sterlingross

Joined 15 years ago

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Jun 17

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Thank you for being honest about the challenges you have faced with this hardware goal. I'm a little disappointed I won't be getting my Ohm battery, but it is better than promising something you can't deliver or delivering something that wouldn't live up to your promises.

I might be in a different market though, since I specifically wanted an ultra light weight battery for a stripped down street legal race car. Any plans to continue pursuing this market segment? We obviously don't have any high electrical needs beyond simply starting the car and running the on board ECU.

Comment · 11 years ago

That would be awesome, thank you for considering it!

Comment · 11 years ago

Thank you for the link, I was wanting to read that article but had forgotten about it.

I met Don on a return flight from SJC to OGG. He seemed very kind and passionate about the Makani Power project at the time. The idea, as he explained it, originated from plans to build a self powered kite boat [1] that could circumnavigate the world. The "self powered" part interested his friends at Google and they started funding him. He confessed that he had accidentally become an engineer in the process, but his real passion was wind surfing and kite surfing and he was eager to get back to that.

[1] http://project.kiteboat.com/

Comment · 11 years ago

No only that, but clipping power is much safer than a data stream in mid transfer.

Comment · 11 years ago

That is good to hear. That makes is perfectly feasible.

Comment · 11 years ago

Do you have an idea of how many watts this will run at? I live off-grid so every watt counts.

Comment · 11 years ago

It is interesting that Hawaii isn't at all mentioned, considering that electricity is 30 to 45 cents per kWh and the electric company limits the number of grid-tied solar installations per neighborhood.

No where in the US is solar more cost effective than here, and the electric company is restricting homes from installing solar. The alternative is to go fully off-grid with battery arrays, but that is more than most people can handle.

Comment · 12 years ago

That looks like an interesting story, I'll check it out.

Comment · 12 years ago

While I agree that the normal connotation of addiction is something that is destructive, I've expanded my definition of addiction to something that is a "mood altering dependency".

Previously, if I didn't meditate regularly, I would get irritable and become less harmonious. I became addicted to meditation as a way to prevent myself from becoming moody. I have found that yoga, swimming, and other "healthy" activities have the same effect on me. Ultimately all they do is alter my mental state and I would become edgy if someone interfered with my practice.

While I realize this a logical stretch for most people, I can see the addictive quality in my need for many seemingly healthy activities in my life. I am saying this as a person whom for many years has identified most closely with Buddhism.

Comment · 12 years ago

I am glad that perspective helped, it has helped me tremendously. If you are more curious, I'd suggest investigating the book called A Course In Miracles. It clearly defines the addictive thinking patterns and the way through them.

Comment · 12 years ago

I totally agree. I actually started out using a coin, but I got too embarrassed walking around the store, standing in front of a bunch of choices, and flipping through options. The was one of the motivations to create the app, since it is much more socially acceptable and easier to use, than catching a quarter over and over.

Comment · 12 years ago

From my experience and observations, most people don't grow out of being addicted, they simply shift their focus of addiction.

This often goes unnoticed because there are many people who are addicted to things that the majority of society wouldn't consider an addiction. One might give up an "unhealthy" addiction for a socially acceptable one. Or their unhealthy addiction may simply shift, from one substance to another, or one activity to another, or one interest to another.

The more I've observed addiction the more I've realized that we are all addicts. I am addicted to water, yoga, meditation, HN, reddit, coding, etc. I've even come to realize that we are actually addicted to certain types of thoughts or ways of thinking. Addiction to "negative" thoughts is what results in "unhealthy" behavior.

I am currently addicted to observing myself for potential patterns of addiction and have gone so far as to create a simple app [1] that in a way takes control of the decision process away from myself. It produces a simple "yes" / "no" response and I'll ask it throughout the day if I realize I have a choice to make. "Do I go to yoga today?" -> "No".

The process of giving up control of my decisions was unnerving at first, but the more I practice it, the more peaceful I have become.

[1] http://www.holyspiritsays.com

Comment · 12 years ago

Born and raised here also. Have you been back recently? They amount of new development land and business is a bit unsettling.

I am surviving well as a developer, living off the grid, with a satellite internet connection.

Comment · 12 years ago

This is about as technologically advanced as we get here on Maui: http://www.htdc.org/incubation-techcenter-mrtc.html

Comment · 12 years ago

That is some slow internet. I am in a remote region of Hawaii with no public utilities. No water or electricity reaches here, no phone or cable lines either. Currently satellite is my only option, which is fine speed wise, but latency is quite high and the bandwidth caps are very restrictive.

I'd love to see what Google can offer in this space.