Anna L. Smith presented TU Delft work being done on comprehensive molten salt modelling. Outline of the talk is as follows...
Local structure experimental studies
• Set-up developed at TU Delft
• Results on LiF-ThF4
Molecular dynamics simulations
• The polarizable ion model
• Comparison with EXAFS data
Coupled thermodynamic-structural model
• CALPHAD modelling based on quasi-chemical model
• Modelling of the LiF-ThF4 system
An editor is working with TEC2018 footage chronologically so I'm working from the last day towards first day to avoid overlap effort. (This was a 3rd-day presentation.)
Notes on Video Creation
Exporting Power Points slides as PNG produced an issue I'd been facing with many other Power Point slide decks, the slides (PNG) not exactly matching what was being shown on screen.
For the first time ever, I tried exporting the PPT as a MP4 video instead of PNG, and I found that not only were the (usually unimportant) transition animations exported, but each slide was identical to the projected slides.
This isn't a super-perfect solution, as the timing does not match the real-life presentation. But it takes about the same amount of effort to put the MP4 in-sync as it does a series of PNG images, so I think I've found a better approach to replicating presentations in high resolution. (I was able to export the slide deck in 4K resolution.)
The laser pointer is replicated by having a camcorder capture the projection screen, and having the bright dot overlaid on top of the powerpoint 4K video export.
All in all, a time consuming approach. I probably would have simply used the 4K camera angle as a means of showing the projected image, had I not realized this new approach I had not yet tried. I do want to know how nicely slides can be replicated, even if I can't afford to do so for every presentation. This is as good as I can do it.
Fluid Fuel Reactors
Experiencing a disappointing lack of control in driving FFR sales. A few folks have bought a copy (much appreciated) but I'm quite certain all sales are due to me mentioning the book on my YouTube channels and Twitter, and not due to AdWords experiments.
So I've run some very inexpensive campaigns to see what is effective, and so far I haven't identified anything which is. The test ad is this:
Thorium in Fluid Fuel Reactors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tC-iSPN9ys
...and while I can eagerly criticize my own work here...
• By 2019 an oversimplification of Thorium challenges though I do think it is an acceptable simplification of early 2010s criticisms.
• AirPods for audio capture, this being my first "studio" test, have WAY too much audio compression. Useful in the field, inappropriate for controlled conditions.
• 70 seconds still too long for super-low-cost AdWord spend. (Length impacts CPV bidding.)
...I do think it is "good enough" for experimentation. If it showed an almost-cost-effective campaign could be run, then ad quality is just an aspect to iterate on.
But it DOES NOT show any impact at-all on sales. (!)
Me releasing a video on /thoriumremix/ YouTube did drive sales.
Me mentioning FFR on /gordonmcdowell/ comments and end-screen does drive sales.
But that stuff doesn't scale by throwing money at it. It scales with Gord effort... and I don't want to spent time harassing people to buy FFR. (It is too cheap and I want to keep it cheap.)
The goal with FFR is to find an ad mechanism where each sale (on average) costs less than $1. If I can approach that, I'm sure I can then attain that, and it becomes a dial I can crank to basically propagate MSR info (via FFR) until the effect levels off and becomes revenue neutral.
So I'm starting to recognize that maybe that's impossible. Maybe.
Anyhoo,
Google Books / Google Play
I applied to become an independent publisher and was accepted.
You don't see FFR in Google Play store yet because Google is actually very picky about eBook submissions, with regard to proper ePub formatting.
Unlike Amazon and Apple, I can't just toss a word publishing files at Google, nor can I export from Apple Pages or Microsoft Word... or Sigil. All exports need manual cleanup.
Cleanup of Fluid Fuel Reactors
I was actually very unsure what was the "right" format to use as a master copy of FFR, so that I can perpetually perfect the formatting and add supplementary documents.
Now knowing that Google wants ePub XHTML, and that such a basic format will also be accepted by Apple and Amazon... that's it!
I'm presently cleaning up FFR to be compliant with Google, and I'll be submitting that ePub data to Apple and Amazon in future. (Everyone who bought a copy will receive that update by deleting their local copy and re-downloading for free from the store. Very easy to do.)
FFR in Google-compliant HTML form should also make for an excellent website!
My cleanup involves making the HTML as website friendly (meaningful URLs and tags) as possible.So even if the eBook + AdWords endeavour fizzles, I'm hoping FFR as HTML will have an impact.
Conference Video Import Solution for 2019
TEC2018 being my own disaster of data loss when I powered down my laptop before it was done shutting down... that was with a 2012 MacBook Pro dual-booting into Win10 with an Apple tool called "BootCamp". During a conference I (we/volunteers) capture 100s of GB per day, but only Win10 tools seem to import the largest captures the most reliably. (That is the fault of Canon and Sony's import utilities and not the operating system.)
To run Win10 I need to boot the entire laptop into Windows, to run MacOS I need to boot the entire laptop as a Mac.
I have confirmed a safer approach to importing video in 2019. I can do so using Parallels emulating Win10, instead of booting specifically into Win10. It was the switching-operating-systems that caused me to screw up, so I'd like to eliminate that risk... and also import from iPhone and SD Card at the same time. (Dare to dream.)
Used the trial-period to test. I'll license the software before leaving for the next conference, although it isn't clear what/where that is.
One nice thing about this MacBook, is that it still uses 2.5" SATA storage... and I was able to upgrade the primary drive from 2TB of SSHD to 4TB of SSD. So that, plus already-installed 2TB of SSHD in secondary (optical) drive bay gives me 6TB total. Zero risk of saturating that during any conference... but my main reason was I can reasonably expect to fit all data onto the 4TB SSD which is not both MacOS+Win10 compatible exFAT (the easily corruptible file system).
It wasn't just me abruptly powering down my MacBook which caused TEC2018 data-loss, I also did it while using exFAT to store data.
The (used) 4TB SSD was only $585. While I'm sure I'll look back on that in a few years and wonder why anyone would pay that much for 4TB SSD, as of today that's amazing.
eBay! eBay used-cheap-stuff for everything!
Chroma Key Tool
In the FFR promo, I once again stood in front of our home TV and chroma-keyed myself. (This time shot with iPhone instead of Canon camera.)
Just like in 2012, when it was time to put solid-green on the TV i was pondering fastest way to do it... I remembered in 2012 it was a actual pain-in-the-butt to do so. (Green image! Make a green image! Show green image! Hide windows border... how do I full-screen this?)
The YouTube channel "Lots of Color" saved me some sanity:
10 hours of Green Screen
https://youtu.be/pNWz84Sn1oo
Enjoy.