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jdwhit2on Idea for a floating encryption window (requesting HN comments)

I think I'd love to see a demo video in action to really understand what is going on here.

I work with some commodity traders, and they need ways to securely communicate from the trading floor their positions back to the main office. Could you see this being applied in that environment?

jdwhit2on [EXPERIMENT] I attached a file to a tweet

Would it be easy for you to encode the same information as a png image and post that using twitpic? What would the resultant image look like?

jdwhit2on We don't have abundant solar power because of financing, not science

The trial [1] I saw suggested that:

> Using around 1000 volunteer households, trials to date indicate a 19 - 35% reduction in peak load where direct load control demand management is utilised.

There is a 19 - 35% percent reduction in power usage using the technique. Payment for opting into the program looks like a great idea. Could the concept be extended to freezers and fridges? Imagine if you controlled a network of these small appliances and sold the ability to reduce peak demand to your distribution company.

[1] http://www.etsautilities.com.au/centric/our_network/demand_m...

jdwhit2on We don't have abundant solar power because of financing, not science

I remember reading an opinion here on Hacker News not long ago where it was suggested that in the future with self-driving cars we don't all need to own a car. Instead a car could come and pick us up and drop off at the destination. Do you think that this micro transportation (instead of mass transportation) option could be environmentally friendly?

jdwhit2on Mind Your Manners: Eat With Your Hands

get their hands dirty, in the belief that it heightens the sensual connection to food and softens the formality of fine dining.

I hadn't eaten curry dishes with my hands or known that it was a common practice until my mid twenties. Since that point I have rarely used utensils for those dishes. Here is why:

Some cultures serve three or four different curries with each meal. Eating with your hand gives greater control mixing the flavours together and so improves the experience. I can eat the same four curries as my neighbour but we will both experience different tastes, because our mixing technique is unique.

I have tried eating from the hand of a friend and compared it to my own and the taste difference was stunning. It was like we were eating a different version of the same meal.

Try it out next time you are presented with three or more curries, the only rule is to not dirty your hand above the first knuckle and certainly keep your palm clean. Enjoy.

jdwhit2on We don't have abundant solar power because of financing, not science

The electricity distributer in South Australia is able to control the compressor pump of a wide area of the population's air conditioners. They use this during high demand periods (like hot days in summer) to reduce the loading on power lines.

People don't really notice that their compressor pump is being cycled to reduce system demand. Are you working in this area too?

jdwhit2on We don't have abundant solar power because of financing, not science

Solar power is a classic disruptive technology. It currently does not meet the mainstream market's needs in terms of:

  - availability
  - cost per MWh
  - suitable locations (close to established high voltage power lines)

Each of these factors is being steadily improved over time. And once solar technology meets the mainstream market's expectations for energy production, incumbent producers will need to retreat their offerings into a vanishingly small market for those needs not met by solar.

jdwhit2on Japanese Breakthrough Makes Wind Power Cheaper Than Nuclear

South Australia has one of the highest wind penetrations in the world, they recently had a peak of 60% electricity being supplied by the wind.

Though with the higher wind penetration levels wind farm operators in South Australia are facing a problem with the current electricity market design. When the wind blows, there is a surplus of electricity supply. The price for electricity dives, sometimes to -$1000 / MWh. Yes that is correct, the price goes below zero and consumers are paid to use electricity.

And conversely when the wind is not blowing, traditional fossil fuel power stations are able to bid much higher prices without fear of competition.

An interesting challenge for electricity market designers to solve.

jdwhit2on Search: .lenght - Github

One advantage taken from the readme:

  This plugin is better than using the builtin vim 'list' command because it
  doesn't show an annoying highlight while you are typing in insert mode at the
  end of a line.

jdwhit2on My Recent Nine Months as an Indie Developer

..I came up with a farm that has certain animals on it. Tapping an amimal would make it wiggle its head and make a noise. [..] All my apps are available for free on the android market featuring ads

Is it strange to have ad supported games for toddlers? What possible benefit could a company get on a click-though from a toddler?

I really enjoyed reading through your reflections, it is always fascinating to see how success comes from the most unlikely angles :)

(edit) elipses

jdwhit2on Guido van Rossum: This is my last tweet.

Maintaining and building strong relationships across three social networks is a difficult task for time poor engineers.

How do tech personalities best handle the time split between Twitter, Google+ and Facebook accounts. Do they have a favourite account and copy posts to the other two? Or are each fulfilling a role unique enough to warrant individual attention.

Sometimes it seems the easiest way out is to shut down the least favourite account and focus 100% on the remaining.

jdwhit2on Ask HN: Which c/c++ or python libraries I should learn?

PyGame [1] is great fun to learn. With it you can make all sorts of games. In fact many of the competitors in the PyWeek [2] challenge use it to make a computer game in less than a week. A week of your spare time in the name of learning isn't too much to ask for :)

(edit) adding links

[1] www.pygame.org

[2] www.pyweek.org

jdwhit2on My "weekend project" that took a few months...

Sorry, in all my excitement I never saw that upload button. I think this is a great selling point for your product. Now that you have mentioned it, I can see it sitting there as plain as day :)

jdwhit2on My "weekend project" that took a few months...

https://jungle-blaze.heroku.com/buy/1706c

I signed up and put one of my favourite photos of a thick fog covering the city at night up for sale. $1.99 is a steal :)

A few comments: I couldn't find a how-to or guide for formatting in the text entry area.

Considering that you do not host the resource being sold, are you able to list a set of instructions for how to best host the secured image and generate a public thumbnail for it?

Is it possible to customise the purchase page with a company logo or something else so that customers know they have landed in the right spot? At the moment it is branded as Jungle Blaze, but my customers may have been expecting to purchase from Jim's Photography company.

Well done on getting your product to launch. What did you find the most time consuming during those few months? Would you change anything if you started again?

(edit) I signed up for gum road, not having used it before. The process from resource -> selling involves much fewer steps. I don't need to sign up for a stripe account, then find the stripe key and give it to you. That is a big win. I can sell a link, or I can upload a resource, another huge win. Most people I know can upload a file, but have no clue about where or how to host a resource.

Here is my gum road product: https://gumroad.com/l/vm $2.50

jdwhit2on What the Arab Spring Could Mean For Solar Power in Sahara

The numbers to build a HVDC line across the desert are pretty good:

A HVDC line at 600 kV rated at 3GW (equivalent to supply 1.5 million households) can be built for $8.62 / MWh [1]

It is estimated that a solar tower in 2020 be built to produce energy at a cost of $54.7 / MWh [2]

The current base load energy contracts in Europe for 2013 are at around $50.3 / MWh [3]

If looked at in its entirety, the project cost is overwhelming, but what if a consortium bankrolled only the HVDC link and acted as a Market Network Service Provider. They would charge desert solar farms for network access and earn their return. The same thing is being trialled in Victoria, Australia where wind is plentiful. A single bulk sized line is built to the windy resource area and it become viable for smaller wind farm operators to connect at the end of that line.

[1] http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs_pes/pes/subpages/meeting...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower

[3] http://www.eex.com/en/

jdwhit2on [dead]

I like the way you have categorised the videos by targeted body part (abs, back etc.) - It would be useful if I could put a few cardio videos on a playlist and follow along without stopping / starting my workout.

A little worried by the "HOT YOGA IN BIKINI- Sexy" video listed under biceps. And there is an entire category listed as "Sexy". Are those videos designed to make you look sexy or feel sexy?

I couldn't really see any policy listed for which video types are accepted, and your terms of use page is empty :)