

A robotic curtain that automatically blocks the view of passersby - adriand
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKhbUjVyKIc

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RiderOfGiraffes
Annoying, self-starting video. From the guidelines:

    
    
        In Submissions
    
        ...
    
        If you submit a link to a video or pdf, please warn
        us by appending [video] or [pdf] to the title.
    

ADDED IN EDIT:

At the time of adding this edit, someone has downvoted the above comment.
That's fine, and I don't mind. I continue to find it annoying that people
downvote things without explaining why, but I guess someone thought it didn't
belong here.

Let me explain why I think the guideline is a good one.

I have two monitors. Each has 12 virtual desktops. Each virtual desktop has
between 10 and 40 windows, some of which are browsers. Each browser has 10 to
50 tabs. I've just counted.

I tend to launch a bunch of stuff quickly, then methodically track through
them, skimming, launching, and closing as appropriate. When a video auto-
starts I have to track through potentially hundreds of windows/tabs/whatever,
to find the one that's giving me grief.

It's annoying, and I think it's rude not to follow a site's guidelines.

You may disagree, and I'd be interested in an enlightening debate.

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ma2rten
Holly crap ! Why do you need to many windows ?

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RiderOfGiraffes
Rapid context switching. I honestly don't know how people manage with just a
few.

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mistermann
I'm the same way. So have you ever come across any plugins or anything to
assist in this environment? For example, a FF plugin that can perform a global
search in all browser windows and open tabs?

Or a tab manager that can consolidate tabs from multiple windows into one,
things like that??

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nopal
Here's the creator's site, which includes source and a non-auto-playing video:
[http://www.niklasroy.com/project/88/my-little-piece-of-
priva...](http://www.niklasroy.com/project/88/my-little-piece-of-privacy)

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
Thank you! I knew I'd seen it before, and your reference to the creator's site
was enough to let me track it down:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1792567>

Submitted several days ago to a resounding silence.

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DotSauce
Needs bug fixes. Noticed several people walked away quickly when they saw the
device was not very accurate.

Put this on a cylinder and slap an advertisement on it that follows the
nearest person within 360 degrees.

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misterbwong
Tangent: I've often wondered about using some type of (one-way?) curtain or
partition to block the view of a cleared accident on the freeway. It seems to
me much of the time lost when an accident occurs is during the aftermath when
onlookers slow down to get a better look.

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dageroth
it seems to draw more eyeballs than an unveiled window, but still, cool idea
;-)

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ojbyrne
It's a nice hack, but didn't seem to work very well (slow reaction) and it's
yet another surveillance camera.

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ax0n
s/blocks the view of/distracts/

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njharman
Color me unimpressed.

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J3L2404
I love mechanical hacks like this. More practical, but less impressive, would
be a system with vertical blinds with two states, open and closed.

~~~
savrajsingh
Right on. Or just a full length curtain that sweeps closed whenever someone is
outside. :)

