NaNoWriMo - Day 11 TechToy Sidetrip

Okay, so the story is a fun excuse to delve into all kinds of stuff I'll never see let alone use in my real life. But I'm trying to paint a realistic texture on this story's background, so I don't really mind all of the side trips. One reader sent in the following correction. Interestingly enough, I'd written "infrared" and then took it out. Silly me.

[...] there is a technical problem in snippet 11. When you have Lisa wishing for thermal binoculars so she could see the people in Lacey's flat through the walls. Thermal cameras cannot see people through walls. They can only see heat differences that have been in the same place for a period of time through a wall. People are neither warm enough nor do they stay in the same place long enough to be seen through a wall.

Quite correct. My problem was laziness. Pure and simple. I wanted to have Lisa lusting after Rainey's "cool toys" and just decided to say that by obtuse reference and not actually elaborate on which toys for the moment.

I told myself I lacked the time to focus on collecting a list of "cool toys" for him to own and neglect after which she could lust. Again I say, silly me. Have my priorities all skewed wanting to get 50,000 words done (I'm at 35,000 now) instead of spending 3 days researching for 2 sentences. Okay, okay, I'm just venting--and I feel much better now. Thanks for listening!

So, what sorts of cool toys? In particular what sorts of FLIR toys for visual imaging that she could actually use in this particular scene? Well, FLIR's Canadian web site (recall Lisa is of Scandinavian lineage but has some growing up time in Canada - if you missed that, you missed reading her updated introduction where I corrected a typo in the Tuckerization and embelished ;-))) really seems to push thermally-enhanced digital cameras. So I wouldn't be having her wist for a pair of binocs at all, eh?

Then there's this idea that Rainey is often blowing things up. Don't forget, explosions make fires - duh! So maybe he'd like one of these ThermaCAMs that can "see through the flames" to check his job performance before leaving a scene. Perfectionist that he is, of course. And record-keeper. Likes to have everything on record so he can justify killing you later ;) but Lisa wouldn't lust after a ThermaCAM so what else?

Another reader who has thrown himself on the grenade of "unofficially" providing me with tech review help has suggested the IR ProX by Imaging1. Pretty nifty. Still won't let Lisa see across the street, up to the fourth floor, and through walls and/or windows, but pretty nifty, Michael. Thanks :)

Gonna have to find a telescope with excellent magnification that also has FLIR enhancement. Maybe it's time to start looking at spotting scopes and kill two uhhh, birds *grin* with one stone. Lacey will need a spotting scope later on anyway, so I'm taking suggestions - use the comment thread to offer your favorite techtoys.

On a totally unrelated topic but way too fun to pass up there are these pen-sized pocket cattle prods - jolt your friends and loved ones with up to 500,000 Volts in the palm of your hand!!!

Thank you, Steve Yee, for eating up this story's budget and utterly distracting me with tech toys every other day. Recall, Steve is the one who offered up the 5.11 Tactical Watch and Ballistics Calculator for Lacey's use. Cruel man, that Steve, ain't he?

-sry