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July 25, 2006

Peak Energy Demand/Market-based Pricing

California has been going through some rough times the past few days. We've hit a major heat wave that is breaking record highs left and right.

Yesterday, the California Independent System Operators (ISOs) actually called a Stage 2 Power Alert. The power grid delivered more electricity at peak (50,270 megawatts)than had ever happened previously. Apparently the amount of power consumed was forecast to occur in 2011, not 2006! (A Stage 3 Power Alert means that there is more demand than there is power. To keep the system up, the ISOs perform "rolling" blackouts, where different areas have a 100% power loss for a period of time.)

I have a simple solution to this problem. I'm sure I am not the first person to think of this, but then I haven't seen a lot of discussion about it either.

Introduce market-based pricing to energy consumption.

If there is low demand for power, the price of power from the grid should drop. If there is high demand, the price should rise. No more pleas from the Governor of California to reduce power consumption. You can bet that people won't be doing their laundry when the price of running the dryer is double. Businesses will curtail consumption.

A no-brainer if there ever was one.

p.s. Sounds like an opportunity for the right entrepreneur

Update
Aha! I'm not the first person to think about this - good :-)

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Posted by davehod at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2006

Podcast Directory Reborn?

When I worked on the jPodder project, we used the Podcast directory as a main source for finding/discovering podcasts. The decentralized model and community aspects of it were great.

I stopped working on jPodder when iTunes came out with podcast support and haven't looked at the podcast directory much since then. I was surprised/dismayed to discover that the directory has fallen into disarray.

Dave Winer has announced that he is resurrecting the site and is going to move it forward.

This is a big win for the podcasting community. Let's learn from this and not let it happen again.

Update
Dave Winer pointed me to the podcast-directory mailing list. Join and contribute!

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Posted by davehod at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)

July 19, 2006

Windows Live Feeds Blog Announced

Niall has a post announcing the creation of the Windows Live Feeds blog.

He has been part of my team since mid-April and was the driver on creating the blog. We hope to get community feedback and involvement on the platform. Check it out!

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Posted by davehod at 05:54 PM | Comments (0)

The Raconteurs in AZ

Wow

I caught The Raconteurs last night in Phoenix, AZ. An incredible show in a small club - Jack White blew me away. He and the rest of the band were very energetic (luckily it was only 85 degrees (F) in the club instead of the 111 degrees outside) and obviously enjoying every moment. They played most of their debut album, "Broken Boy Soldiers" and threw in multiple obscure cover tunes as well. Jack White and Brendan Benson did some great harmonizing, call and response and twin guitar leads.

The highlight of the night for me was "Blue Vein", which sounded almost nothing like the studio version. It was very bluesy, reminiscent of Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jack White even sounded like a young Robert Plant at one point :-))

We left the club, ears ringing, happy we caught these guys before they play in much larger venues.

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Posted by davehod at 04:54 PM | Comments (1)

July 17, 2006

Running Update

Quick update on my femoral stress fracture and running.

It has been just over 5 months since I was injured running the SF Half. Posts on the recovery have been slim to none, as there wasn't much to report.

Good news - I have run 2 miles straight twice now, with no pain during or after! Five months ago I couldn't walk a mile. To be able to knock out a few miles is an incredible, exhilarating feeling.

I will do a separate post about the specifics of my recovery so that others can benefit from my ... er ... experience.

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Posted by davehod at 07:35 AM | Comments (0)