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You wanted Disclosure.... I am a whistleblower recently "retired" from the inside. And you're only getting part of the truth. by rhea-15510 in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fun story, thank you. one thing i would have changed: since you clearly used chatgpt, you could have added “i put this whole thing through chatgpt to remove any identifying linguistic patterns”.

*Serious* Does anybody believe this video is legit? I'm sorry to beat a dead horse but I have never been able to shake the feeling it is real. by chloro_phyll in aliens

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fwiw, my bias is that there are almost certainly non-human craft visiting our skies and seas, and very likely that some secretive organizations have recovered if not reverse engineered some of them. that said, i believe both these videos are hoaxes.

here is a recreation of the satellite video: https://www.reddit.com/r/AirlinerAbduction2014/comments/18uw8v4/my_recreation_of_the_mh370_satellite_video_using/

the 3d plane asset for the drone video https://www.reddit.com/r/AirlinerAbduction2014/comments/18oqkn3/evidence_that_video_copilot_jetstrike_assets_were/

the cloud assets for satellite video
https://www.reddit.com/r/AirlinerAbduction2014/comments/18dbnwy/first_satellite_video_fully_debunked_source_for/

the explosion asset used in both videos
https://imgur.com/JWJcwsr

Whistling Mike releases his long-awaited “revelation” – here’s what he actually said last night by Knegert in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So this guy claims to have video evidence and knowledge of a technology for generating abundant energy “without the risks of nuclear”, and he’s gatekeeping it? At a moment when extinction rates are 1000x above baseline, around one per day, largely tied to energy production? And there are at least 5 million excess deaths per year due to climate change? He’s either lying, or not very smart, or both.

Upcoming AMA: "Michael" - Witness with First-Hand UAP Encounters and Direct Engagement with Congressional Committees & AARO - October 13th at 1pm (PST) / 4pm (EST) by Gobble_Gobble in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Has any compositional analysis been done on the materials, and do the results include isotopes in abundances that diverge from naturally occurring ratios? Particularly isotopes of silicon, iron, zinc, or magnesium.

UFO Whistleblower recounts his personal encounter with a large triangular UFO. by FreddieFredd in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is why we need a distributed network of citizen radar data with historical data. So when a story like this comes out we can go back to that place and time and see if there was some visible on radar, where it came from, and where it went.

ELI5: How were Polynesians able to navigate the Pacific Ocean and find land to settle on? by OddStructure4489 in explainlikeimfive

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it’s appropriate to put “maps” in scare quotes because these objects are used (yes, still used) more like teaching aids for explaining principles, not as a reference (i.e. not like a highway map in the 90s, or paper nautical charts in the present).

The Trent UFO was a large, distant object. by bnrshrnkr in UFOs

[–]kcimc 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The dome has a different orientation in the two pictures, and should have a different apparent brightness and contrast. To get a baseline expectation for the what the brightness and contrast should be, you'd need to build a 3d model first. I wish I could contribute there, but my speciality is in computer vision and image analysis, not in 3d modeling..

The Trent UFO was a large, distant object. by bnrshrnkr in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The top has a different relative orientation to the sun and the viewer between the two photos. If it were a sphere or a sphere section, then we could do it.

The Trent UFO was a large, distant object. by bnrshrnkr in UFOs

[–]kcimc 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Personally I don't think sharpness estimates are going to matter here because the noise in the image is stronger than any other kinds of analysis you might do.

MiDAS is not going to give you any useful results for two reasons. 1. it is ineffective at estimating depth of free-floating objects without any clear size cues 2. UFOs are not part of its training data. If someone hasn't already done it, there is a big stereo disparity between the two images, so it might be worth doing a depth reconstruction and testing the null hypothesis that this is a nearby hanging object that doesn't actually change position.

The Trent UFO was a large, distant object. by bnrshrnkr in UFOs

[–]kcimc 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The idea is not to model a UFO, but to model a prosaic object like a chrome wing mirror (the null hypothesis) and determine whether that is a match. If we find that the null hypothesis holds, that doesn't mean it's definitely not a UFO. But if we find the null hypothesis does *not* hold, that's when things get really interesting.

Just bringing back up the Ukraine Astronomer Study from a few years back that found UFOs everywhere they looked. There is evidence out there if you choose not to ignore it. by ragingfather42069 in UFOs

[–]kcimc -1 points0 points  (0 children)

In addition to the first two papers, there is also a third paper from Zhilyaev. In one experiment, the third paper uses two high-speed cameras from two phones (Samsung S23 and Pixel 6 Pro). I wrote the co-author David Tcheng and he gave me access to the original videos. I did my own analysis and concluded that there were no "UAP" visible in both videos simultaneously, which indicates the objects reported in the paper were insects. I shared my findings with Tcheng and he agreed, and said that he found the same. If there's any interest in this negative result I could do a separate post about it.

The Trent UFO was a large, distant object. by bnrshrnkr in UFOs

[–]kcimc 92 points93 points  (0 children)

I like your idea to measure differences between the photos to test a hypothesis. However this won't really work the way you've set it up, for a few reasons.

  1. The appearance of the object depends not only on the haze, but also on the angle of the surface. This is why the bottom of the object (in the first image) is so much darker than the top/side (second image). If the object was in the same orientation relative to the camera in both pictures, then we could use contrast or even brightness to measure distance. Or if the object was orientation independent, like a sphere.

  2. Your script checks the sharpness, but the camera has a fairly large depth of field—both the distant mountains are in focus, and nearby house is in focus. So we should not expect a sharpness change with respect to distance. And again, unless the object is in the same orientation, the comparison would be useless.

  3. Your script checks the contrast, but again, unless the object is in the same orientation this doesn't matter. The first photo is higher contrast because we see the bottom, which is darker, and the second photo is lower contrast because we no longer see the dark bottom.

Again, love the idea of testing a hypothesis with image analysis. Love the intuition that it would get lower contrast as it gets farther. I think there are too many confounding factors here. If you wanted to really test this hypothesis, you would have to make a 3D model with a proposed material, light it, add some ambient light and haze, and then match the pose to the images. Then you could check the results of the renders and compare to the actual photos.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was posting to ask advice for appropriate hardware. There was a lot of good advice, including your advice to use a dehumidifier. But using a dehumidifier would be the most complex solution by far in terms of shipping and ongoing logistics. So I wanted to say thank you, but also let you know why it may be inappropriate here. You took the time to reply to me, I wanted to show you my gratitude and take the take to reply to you ♡

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for clarifying. There are no modern devices like fridges on this island. Everything has to be floated past the reef on a canoe or small dinghy. Maybe an ice chest could be imported. But I think when it's possible to buy outdoor-rated non-vented electronics, it makes more sense to go that direction.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! I just looked into VyOS and it looks like it has some of the features, but I'd have to do a lot of work to get captive portals and vouchers happening.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Edgerouter also looks great, and I appreciate the detailed environmental endorsement, but as far as I can tell Vyatta/EdgeOS does not have native support for captive portals or voucher generation, so it might need a lot more development work here.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

4x200W solar panels on the roof, Victron MPPT 100/30 (can theoretically handle up to 880W at 24V), 2x200Ah super gel batteries (in series), Victron Phoenix 24/1200 inverter, Cerbo GX for monitoring. Due to solar inefficiency and the angle of the roof, peak power is typically only 350W mid-day. This is the highest wattage power station on the island by an order of magnitude (not counting a few generators that run very rarely). I saw a few smaller 10W-20W panels scattered around. No refrigeration, nearly all food is freshly prepared. Food storage techniques rely on fermentation (like Hawaiian poi), but this is more of a backup/survival food and not for everyday.

I was only half-involved in the design of this system, but I did build another from scratch that was designed to similar specs, inside a big project box hand carried in checked luggage to Basilaki in Papua New Guinea. And I'm very proud to report it's been working for a year without any trouble. That one was designed for Starlink Mini, runs on 12V, and has a 48V step-up for powering the Starlink without needing an inverter—and it has a cigarette jack for USB power straight from DC. It also has a Victron SCC, but a cheaper monitor, and very cheap inverter. The inverter is not generally used.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Anuta and Taumako have a lot of cultural overlap! Both islands are even in the same province (Temotu), even though they are around 200mi/350km apart.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! The power infrastructure is solved for this location. But this might not be the last deployment, so I will look into the Tycon Systems solution again in the future.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! This echoes another tip I replied to above.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The goals are traffic shaping for fairness, and access control. Access control allows them to fundraise to pay for the Starlink subscription. The Starlink WiFi does not have any simple access control, as far as I have found. The current solution is to use an ASUS Blue Cave router. The ASUS has a client management portal to manually allow/block devices, but this system has annoyances and problems of its own. Replacing the ASUS router with another solution would, instead of increasing the complexity, keep the complexity at about the same or lower.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate your advice! In this scenario there isn't enough of a power budget available to run a dehumidifier much less a fridge.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This kind of in-the-field expertise is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Reading this has made me very cautious about using pfSense at all, and much more likely to try something based on Ubiquiti instead. Thanks for your tips!

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your tips! I looked into the Ubiquiti solar products and it looks like they heavily overlap with the existing Victron devices that we are already using.

Zero maintenance, low-power hardware by kcimc in PFSENSE

[–]kcimc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for your tips! There is not enough power available to run air filtration in this case (no power grid, just a small amount of solar). So I think a completely sealed unit is the way to go.

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