EEGuy

Not an expert in the field, but it's possible to convolve a signal on the recorded impulse response of a room [1] or a 'Slinky' toy [2], or that of a subjectively 'desirable' piece of audio equipment [3].

The result is as if your signal were played in that room ( with all its reverb ) or through that thing ( with its 'desirable'-or-otherwise characteristics modeled in its impulse response ).

Thinkable in 1962, but not thought possible. Now it's part of an industry.

-----

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

[2] http://www.openairlib.net/auralizationdb?page=1

[3] https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/convolution-processi...

Not much later, and with its own completely different tech for auto navigation, came the Etak Navigator / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etak. A good bit of SV history there.

Search for PDF < Model Number from appliance nameplate >

Prefixing your appliance model number with PDF cuts way down on unrelated sales material and spam.

What to do about fake news?

Some suggestions[1] from John Bothwick Jeff Jarvis.

I particularly like #4. "Make the brands of those sources more visible to users".

-------

[] http://buzzmachine.com/2016/11/18/call-cooperation-fake-news...

NPR sussed out what looks to me like "FNaaS" (Fake News as a Service (tm))[1]. The company's called "Disinfomedia".

Does FNaaS constitute shouting fire in the crowded theatre that is FB?

[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503...

Opinions vary; here's a very busy BBS for ebike and other EV DIY-ers: https://endless-sphere.com/forums/

We can't have sidetone nor full duplex in wide area cellular telephony because end-to-end latencies become so long the far-end echos go beyond asthetically disconcerting.

Try this just for fun: Call someone right next to you via your cell phones and talk to each other. One finds one can speak several words, maybe even a short but complete sentence before the other person starts hearing any of it. It can become a laughably long latency when experienced so directly.

But this cumulative latency ( be it from queuing delays, voice packet grouping for burst transmission, buffering delays along the many packet switches from here to there, you name it ) comprise engineering trade-offs necessary for optimal radio-level multiple access, efficient packetizing, and economically efficient (packet) transmission.

In other words, I'd postulate we can't (today) afford full duplex, sidetone-included, wideband (5KHz+) sub-20-millisecond latency in cellular telephony. Cellular is a different thing, but surely it's its own kind of magic.

But consider modern office telephony over Ethernet: I don't know the internals of it, but aesthetically, I find it significantly better than the analog telephony I remember from 40 years ago: The sidetone's there, it's full-duplex, speakerphone functionality is absolutely superb, and subjectively I find it sounds good.

I'd guesstimate a three orders of magnitude latency ratio between LAN-based telephony vs cellular telephony seems to me key to the very different engineering possibilities and compromises necessary in these two very different domains.

Dropped to 0.02% circa 1878, stayed about there until a slow trend upwards started in 2012, now at 0.09% in 2014: http://chronicle.nytlabs.com/?keyword=while.whilst&format=pe...

I've found enduring value in these things:

* Understanding binary vs decimal math, deeply. Implementing decimal math out of integers nothing else is available.

* Understanding locking strategies and the need for shared data protection. Build and break and rebuild things until you can intuit then prove deadlock, lock failure or long waits when you suspect their effects.

* Getting good at debugging. Don't point the finger of suspicion at anyone or anything (unless it's at you or your work), /prove/ what's wrong. Toward that end, don't "kill the (error) messenger"; it's just the first to speak up about a problem that might be layers deeper in your software stack.

* Learn data; it outlives code. SQL may bore you but it pays the bills. You didn't like Linear Algebra in school? Well, I didn't much either, but I sure am glad now I took it back then.

* Be the person who can say, "Yeah, I can fix that," and just do that.

* Learn business areas like General Ledger and Accounts Receivable. Be the person who can say "Yeah, I can keep a balance on that for you" and do it.

* As far as application areas go, remember that money, unlike computer languages, never goes out of style.

Let's look at who's behind it, what it is, how it can be used, and where the benefits accrue:

* Who: NRG, while not a utility, is an owner of utility-scale generation capacity. They wholesale electricity to utilities for distribution and resale. Their portfolio is largely fossil-fuel but increasingly renewables [1]. They see themselves in the "death spiral" some other generation suppliers do [3][4].

* What: Per [2], it's a combined natural-gas-in ( 50KW Th ) heat-out / grid-power-in / gas-to-electrical-power-out (Stirling engine, 10 KW max ) / grid-and-home-power-out (15KW max) / solar-power-in / battery-power-both-ways (15KW max) / inverter system, tech specs subject to change.

More per [2]:

  "A single unit can integrate natural gas, solar panels, 
  wind turbines and batteries for storage," NRG says. "The 
  device is connected to the grid, which allows the two to 
  work seamlessly together. But if the grid's power goes 
  down, the engine's energy stays up. Any excess generated 
  energy can be sent back to the grid and may be credited 
  for your benefit."
  .
  Aside from the 15 kW maximum electrical output, output 
  can be used for space heating (35 kW or 0.12 MMBTU) or
  hot water (200 gallons per hour at 70° rise). Additional 
  uses include snow melt and spa and pool heating.
  .
  The technical specifications are subject to change.
  .
  When necessary, the unit seamlessly transitions to a
  backup power system, to maintain continuous operations, 
  NRG says.
  .
  The Beacon 10 unit's dimensions are 3 ft. 8 in. long by 2 
  ft. 6 in. wide by 4 ft.high, which NRG says is slightly 
  larger than a washing machine.
  .
  The unit weighs 1,500 lbs. 

* How it can be used: Disrupt the utility's business by selling or leasing equipment directly to end users, and by doing energy arbitrage with the utility.

The whole business of solar integration and battery integration is optional, and smells of "greenwashing-by-association" to me: The cheapest install of this machine would not include a solar component nor battery, each of which might be very expensive in addition to this machine. Who could afford all that? Certainly not everyone.

* Where benefits accrue: See [5] for the long story, but it looks like NRG mainly. If you lease it from NRG, you may not get as much of the benefit of energy arbitrage.

* What I think of it: Regulators should insist on a "connection charge" for this and accept energy sold at wholesale prices, while selling to the user at retail prices. Disclosure: I own a solar system with net metering, but believe a "connection charge" is entirely reasonable /for those who have their own generation capability/ and thus use the grid for sale of distributed generation, but /not/ for those who don't.

=======

[1] http://www.nrg.com/renew/renewable-generation/

[2] http://www.energychoicematters.com/stories/20131022a.html

[3] http://www.utilitydive.com/news/facing-decline-nrg-energy-fo...

[4] www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/NRG-Energy-Deploying-Dean-Kamens-Solar-Smart-In-Home-Generator

[5] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/who-wi...

Here [1] is an electric-assist bike I recently purchased which can be configured to:

* Measure one's pedal torque and cadence, thus calculate and display "Human Watts" input to the bike while cycling (update rate = once per crank rev)

* Supply a configurable amount of electric-motor power assistance directly proportional to one's "Human Watts" input -- at selectable, configurable, default power amplification factors of 0x ( assist off ), 1x or 2x.

With this instrumented, pedal-power-amplified bike I've found:

* I won't break a sweat if I keep my "Human Watts" below about 30 to 60 (power assist on or off, doesn't matter)

* Breaking 100 - 150 "Human Watts" for more than a few seconds will break a sweat for me.

* (Off topic ) Efficiency comes out to an excellent 2 to 4 Watt-Hours-electric per mile with my settings and low-power riding style, having gotten over 100 miles on my first, not-yet-fully-depleted battery charge.

It's also possible to configure a throttle power control to deal with hills where my "no sweat" rate of 50 Watts -- even with 2x power assist -- won't make it up a grade.

But I configure the throttle as disabled as I don't have hills like that on my commute. I config pedal power amplification for a cut-in speed of 6 mph and a cutoff speed of 13 mph just right so as to stay dry and safe for me and those around me. Un-assisted cyclists frequently pass me; that's fine.

I stick to what roads on my commute have painted bike lanes. My scariest road encounter (a motorist who crowded me toward the curb with his car, twice) would have been impossible were I riding in a protected bike lane and making the kind of protected right turn this new design affords.

Edits for clarity.

---------------

[1] http://www.ebikes.ca/shop/edgerunner/full-bikes/edgerun-stok...

An intro to GIS, geography vs. geometry as applied to Postgres

Zigurd, I doubt the "direct" 'gas to electricity' claim in this press release.

Near the bottom the press release admits the conversion /isn't/ actually "direct", stating:

  If the fuel cell heater is connected to the gas network, 
  a reformer initially converts the natural gas into a 
  hydrogen-rich gas.

Ah-ha: A "reformer": That would be a 'steam reformer[1]'. Quoting [1], here's what a 'steam reformer' does:

  At high temperatures (700 – 1100 °C) and in the presence
  of a metal-based catalyst (nickel), steam reacts with 
  methane to yield carbon monoxide and hydrogen. These two 
  reactions are reversible in nature.

    CH4 + H2O ⇌ CO + 3 H2

So there it is, the 'hydrogen-rich gas' is syngas [3], one mole carbon monoxide plus 3 moles hydrogen.

The syngas can either be burned directly (producing CO2 and heat of course), or continuing per [1], separated from the H2, then combined with more water:

  Additional hydrogen can be recovered by a lower-
  temperature gas-shift reaction with the carbon monoxide 
  produced. The reaction is summarized by:

    CO + H2O ⇌ CO2 + H2

But the article uses just one word, 'afterburner' which tells me they're burning away the carbon monoxide:

  The researchers were particularly responsible for the 
  construction of the prototype, the design of the overall 
  system, the design of the ceramic components and the 
  development of the reformer and the afterburner.

Not clear is whether the CO goes /through/ the ceramic SOFC or is separated so it can /bypass/ the SOFC then get remixed with some H2 at the 'afterburner'. No mention of a 'separator', so perhaps the CO does go straight through the SOFC along with the H2 without ruining the SOFC.

In any case, we see this CHP plant with its SOFC requires water in, makes carbon monoxide in the process, which it 'afterburn[s]', certainly putting out CO2 [the Carbon from the methane can't just disappear, would you have that as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide?], and needs some heat to run the steam reformer. There goes some of your thermal efficiency!

[2] has a bit more on home CHP.

So long story short, there's no free lunch here:

* It can't hit 100% thermal efficiency

* It releases CO2

* Its intermediate stage passes H2 through, and CO either through or around the SOFC, then burns off the CO to CO2

* It needs water as well as natural gas to work

Presuming the Bloom Boxes also use SOFCs and methane, the operating chemistry would be the similar at the inputs and outputs: Natural Gas and Water in; Heat, CO2 and Electricity out.

There may be an advance in materials science if the SOFC accepts syngas ( CO + 3 H2 ) directly without bypass of the CO and without cell degradation from the CO, but the press release says nothing specific about, or suggestive of that.

edits for dialog form, clarity, corrections, 'afterburner' clean up the CO in the syngas to CO2, no water out, oh it says press release right at the top, no wonder it reads like one

========

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_reforming

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_fuel_cell

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngas

It's history that goes /way/ back to the circuit-switched phone call days, and monopoly behavior. Here's my take on it:

To stop the high-priced no-progress monopoly behavior of the old AT&T in the long-distance telephone market AT&T essentially owned, the US sued AT&T, resulting in a consent decree settlement in 1984 where AT&T divested itself of 70% of its assets in order to retain its then-highly-profitable long distance business and its Western Electric switchgear business [1].

Competition was opened in long distance; prices and eventually profits went to commodity levels. Switchgear too; Western Electric gear was very expensive; competitors such as Nortel [2] and Digital Switch Corp (later DSC) [3] flourished for a while then crashed in 2001 as fiber and competition made long distance so cheap.

Meanwhile, the local telcos remained monopolies and thrived, merged, and eventually one of them (SBC) bought out several others and the old AT&T while others became Verizon.

But before all that consolidation (and the telecom crash [4]), the local "Bells" (telcos) argued for a return to enter the coveted Long Distance market. They don't have that for regulated landline service, which itself is now dying.

Long story short: Beware a monopoly if you're a customer, consolidate to become a monopoly and complain of regulations if you want to control a market.

EDIT: Moved to proper position as a reply

-----

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nortel

[3] http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/dsc-communi....

[4] http://www.economist.com/node/1234711

Another concept for V2G possibilities, perhaps with more predictability and utility than personal vehicle V2G.

No info on battery longevity, and the economic analysis assunes a 14-year vehicle lifespan.

Preceding his accomplishments at Sportvision, Stan Honey created, in 1985, an automobile navigation system showing your car's position on a moving map.

This was before Google Maps, before GPS, and before digital maps of cities. You couldn't just go out and buy them in 1983; Stan's company, Etak, had to create them itself [1].

Per [2], here's a description of the the hardware platform:

  The original Etak Navigator was a specially-packaged Intel 8088-based
  system with 256K RAM, 32K EPROM, 2K SRAM, and a cassette tape drive
  on which digital maps and some of the operating system were stored.

The 8088 has a 16-bit address bus, thus can directly address only 64 K. Must have been some bank switching to get to the full 256 K RAM. This for all the code and geodata.

edits for formatting

---------

[1] Source: Personal conversation

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etak

I think that means the (emulated) machine is filled out to a full 64KiB. In the days of "4K BASIC", and 4KiB memory boards, a full 64KiB would have been impossibly expensive, but BASIC didn't care: The "Bytes Free" was how much room was left in RAM for what program you might care to load or toggle in after the BASIC interpreter had loaded.

Those 4K boards in the original Altair were expensive: $264 kit in 1975 [1].

I do recall the smell of those TTYs: Machine oil, bronze bearings, paper and ink.

Nice to see those 16 Address Bus switches, with the lower 8 switches doubling as data switches for the "Deposit" and "Deposit Next" switch.

edited for reference

[1] http://www.pc-history.org/altair.htm

30-some years ago the courts broke up the Bell System (original AT&T) monopoly on the basis of monopolistic behavior.

Perhaps a judicial finding that present day ISP practice constitutes a de facto, /necessary/ monopoly, forcing wholesale access to competitors to the incumbent ISPs' customer access facilities.

Perhaps it's been on HN already, but this video [1] uses a books-from-different-vendors, one-shipping-company analogy.

Plain-speaking and clear IMO.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAxMyTwmu_M

There was a different approach to this called the "MyTemp system" [1] by a company called "Home Comfort Zones".

Home Comfort Zones has been acquired by a company called "Emme E2MS LLC" [2].

The MyTemp system used pneumatically inflated, vacuum pump deflated "pneumatic damper" devices (balloons, if you will) in the distribution lines. It included plenum sensors for temp and pressure, pumps and hardwired per-room thermostats.

It looked good to me but a system for my home would have cost about $12,000 if I recall correctly (just for the controls added onto an /existing/ system).

With that amount of money, I might have instead have a mini-split variable-rate air conditioning system installed and achieved better savings long term. But both are out of my price range for a retrofit; the target market was very high end.

-----

[1] [PDF] www.mytemperature.com/pdf/MyTemp_for_Existing_Homes.pdf

[2] http://www.getemme.com/homecomfortzones.php

The old approach: "Stores! Stores! Stores!"

A new approach: Anchor stores, entertainment, utility, accessiblity, asthetics, a spectrum of economic appeal, grocery stores. Owners can be demanding of rents to some extent, but when they drive out (or never had) a movie theatre or grocery store, they are losing the "single destination for lots of what you need" and "nice place to go" value.

Of some LA malls, I think the Fallbrook Center [1] has rebuilt itself well, regarding:

* Entertainmnet-wise, AMC Theatres rebuilt the old shoebox-y 7-screen multiplex with way fewer seats. Moreso, every movie theatre seat is a wide-width, electrically-powered recliner including footrests! What used to be 20 rows of seats is now 7 or 8 for one screen, so prices are a bit higher. One can /reserve a seat/ via Fandango over the Internet (fee refunded by AMC) so one doesn't have to come early and wait in line for "a good seat"; they're all good and one can book them in advance. The theatre feels much more full, and seems more popular.

* By "spectrum of economic appeal", specifically, Fallbrook has /three/ full grocery stores (a "Ralphs" (Kroger) supermarket, "Sprouts Farmers Market" luxury grocery, and a "Trader Joes", plus two more department stores that include grocery sections: A Target and a Walmart.

* Utility-wise, it's got a Home Depot, a 24-Hour-Fitness gym, a Chuck-E-Cheese (hat tip to Nolan Bushnell)

* Accessability-wise, there are street lights at mid-block entrances for auto traffic, and bike lanes on the streets for bicycle traffic, and bike racks (though I'd like to see more of those).

* For asthetics, there are planters and small stand-alone buildings facing the street (urban-style). This broke the ugly old impression the prior desert-of-asphalt a hot summer's day brought.

* Instead of a food court, the small buildings facing the street are a mix of stand-alone and multi-tenant places to eat, both sit-down (indoor) and walk-up bar with outdoor seating. Market diversity here too: Starbucks, Jamba Juice, IHOP, a lobster specialty franchise, and a non-franchised grill (Tikka grill) and non-franchised Vietnamese restaurant.

They're doing fine, there is such a diversity of things to do as well as things to get there.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallbrook_Center

Edit: grammar, clarity

This peak does not include "behind the meter" (rooftop solar) generation.

The peak last year was 2.07 GW, set in June.

Summary info here [1]; Calif ISO graph here [2]; we didn't quite hit 4GW today 3/12/14.

[1] http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/califor...

[2] http://www.caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html

A little bit more info and clarification here [1].

What I find so clever is that the containment is about as simple as a "hot bucket", hot enough to keep the anode, electrolyte and cathode always molten. The are materials chosen so that their different densities keep them separated physically in operation. No membranes, easy scalability.

[1] http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/...

What I'd like to see in the next iteration of Windows is desktop application windows that are /scalable/, as in the "pinch to zoom" on smartphones, but mouseable.

On Windows' windows, all four corners presently control clipping. Two of those four could be devoted to scaling instead of clipping.

This is something a desktop OS could do to increase my productivity. One desktop /application/, Real VNC Viewer, does this -- and I find it very convenient.

I wish ISPs business where completely out of the content business.

Slowing competing content could be justified as a "fiduciary duty", yet it's much simpler than that: Gatekeepers and highwaymen, extracting private taxes on content they did not create.

>Subcarriers are how they added [...] stereo to FM radio...

Set your time machine for 1958, or follow this link [0] to see how RCA did both FM stereo (throughout the article they call it "multiplex") and 67 KHz "SCA" subcarriers. Admire the awesome 5KW FM transmitter cabinetry and transformer shielding.

[0] http://fmamradios.com/BTE-10B.html

I'm so glad the concept of "dial tone", video or otherwise, never crossed the demand for and rollout of content-neutral, flat-rate-billed, backbone-peering-supported Internet Service.

Having worked in voice telecom billing for 11 years, it is my observation that phone companies adore detail billing. Imagine an ISP bill which details all the websites you visit, and bills each visit according to some value the phone company might opaquely ascribe. It might have gone that way with a thankfully unimplemented evolution of the amorphous notion of "video dial tone".

Had this $200 billion boondoggle actually given us megabit access, then it would be... access to what, exactly? I can't imagine phone companies providing access to the flat-rate, always on, servers-allowed, content-neutral Internet we have now, no matter the bit rate.

The thought of all phone companies collectively coming up with a service like Netflix is, to me, as unimaginable as the thought of those same phone companies coming up with the iPhone.

Yes, $200 billion is a shameful waste of ratepayer funds and a regulatory failure. But thankfully, it neither collared nor crossed with the Internet.

In my opinion, separation of ownership of content (and applications, and platforms, and end users) from the common carriers who own some of the "plumbing" which connects routers to routers to routers becomes fundamental to a free Internet.

(Edits for grammar, clarity, tone)

>[eigenvector]... utilities will need far more advanced software and metering infrastructure

...and as I take it from other discussion, re-design, -engineering and replacement of some distribution station equipment and software to allow net power flow upstream when a substation's downstream DG exceeds downstream load, presently taken to be a fault condition.

A DG participation fee payable to the utility for infrastructure development and upgrades seems reasonable to me in light of these considerations.

I wouldn't like that, indeed. I'd want my participation real-time controllable, real-time voluntary, and real-time limited.

That said, my uncertainty about vehicle use isn't as bad upon return to home, at which time I'd be more amenable to allow discharge -- and this is right when my local leg of the grid needs a bump in supply: I'm about to switch on lights, TV, microwave, heat or A/C; things I'd leave off whilst at work.

This "Vehicle to Grid" idea has been around for a while. The article cites some progress (a trial program in SoCal).

It's noted that using one's car to contribute to grid stability may void current battery warranties, about which the article notes:

"Innovators in the field are gradually convincing car manufacturers of the potential to create a "value proposition for the car owner" and thus boost sales, Gage said. Ultimately, however, carmakers may be put at ease by experiments being conducted by the military."