actually been looking for a sensor without a Bayer filter on it to use with a spectrometer, and this looks like the sort of thing that might be able to be used for that.

I got one of https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MZQ6KVR/ That webcamera_usb amazon storefront is actually ELP, who is a big player in that kind of lower-end industrial/security/for small volume integration camera modules. Also sells directly through their website, through Aliexpress, etc. They do have a few no-bayer black and white options. Mine shipped from Shenzen via Hong Kong, but (now that I check tracking) took exactly a week to get to a midsize city in the US.

The camera is adequate (I've done a fair amount of computational photography work recently, overly opinionated to follow), it's not hitting anything like the advertised high frame rate/low res modes in guvcview, but is making the 30-60fps higher res modes that matter for webcam use. It's USB2 and enumerated as UVC 1.0 so I can't say I'm surprised. The crop changes in somewhat surprising ways among the modes, I think the readout does a mixture of crop and binning or line skipping. It's not a nice Basler module or anything, but it costs less than 20% what the nominally-comparable offering from "good brands" would.

The lens is ...eh, I have noticeable barrel distortion and vignetting, but its clear, doesn't have the annoying color corruption you sometimes see in cheap C/CS lenses, and the FoV is nice for webcam duty.

It's a damn slight better than the old PS3 eye I was getting by with until it showed up, and being able to easily manually manipulate zoom/focus/aperture instead of hoping the auto does something good is great.

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

#342

Post by TomMckenny »

foofoo4u wrote: post #335
TomMckenny wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which might be fine for things like web cams but for critically and immediately needed sanitation products, it proves a fatal flaw in markets. The reward for quickly buying up commodities and reselling them at enormous markup always out weighs stockpiling them for years and potentially never selling them at the same mark up. Not to mention destructive hysterical hoarding. There is someone in this thread who noticed a…

People are hoarding, because they are not rationing. They are not rationing, because prices are too low. Prices are too low, because it is either illegal or retailers would rather have a shortage than tarnish their brand. If you allow prices to rise, then we will see both an increase of supply and increased rationing by the population.

People started hoarding out of hysteria. Which creates shortages for no reason. Which drives the prices up for no reason. Which benefits and encourages hoarding. Which encourages yet more hoarding out of speculation.

Which means resources needed at this instant are instead sitting idle, at best awaiting higher prices at some arbitrary future date. And earnings, rather than going to producers, are wasted on pointlessly destructive arbitrage. So in crisis, the market has led us into a soviet style toilet paper shortages for no reason. Not to mention far more important critical supplies.

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

#343

Post by lsaferite »

backtoyoujim wrote: post #271
nitrogen wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During a crisis the primary goal is maintaining societal stability. Exploiting the rich and the desperate deteriorates that stability. People would rather have a lottery than an auction in these scenarios.

"Exploiting the rich" I don't even understand how that works.

I think they are saying that with price jumps this high that only people with more money will be able to afford the items.

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

#344

Post by foofoo4u »

TomMckenny wrote: post #342
foofoo4u wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are hoarding, because they are not rationing. They are not rationing, because prices are too low. Prices are too low, because it is either illegal or retailers would rather have a shortage than tarnish their brand. If you allow prices to rise, then we will see both an increase of supply and increased rationing by the population.

People started hoarding out of hysteria. Which creates shortages for no reason. Which drives the prices up for no reason. Which benefits and encourages hoarding. Which encourages yet more hoarding out of speculation. Which means resources needed at this instant are instead sitting idle, at best awaiting higher prices at some arbitrary future date. And earnings, rather than going to producers, are wasted on pointlessl…

@TomMckenny, is there a resource that speaks to this economic theory of yours? Because the sources I cited here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22815572 reflects mainstream economic theory and what I have learned in my economic courses at university.

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

#345

Post by user5994461 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #279
sloaken wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Non fiber upload speed is a farce. I assume it’s just something like 20mbps shared in a neighborhood of 50 or 100 homes, and the ISP lets it burst to 10mbps or something for a couple minutes and then throttles you down again. There’s a reason it’s never advertised by cable ISPs.

The weak link is the copper cable going to the home. It's only possible to transport about 20 Mbps usable within a mile. It's split about 90% up 10% down because download is more useful for homes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.992.5

Anything on the ISP network is most likely fiber (or Ethernet within one building), so symmetric both ways.

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

#346

Post by larrywright »

ThePadawan wrote: post #213
fab1an wrote: post #151

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…

I have many bad things to say about MS Teams, but it does allow you to join a meeting multiple times on multiple devices using the same user account - so you can watch a screenshare on your desktop. machine but use the microphone or camera on your phone.

Like you, I could speak for days about the problems with MS Teams, but this is definitely one of the things they get right. Handy for presenting your whole screen and being able to monitor chat conversations in that meeting on your iPad.

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

#347

Post by throwaway55554 »

Obi_Juan_Kenobi wrote: post #317
throwaway55554 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm particularly hairy down there (not trying to be gross), so I often worry a bidet would just make a mess a wet mess.

Get some cheap clippers, use the ~#2 guard, and deforest that shit. Crack hair is useful for a lot of things, keeping skin from rubbing, fart silencing, sweat management, etc. But you only need a bit of hair for that to work. 80% of the length can be removed with no ill effect, but dramatic improvement in general cleanliness and comfort.

Doesn't it itch after you mow?

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

#348

Post by ThePadawan »

larrywright wrote: post #346
ThePadawan wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have many bad things to say about MS Teams, but it does allow you to join a meeting multiple times on multiple devices using the same user account - so you can watch a screenshare on your desktop. machine but use the microphone or camera on your phone.

Like you, I could speak for days about the problems with MS Teams, but this is definitely one of the things they get right. Handy for presenting your whole screen and being able to monitor chat conversations in that meeting on your iPad.

Funny that mentioned an iPad! I had the exact opposite use case: I used my iPad to draw a diagram, but used my desktop webcam instead of the one in the iPad sitting in my lap (which would have a terrible angle of pretty much only my chin).

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

#349

Post by lotsofpulp »

user5994461 wrote: post #345
lotsofpulp wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Non fiber upload speed is a farce. I assume it’s just something like 20mbps shared in a neighborhood of 50 or 100 homes, and the ISP lets it burst to 10mbps or something for a couple minutes and then throttles you down again. There’s a reason it’s never advertised by cable ISPs.

The weak link is the copper cable going to the home. It's only possible to transport about 20 Mbps usable within a mile. It's split about 90% up 10% down because download is more useful for homes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.992.5 Anything on the ISP network is most likely fiber (or Ethernet within one building), so symmetric both ways.

Yes, and the existing cable monopolies in the US would like it to stay that way, so they can continue to collect rent on their coaxial cable wires from decades ago.

That’s why they fight municipal fiber installation in court. If they didn’t do this, they wouldn’t be so evil, and also why fiber internet needs to be a utility, like electricity, water, gas, and sewage.

Also, since the media companies are also the owners of the wire in the case or Comcast, they can prioritize their traffic and de prioritize competitor’s traffic.

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

#350

Post by TheAdamist »

40four wrote: post #278
TheAdamist wrote: post #110

Wyze cheap security cameras released a firmware that turns them into a webcam. Still in stock. You will also need a USB a-a cable that I didn't know existed or was legal. And a 32gb microsd. I did this last week, came in one day on Amazon prime. Under $50 for everything. Setup went okay, although the 3-4 minutes for firmware write was under a minute for me with their branded microsd. Quality is passable, lens is more…

I would not touch a Wyze camera with a 10 foot pole. Given the recent enormous security breaches, the likely connections to the Chinese government, and the incredibly low price point, there are red flags waving everywhere. Read this blog series about Wyze, and then make up you mind if you are comfortable having that piece of hardware in your home. I think it is pretty clear the risks are not trivial. https://blog.12s…

Fair point, however with the webcam firmware it operates as a standard USB webcam, no drivers or software from wyze used, just the replacement firmware loaded via microsd.

So the risks are mitigated for the most part since it has no network connection.

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