People - There is No Silver Bullet !

OK, we've got that behind us ! "We do ?" you ask yourself. What I mean is that there is no one single solution to the energy crisis we are facing. OK! I admit the word "crisis" is a tad alarmist, but we DO need to be concerned.

I am not going to jump on the climate-change bandwagon, hoping to spur the masses to action with (possibly) questionable science. Maybe global warming is happening, although you'd never know it where I live - woke up to -29C this morning ! But that's a different story...

Nor am I going to say that the likes of Al Gore and David Suzuki are alarmist tree-huggers. They believe that there is a crisis, while I think the jury is still out. For example, a significant portion of the Greenhouse Gases which are attributed to Global Warming come from bovine burps !

What I _DO_ know is this: we North Americans are addicted to fossil fuels. We use them to generate electricity and to power almost all modes of transportation. The most notable exception is the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier, but I suspect nuclear power is not viable for much else !


Cars, trucks, trains, planes and ships all run on some form of fossil fuels. And some 65% of the electricity generated in the USA is generated using coal. Hence, I believe that even the futuristic-seeming Electric Vehicles are "dirty" because their power also comes from fossil fuels.

"We"ll convert to Hydrogen !", some experts expound. Or "We should build high-tech nuclear plants !", other experts counter. There's a nightmare in the making !

There is no one single technology which can take over all of our energy requirements. I purposely state that no matter WHAT changes are made to whatever technology, our biggest challenge will be complacency. The change needs to be gradual, likely over one or more generations !

I keep wandering back to the paradigm. Is government-owned and regulated power the way to go ? Should we scale back and provide point-sources for power generation ? This would eliminate the need for a power-grid. Failures at one site wouldn't affect the next site.


If each site - be it a building, a block of buildings, a village - took care of it's own energy needs, then we wouldn't see the massive catastrophes like 3 Mile Island and Chernobyl. We also wouldn't see the unsightly (OK - freaking UGLY) power-transmission towers which ensnarl the countryside. Efficient AND attractive - what a concept !

In most of my Renewable Energy postings, I focus on the local, small-scale types of projects. Individual photo-voltaic panels and solar hot-water systems are key to our success. I like micro-scale hydro and short-tower wind turbines. I like these as just about any homeowner could implement these solutions without incurring ridiculous costs. Further, they could easily become self-sufficient. Living "off grid" doesn't HAVE to mean you live in some rural, back-country area.

But one of the most important factors in these solutions is that each has it's own strengths and weaknesses. PV systems don't generate electricity at night. Wind turbines won't generate electricity on a calm day. You get the picture ?


Hence, most experts agree that you shouldn't rely on just one system to supply your energy needs. Further, the best designed systems also allow for the inclusion of a gas or diesel generator to provide supplemental power. As you can see, the best practice would be to implement multiple solutions !

Once we agree that there is no Silver Bullet, we can start to look at effective ways of implementing many (if not all) of these renewable-energy solutions.





The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !

Renewable Energy Paradigm Shift

I was having a discourse with a fellow about renewable energy, when we landed on the topic of efficiencies. He held the belief that the efficiency of the power-generation scheme wasn't as important as the cost. In his mind that was the barrier to universal adoption.

It is generally held that solar photo-voltaic solar systems are only about 11% efficient. That means that they can only convert 11% of the solar exposure they receive to electricity. The rest goes untapped.

But what of other systems ? Wind systems are more efficient, at around

18%. It is due to the fact that it takes a fair amount of energy to start the turbine to spin. That is to say a lot of potential energy is wasted as it goes past the turbine, without enough force to actually turn it.

Much more efficient is the hydro-generation plant. Using nearly identical technology as the wind-turbine, it is at least three times more efficient ! This is because water is much denser than air. So less water has to pass through the turbine to get it to spin with the same force.

But at the end of the day, the system is only useful if we don't squander the energy we are learning to harness. In this particular discourse, my colleague and I drifted into talking about changing the paradigms of renewable energy.


To wit:
1) generate energy from renewable sources - no more dependence on dwindling resources
2) end the dependence on the rigid grid - no more huge power plants & transmission systems that can't handle fluctuating power-generation schemes like solar or wind
3) have each building be responsible for their own energy needs; this is the corollary to #2
4) change building practices to focus on "zero-energy" buildings
5) take advantage of every technology where appropriate & provide government-led incentives (taxes, etc.)
6) waste nothing - everything needs to be used purposefully & converted into something else that useful
7) take a "do no harm" attitude.


The paradigms need to be re-examined from the creation of power; the
effects on the environment of creating that power; the conservation of that power. Unless we, as a society, can accomplish these tasks, we will never be able kick the fossil-fuels dependency.


The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !

Nano-Scale Hydro Power Generation

Once again, I must confess that my perceptions continue to be challenged. Previously, I had posted that I wasn't particularly interested in Hydro Power generation, as I always perceived it as requiring a huge capital investment, usually by some government body. Further, I was very concerned about the upstream ecological impact of implementing a dam. I thought it was a requirement.



But I have since done some more research, and find out that smaller-scale hydro power has gone on for years. The classic water-wheels that were used for their mechanical potential in grinding wheat into flour are one example. More recently, instead of mechanical potential, they are used for the creation of electricity. In fact, they are many multiples more efficient than either wind or solar, owing largely to the density of the water itself !

Typically, simple implementations divert a portion of the flow (20% is considered more than reasonable) into a large pipe, which is then incrementally decreased. This increases the water pressure without changing the volume. The resulting "jet" of water flows past some form of turbine, which in turn adds mechanical potential to the generation of electricity. Finally, the water rejoins the original flow of water.



The other variables which in turn help determine how much electricity can be generated include head - how far the water falls, and friction-losses - does the flow of water slow down owing to turns or a pipe that's too narrow.

Since my focus is on renewable energy, hydro is remarkably attractive. Presumably, a stream or small river will almost always have some flow. The fact that it flows at all indicates it must have some head. And a stream-side implementation returns the water back to the stream or river. It is clean, non-polluting, and won't cause any upstream damage.

Couple a hydro system with wind & solar, and you have a system capable of creating electricity year round, regardless of what climate you live in !


The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !

Poop Power ?

As I continue my research into the world of renewable energy sources, I find information that is interesting, informative, and sometimes quite amusing. In a previous post, I explored how Jean Pain used the anaerobic digestion of compost to create methane gas - AKA Natural Gas. So I started to look at ways in which the principles of permaculture could be applied. Permaculture refers to finding ways to mimic how Mother Nature achieves her needs.



The best anaerobic digester of organic matter is the rumen ( the first chamber of a cow's stomach ). The cow macerates the cellulose fibre, and when it enters the rumen, it begins to get digested by the bacteria in the cows rumen. The process is helped by the lack of oxygen (making the process anaerobic), and the natural body temperature of the cow.

As we saw in Jean Pain's experiments & feats of engineering, one by-product of the process is methane gas. A ruminating cow will burp up some 280 litters of methane gas every day ! When you consider that there are estimated to be more than 100 million cows in North America alone, this represents an incredible portion of the greenhouse gases emissions which are blamed for global warming.

Unfortunately, this gas would be remarkably difficult to capture. Fortunately, there is still a considerable amount of undigested material passing through the rest of the cows digestive tract, mostly owing to the fact that a cow will digest it's food over the course of about 24 hours. Harvesting methane from compost takes about 21 days. So that undigested organic material can still be processed - provided you are not squeamish about cow dung !



Each one of those cows produce some 28 pounds of manure - every day !
So a herd of 1800 head of cattle will produce 48,000 pounds of manure a day. Certainly more than enough to keep a commercial anaerobic-digestion facility busy. And further fermenting the semi-digested material would have the additional benefit of reducing the unpleasant odours caused by the poop.

The composting rig that Jean Pain built was perfectly suited for finishing off the digestive process. It was sealed, meaning no oxygen could destroy the process, and the capture of methane gas couldn't be easier. Also it was warmed by the material composting in the heap piled all around his fermenting vessel.



When his compost is complete, both inside & outside the anaerobic digester, the by-products are nitrogen-rich soil, and a slurry form the digester. When pressed, the slurry is separated into liquid & solid materials. The solid materials can be recycled back into bedding for the cows. The liquid is a rich fertilizer for use in the fields.

The system has by-products which further support the process: rich hummus to grow new vegetable matter; fertilizer to speed that growth; plentiful feed for the cattle; and plenty of poop to harvest methane from before starting the cycle all over again. In much the same way as Mother Nature intended.

The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !

When Profits Hamper Innovation

I have been doing a lot of research in the area of Data Storage recently. The company I work for is a partner of Dell and we sell an awful lot of the Equallogic line of SAN/NAS devices. They have a great model, wherein a customer buys the disk array and is automatically entitled to use all the software related to the device !


This is also a very open model. Consider the fact that the devices contain
commodity hardware: SATA disks, SAS disks, and even Solid State disks, coupled with intelligent controllers that are easily upgraded. Add in firmware solutions including de-duplication, snapshots,copy on write protection, not to mention common protocols like iSCSI, CIFS, and NFS. Clients are left with a robust, resilient and scalable solution. They are priced very competitively in the market.

But that's not good enough for me ! So I started asking myself - is there an OpenSource solution ? The answer is "It depends...", with a gentle poke at my friend Bill Bitner at IBM. There are a couple of options, however they are slightly constrained.

The first one is called BTRFS (pronounced "butter"-FS). It is open source software, under the GPL copyleft license. It is undergoing rapid development, and it expected to be feature-rich in the very near future. Unfortunately, not all of the features are here yet. Which makes it an unviable solution for my corporate clients.

The second solution, pioneered by Sun Microsystems, is called ZFS. It has all of the features listed above, and more. Unfortunately, it was intentionally killed as an open source project when Oracle acquired Sun. Along with the operating system, called OpenSolaris, Oracle abandoned the open development of the filesystem.

ZFS is still available as an Enterprise solution, but in a closed-source, pay-to-play model. Oracle was able to do this, as the original work done by Sun was licensed under the much more restrictive CDDL. In essence, it allows the original authors to "own" any derivative works, and therefore close the source code at any time.

Oracle has in effect killed two well-received open source software projects, in favor of not competing with it's own interests. This is not news. Oracle has been watched with beat suspicion, as they acquired companies which had products that competed with theirs - Sun and BEA are just two examples. But in so doing, they hamper the innovation which is helping grow the limits of their own industry. What will happen to MySQL, or JAVA ?

Fortunately, a company called Nexenta has provided stewardship, and is actively maintaining the code, alongside a consortium of the original developers. The consortium effectively "forked" the open source components of OpenSolaris to a new project called IllumOS, and they continue to work with Nexenta on it's flagship, community project called NexentaStor.
NexentaStor turns an ordinary PC into a SAN/NAS device, very similar to the Equallogic device I described at the beginning of this post. It is feature-rich and open source, having a vibrant community continuing to provide new code and testing.




The opinions expressed in this post are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they are entitled to it !

Compost as Bio-Fuel

Those of you who have been following my posts on Renewable Energy will have seen that I focus primarily on Solar and Wind power generation projects. I have a passing interest in hydro-generation, but it is merely a curiosity for me. Today, my web-trolling took me in a new direction !

The French Innovator, Jean Pain, pioneered a new form of bio-fuel, which he used to provide all the energy he required to run his modest farm. At the heart of his system was compost !
Composting is the biological process by which organic matter is broken down. It can then be used as a rich soil additive and natural fertilizer.

Pain was not a scientist - rather, he was a keen observer. He realized that if he reached into the center of his compost heap, the temperatures were high enough to burn his skin. Further, he found that a bi-product of the composting process was methane gas. He then used a little gonzo engineering and devised a process to capture both the heat and the methane, so that he could harness their energy on his little farm.

It should be noted that his yield was not insignificant. He could produce some 500 cubic meters of methane gas in just 90 days. Enough to power two gas ovens and a three-burner stove for a year. He also made a simple carburetor modification to his truck so that it too could be methane-powered. Lastly, he had a methane-powered generator to produce electricity for his farm. For clarity's sake, methane is more commonly referred to as Natural Gas.

His was an interesting contraption: the heart was a hermetically-sealed tank, filled three-quarters full with organic matter (macerated tree limbs and brush) which had been steeped in water for 60 days. As the contents decomposed, creating methane which he siphoned off, the heat byproduct was captured by a 200 food coil of tubing - a crude heat-exchanger. The whole works was buried in a 50 ton compost heap, which in turn generated it's own heat. The main "plant" (sorry, but I really couldn't resist !), was some six meters wide and three meters tall.

The compost heap itself was a mix of all sorts of organic matter, including finely chopped tree limbs, brush, clippings and the wastes from their kitchen - all of which was freely available on his farm. He built his contraption using tools and equipment commonly found on his farm, including some 24 truck inner-tubes, which served as the bladder he collected the methane gas in.

Pain was a scientist and an engineer. He was also a conservationist. He is the modern inspiration of the so-called green movement.

*** Author's Note :: Astute readers will note that I have highlighted the term "organic matter" a number of times. The proper definition is that of matter which is capable of decay. In the last year or so, Marketing-types have tried to create a definition to mean "free of pesticides and fertilizers". I personally despise that term & challenge any and all marketing types to show me a NON-organic carrot ! ***

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Conservationism and Renewable Energy - What can YOU do ?

In a conversation recently with a colleague, he was very interested in the theme of renewable energy. But he tempered his enthusiasm, stating that he really couldn't contribute to the field. Rather, he was looking for ways to take advantage of advances in the field.

We can't all live on acreages, giving us lots of space to build high towers for wind-turbines. Nor do we all have access to a flowing river or stream to take advantage of hydro-power. Finally, most municipalities frown upon the erection of solar panels in urban settings (although this trend is changing).

"So how can I participate ?" asked my urbanite friend.

Depending on what your goals are, you have many options, but they all fall back to a single definition - Conservationism. By not contributing to the problem, you are still participating in the solution. Whether your goals revolve around lessening your carbon footprint, or lowering your hydro bills, you need to minimize (conserve !) the resources you use.

So what are some simple steps that each and every person could do to contribute ? He is my top 10 List (with apologies to Mr. Letterman) :

10) change the set point on your thermostat. If you live in a cold climate, setting the thermostat to 19C in the winter will reduce your heating bills by up to 17% ! if you live in a hot climate, running the AC less (set it to 24C) will keep the temperature comfortable, while saving you money.

9) switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Here in Canada, you cannot buy incandescants anymore. They use roughly 10% of the energy of standard incandescent bulbs, and last 7 times longer on average.

8) turn down your hot water heater. Setting it at 49C rather than 60C will make a 30% difference on your energy bill, and lessen your carbon footprint significantly.

7) install a "green" toilet. They have two flush modes, depending on whether you need to expel liquid or solid waste. These toilets use 60% less water, as measured on a household of four people.

6) turn off the darn lights ! If you're not in the room, what do you need to see ?

5) wrap your hot-water heater in an extra layer of insulation. Your hot-water heater is the single largest energy consumer in your household. Give it every chance you can to be as efficient as possible.

4) check the seals around your windows and doors. When they are closed, a lit candle will flicker if air is sneaking past. That flicker means you are trying to heat or cool the entire neighborhood !

3) turn the water off while you brush your teeth. All that clean water going straight down the drain...

2) fix dripping taps & leaky fixtures quickly. A tap dripping slowly for one day can waste as much as 29 litres of water !

1) install a 7 day programmable thermostat. It will remember to lower the temperature at night, and during the day when nobody is home.

These simple changes can be done in any property, whether you own or rent. If you do these 10 things you will achieve your goals - you'll be contributing to the solution, rather than the problem. Oh, and you'll enjoy lower energy and water bills, too !

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Hydro-Powered Batteries ?

In previous blogs, you have heard me talk extensively about my interest in renewable energy. Keen observers will have noted that I pay particular attention to both wind and solar sources of renewable energy, but I spend very little time talking about the use of hydro-power. I guess this has been due in part to the fact that I have always equated hydro power with some sort of hydro-electric dam or ocean-wave generation facility.

Further, I had written about using a flywheel to store the kinetic energy as a form of "battery". An astute commenter pointed out that the "excess" energy could be put to more practical use in the form of pumping water. I missed it. What was the value in that, I wondered.

Since then, I have been spending a little more time looking at hydro power. The commenter was trying to point out that falling water provides a higher energy potential, which is of a much more steady state. Consider that the flywheel will continually slow down. There's no such thing as a perpetual-motion machine, right ? But water falls at a steady rate, thanks to gravity. The variable would be volume, which is easily controlled via the diameter of the pipe !

So excess energy created that exceeds demand can be entirely spent in pumping a volume of water uphill. Then when demand exceeds production, that same water could flow back downhill, activating a hydro turbine, generating electricity. The only real loss would occur interms of "friction" - having the water turn corners in the piping, for example.

I am continuing my research, but with one simple goal in mind - my interest lies in small-scale projects. Specifically, projects which I could explore in my own shop, here in Western Canada. You won't see me exploring solutions which generate electricity from the motion of waves - there are no tides on the Prairies !


The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Can you trust your VARs & Vendors ?

As I was eating a small dish of ice cream last night, I couldn't help but think that it is the simple things in life that are so enjoyable. And then I got to thinking about how the Information Technology industry works as a whole, and realized that while we all acknowledge that simple is better, we rarely achieve it. And I think I have a fairly good understanding of the reasons why...

As an IT customer, we are always looking for the solution that fits 100% of our need. Like a carpenter, we need tools that work well, are specifically suited for the purpose, and are straightforward to use. Whether it is a Customer Relations Management (CRM) solution, or an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution, the common goal remains the same. We need tools that fit the purpose, while not costing a small fortune.

So we seek the counsel of our Vendor and Value-Added-Reseller (VAR) partners. Our mis-guided expectation is that they are motivated to help us, and have sold & implemented these solutions before. But in both cases, they are NOT motivated to sell us the right solution. Their motivation is to sell us a solution which provides them with the most profit margin !

Adding insult to injury, the VAR is also motivated by a second level of greed. Not only do they want to sell you the solution, but they also want the Professional Services revenue associated with implementing the solution. So they are, in fact, motivated to make the solution complex enough to insure that the customer HAS to get the VAR to implement it for them.

But it doesn't stop there. Smart IT VARs recognize that they need to have "streams"of revenue, not just a series of projects. So they layer in Support & Maintenance contracts, which insure that they get further revenue from the ongoing operation of the solution !

So much for acting in the customer's best interests ! Instead of acting on the customer's behalf, and shortening the Return on Investment (RoI) and lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), the VAR is motivated by greed to generate ongoing revenue by adding complexity into every solution they sell. The more complex, the better the revenue.

Many advocates of Open-Source Software (OSS) will tell you that OSS can help you avoid vendor lock-in. This is because they cannot sell the software itself, so all they can sell is service & support. And because anyone can access the code, theoretically anyone can support it. While this may be the case, it is also true that finding VARs with the correct mix of skill-sets to help support your OSS investment could be a challenge.

So be wary of Vendors and VARs bearing contracts. Not all of them are that interested in helping you. In fact, they are interested in helping themselves - to your IT Budget !

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Cloud - Is it really what you think it is ?

Do you remember SOA ? It was yester-year's buzz-word de jour... Service Oriented Architecture was a definition of a modular, pluggable architecture for building applications. It was a methodology, not a thing. And yet CIO's believed that they could trust their vendors to sell them some SOA ! I recall a bad TV commercial, where the cardboard cutout Sales Guy responds to all queries with : "Great, you'll take 500 !". *** Note: if somebody finds the advertisement in a YouTube video, I'll link it here ***

The new hype is all around cloud computing services. The idea is straightforward: a client consumes computing resources from any end-point, at any time, without caring about the infrastructure behind it. So let's use real terms... You can access Google Documents via the Internet (ubiquitous access), open a document stored somewhere (you need not know where) using an application provided by Google. 

This is called Software as a Service (SaaS). SaaS represents the first real implementation of "cloud". That service can be free of charge (ala Google Docs), or have an associated costs. This fits into what makes Cloud appealing. CIOs are attempting to rationalize their budgets into business-consumable terms. They want to know the cost per month/per application/per user. Cloud allows them to follow that model, as that is how SaaS is sold.

But one of the key issues that cloud doesn't address sufficiently is governance. For almost every industry that might really benefit from cloud, there are stringent regulations which regulate the industry. For example in Canada, there are strict laws which dictate that Electronic Medical Records must stay inside of Provincial boundaries. How can a cloud provider guarantee that the data stays within the boundaries ?

Another source of concern is the Service Level Agreement (SLA). This is a contract between the provider & the consumer of a service, which dictates allowable downtime, problem resolution guidelines, and provides remediation should either party not meet up to its obligations. In the example above, Google Apps comes without a price-tag, and without an SLA. If they lose your data or are unavailable for an extended period of time, you got exactly what you paid for ! You can expect nothing more from them.

But what if you pay for your SaaS ? A good example is Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Solutions (BPOS) offering. It provides Exchange (e-mail & groupware), SharePoint (document repository on steroids), Office Communications Server (Instant Messaging & Presence Info), and finally LiveMeeting (collaborative real-time meeting space). As a service, it represents the vast majority of the software solutions that Mid-tier & Enterprise clients pay considerably for.

Microsoft recently admitted publicly that they had suffered some serious outages with their BPOS solution. In fact, they even went so far as to apologize for their poor performance ! And rather than scrap the offering as untenable, they re-brand it & call it a new product (Office 365) ! In my mind, that is little more than putting lipstick on a pig !

Companies like IBM and HP will suggest that they can help avoid these problems by putting the Cloud "on the ground", or a hybrid solution. This means the business pays for the cloud services by purchasing a combined hardware & software solutions & installing it in their DataCentre ! Huh ? Did you read that the way _I_ did ? How is that cloud ? The business remains responsible for hardware, software and access to it in their own data-centre. Who are they trying to kid ?

Now that is not to say that ALL Cloud offerings are suspect... I personally have started using more of the SaaS offerings. I like Google Docs, and have used it for a long time. I just make sure I have backup copies of all of my data ! 

But there are other "hybrid" offerings. Two that come immediately to mind (as I use them every day) include:

DropBox - this is a service which "shares" a folder on my local hard-drive. This data in the folder is "synced" regularly to the cloud, where it is kept as a "backup" copy. But what is exciting is that I can sync multiple devices to it. So I can immediately share documents between my iPad and my PC. And my smart-phone. And my wife's MacBook. You see where I am going with this - no matter where the update happens, it gets synced to all the other devices.

EverNote - similarly, EverNote syncs data to & from multiple sources. But its strength comes in the TYPES of data it syncs. I can take photos, web-clippings, text boxes & notes. Then I can tag them for later searching. This is especially exciting to use for researching my blog, as I can assemble tons of disparate data types to use in my blog. The notes can be shared or sent via e-mail. Very powerful indeed.

So don't get me wrong - cloud isn't bad. It just may not really be what you think it is. 

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Clean Drinking Water for Everyone !

In previous posts, I have spent considerable amount of time pondering socially-aware topics such as Open-Source and Renewable Energy. While these seem like divergent topics, here is one opportunity for Open-Source principles and Renewable Energy to collide, providing us with something the world needs - more clean drinking water.

As all fourth-grade students know, some 75% of the planet is covered in water. Unfortunately, it is predominately salt-water, rendering it unsafe to drink. As we move further inland, and away from the oceans & seas, we encounter fresh-water. But being the wasteful & destructive beings we are, we pollute our own sources of clean drinking water ! So while we have access to all the water we could possibly need, we need to find ways to make more of it potable & usable.

Recently, I have been reading a lot about self-styled "Permies". These are people who have created a sub-culture dedicated to permaculture. The ideas behind permaculture are to mimic the ways in which Nature does things to create a more sustainable means of living on the planet. So everything from building rocket-stove mass heaters, to filtering water is within the aims of the sub-culture.

Of course, all of these systems require energy of some form. We see the need to pump water or generate electricity for these systems to work. Remarkably, many of the best solutions to these problems are actually hundreds (or in some cases, thousands !) of years old.

Take for example the Solar Water Still. By using the power of the Sun, water is heated enough to evaporate, condenses on a collector, and is collected as potable water ! This exactly mimics the way the Earth herself evaporates water into the atmosphere, which then falls later as rain. Early stills were actually used as a means of harvesting salt from ocean-water !

We know that rain-water is typically much cleaner than ground-water. This is because the natural process of evaporation distills the water to near 100% pure, leaving the salts & other heavy impurities behind. So it would seem obvious that we should drink rain-water where possible. But the opportunity still exists for other pathogens to exist in rain-water. The collected water still requires pasteurization to insure the pathogens present are killed off.

A solar still provides both of these methods, and even adds a few more ! By incorporating a few methods into one system, extremely pure water can be created, with zero additional energy being required.

First the rain water is collected in a catch-basin. It is then transferred by "wicking" (capillary action) into a bed of sand, which helps with the first phase of filtration. Next, the bed of sand is covered in an air-tight container & exposed directly to the sun's rays. The clear plastic cover allows UVA radiation to break down the DNA of the pathogens, effectively killing them !

As the sun heats the sand to 160F or more, the water evaporates into the air of the chamber & collects on the plastic cover, which is tilted at an angle towards the sun. The water vapour then condenses & runs down the surface of the collector to a central container. Voila ! 100% pure, naturally-softened, pathogen-free water, suitable for consumption by one & all.


The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Electric Vehicles are NOT Environmentally Friendly !

Lately, there has been a lot of attention being paid to Hybrid and Electric Vehicles. Frankly, that annoys the heck out of me. When people discuss the ecological impact of switching to a hybrid or electric vehicle, their thinking stops at the tailpipe !

Stop & think about the "solution" from end to end... The conventional wisdom is that if we switch a vehicle propulsion system from gasoline or diesel fuel to electricity, the tail-pipe emissions will drop to zero. That I won't argue. The carbon footprint of operating the vehicle drops. But you don't just buy the car ! You still have to run it.

Where do fossil fuels come from ? Iraq ? The Alberta tar-sands ? The Gulf of Mexico ? All "bad" places, which are purported to contribute to the ecological impact of running each & every  vehicle on the road. Since that's not really the point of this article, I will ignore the source. But needless to say, the ecological impact of fossil fuels is very heavy.

Where does electricity come from ? In the USA alone, some 65% of the electricity produced comes from the burning from the burning of fossil-fuels - specifically coal ! The CO2 emissions from a coal plant ARE way higher than the cars they could power ! So all an electric vehicle does is transfer the point of impact from the tail-pipe to the coal-fired plant. Until the sources of electricity are converted to a more ecologically friendly means, then the argument becomes a wash.

But wait ! Let's consider the end of the car's life-cycle. In a conventional (gas, diesel, etc.) car, disposal is as simple as sending it to the crushers. From there, the car can be smelted & recycled. What happens with an electric car ? How can we safely dispose of the batteries that store the electrical energy ? Frankly, the current methods are toxic, and disposal is quite expensive. Lead-acid & lithium-polymer batteries are made up of dangerous chemicals.

Equally as bad is the fact that when involved in accidents, the chemicals in the batteries are extremely flammable & dangerous. When (not if) they leak in a collision, they become a haz-mat nightmare. The chemicals burn invisibly, endangering the lives of the occupants, fire-fighters & other nearby people.

I am a firm believer in doing everything we can to examine alternate fuel sources for our vehicle, but let's try to use our heads, shall we ?

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Harnessing the Coolth !

In renewable-energy circles, the holy grail is solar energy. It can be harnessed to capture its electrical potential using photo-voltaic cells. You can harness the sun's energy in the form of heat. Since a large portion of our daily household energy consumption typically goes into heating water - to heat our living spaces; to bathe; to clean dishes and clothing - this is the area that gets the most attention.

But in many climates - unlike my own in here Southern Alberta - there is often great value in disseminating heat, and storing the "Coolth" - sorry, I just love that word ! We know that we can capture solar radiation and heat a body of water to over 200 F, but what if we wanted to cool it instead ? And once it is chilled, can we store it in an economical way for later use ?

Over at the BuildItSolar web-site, Gary Reysa has assembled a large collection of articles and HOW-TO's for the Do-It-Yourself crowd. An article caught my eye that showed a simple means of trickling water down the slope of a roof at night and capturing it again at the bottom. Gary demonstrated that this simple method could cool the water by about 1.9 degrees F each hour ! This is accomplished using nothing more than evaporation. By exposing the water to cooler night-time air and then transmitting it across a large surface area, the water is chilled in a reasonably short period of time.

While this doesn't sound particularly awe-inspiring, Gary points out that it is roughly the equivalent cooling in terms of BTUs as running a half-ton air-conditioner for 6 hours. That IS very impressive !

Interestingly, at the time the cooling is happening, we don't need the chilled water. So it is stored in a highly-insulated 500 gallon container, so that the chilled water can be used in a simple heat-exchanger later. Whether through an in-floor heat/cool system, or combined with some form of blower to send cool air throughout the living space, the coolth can be used later. As the returning water's temperature raises over time, the temperature in the storage tank also rises, but one would presume that the cooling effect is really only required in the mid-day heat.

I love the idea of being able to collect both warmth and coolth. I believe that one of the barriers to widespread adoption of renewable energy sources is complacency. People simply don't want to have to change their lifestyles. I have never owned an air-conditioned home, as I have never lived anywhere that required one. So for me, it was never a consideration. But imagine if I lived in California or Florida ! I suspect they care an awful lot less about heating their homes that I do !

But that's a topic for another post...

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

W.W._I_D ? - Part 2 :: The Quest Continues !

So I have been continuing my research into the "Utlimate" DIY, low-cost Home-Automation and Media Centre configuration. As you may recall, I am a little envious of my friend's installation, but do not have anywhere near the budget he had. So I have scoured the web, and I think I have come up with my solution.

You will further recall that I tend to swing towards the Open-Source side of the software world, and am keen to do as much as possible for myself. But, I also want commercial-level support where possible. Trust me, the ability to call up a 1-800 number and ask "OK, what did I mess up THIS time ?" is of great value to me. Further, I would think any reader of this post would also be appreciative ! ;-)

On the Audio/Visual (A/V) side, I am quickly settling into a free (open-source at its best !) software package for Mac OSX called Plex. It provides an overlay to ALL of your digital content, including iTunes, NetFlix, etc and creates its own master index & streaming capabilities. So from the one gorgeous interface, I can play back HD Video, Music & Photos. Finally, content can be streamed to remote TV devices, using Apple's new AppleTV.

But then I also have some other interests... I am keenly interested in Home Automation. In being able to control ambient lighting, and to set "scenes" - automatic pre-sets for watching a movie, or hosting a party, or being away on vacation.  Also the ability to control climate - like setting the thermostat remotely - would be most valuable.

For this, I have settled on another Mac OSX application called Indigo. It is another native Mac application which can interface with either X10 or Insteon control devices. It understands the concepts of security and event-triggering. Imagine a guest has entered your driveway. The system could turn on the porch light, ring a chime & flash a video image onto a monitor - perhaps even the TV itself !

Especially interesting is that these two solutions are compatible with each other ! This means you can control BOTH applications from within one interface. Both applications take advantage of the Apple App Store to publish remote-control applications for iPad/iPhone/iPod. Amazingly, the same Apps allow you to stream the A/V content to both the iPad and the iPod/iPhone platforms !

The next component I am settling onto is the new Apple Mac Mini. It can run OSX-Server, meaning it can also serve as the house E-Mail, DNS, and Web-Server. It can interface with a TimeCapsule and turn it into an industrial-strength firewall, securing us from the Internet. But I would be sure to buy the non-server version - it comes with a DVD built in, meaning you can play DVDs on your system as well - and purchase OSX-Server separately. It is a nice-to-have for me, but not required for this project.

It will also serve as the Media Centre, being directly attached to the main TV via HDMI. Using a product called eyeTV-HD from elgato, you can watch live TV from their video capture device. It sits between the Set-top cable Box and the Mac Mini. Then the content is delivered by the afore-mentioned HDMI cable. Since it stands in between the Cable box and the Mac Mini, the Mac Mini can become a Digital Video recorder, allowing you to record any broadcasts for later viewing - kind of like a TiVO, but without the monthly subscription, and supporting High-Definition video in Canada.

So the one media centre can centrally manage & store content for the entire house. Further, it becomes the nerve centre for the Home Automation project. My first estimate is that the whole project will cost ~ $3500 CDN, which includes all of the Insteon/X10 modules ! An order of magnitude less expensive than my friend's system, and all running on Apple equipment. Muy bueno !

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Employment Insurance ? Who are YOU trying to kid ?

Every morning, I wake up at about the same time, pour my wife & I a cup of coffee and watch the news in bed. Usually, I get a synopsis of local, National and International news. A little fluff & feel-good news & I am off to the shower to start my day...

This morning, something happened that hasn't happened in a long time - a news article stopped just short of infuriating me. It turns out that some third-party wrote a report recommending the Canadian Government RAISE the EI premiums ! For those non-Canadians, Employment Insurance is kind of like a step between being employed & welfare. If you are briefly out of work, you can receive a bi-weekly cheque from the government, to keep you afloat while you seek new employment.

Unfortunately, this has become somewhat of a cash-grab by the Federal Governments (I put it as plural, because both the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives are guilty). The rules are such that if a wage-earner:

1. Quits his job voluntarily, they are ineligible for EI
2. Is fired from his job with cause, they are ineligible for EI

The only reason you can receive EI is if you are "laid off", and there is a very short list of reasons for being laid off that makes one eligible for EI. Worse, if you make too much money, you are ineligible for EI, or you risk having it clawed back !

So in effect, Canadians are mandated BY LAW to pay an Insurance Premium that they can (almost) NEVER collect on ! And yet this third-party & the Government see fit to raise the premiums - again ...

When I was in grade school, the common description was "Of the people, for the people, by the people". Which people are these elected buffoons representing ? Certainly NOT the wage-earner who would need the help from EI the most.

I wonder when Canadians will stand up and tell their Government - YOU'RE FIRED !

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Can You Sell Something That's Free ?

There is an interesting trend happening within the Open-Source Software community. There appears to be a steady rise in the number of companies that are being quite successful in monetizing Open-Source Software and building a thriving business out of it.

Take for example, Red Hat. They had an IPO in 1999 and have never looked back. Under the stewardship of Matthew Szulik, Red Hat grew from a rag-tag assemblage of geeks and hackers, into a half-billion dollar a years services corporation. Matthew left a few years ago, and Jim Whitehurst was given the nod to grow the company into a billion dollar company. From all accounts, he is doing a pretty good job of it.

Remember, this is Open-Source Software. Nobody OWNS the code. Instead, these companies earn the right to provide services AROUND this software with their customers. In this case, they are selling their intellectual property in terms of services & support, instead of software licensing.

Another example is Digium. My namesake - the OTHER Mark Spencer in the Open-Source Software world - created a project called Asterisk. It is an Open-Source telephone switch (often called a PBX). It forms the heart & soul of a Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) system. He developed the software for free.

His company, Digium, designs, manufactures & sells the hardware boards that go into a computer to convert the signals from the telephone provider into a digital signal the computer can handle. Effectively, his free software creates a demand, and his business supplies that demand ! very good business indeed !

A third company would be JBOSS, founded by Marc Fleury. There is the open-source JBOSS, which is found at www.jboss.org and then there is the commercial JBOSS, found at www.jboss.com  For the record, JBOSS was acquired by Red Hat about 4 years ago, ostensibly to shield them from a hostile purchase by another giant software company - who is decidedly AGAINST open-source software !


The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

WW_I_D ? (What would I do ?) :: Home automation & media streaming...

Lately, I have been turning my attentions towards new diversions. While I am still keenly interested in alternative energy sources, and how we could better commoditize their implementations, I am also still interested in Open-Source Software. As many of you may know about me, I have a the Red Hat "Shadowman" logo tattooed on my chest !

I watched with admiration and a teeny, tiny bit of envy as a good friend of mine did an rather extensive renovation to his family's home. Of great interest to me was his new multi-source media system. From a central location in his data-room, he can stream high-definition video & audio to any room in his house.

It has multiple sources, including satellite TV, AppleTV, iTunes, as well as a data-storage unit filled with MP3s & MP4s (videos). The house has been carved up into A/V "zones", each with its own programmable remote, controlling all aspects of the media being played.

I started to think about how _I_ would approach this... Also, I happen to know that my friend spent a considerable amount of money installing this system. Since I have nowhere near that kind of budget, I started to explore some Open-Source alternatives...

I absolutely love my friends media-streaming capabilities, but wondered "Does it have to stop there ?".  How about adding in home-automation ? Could I also control climate & lighting in the same way ? That's when I stumbled up the LinuxMCE Project . In fact, they take it a couple of steps further, bundling a VoIP Telephone solution and Home-Security. WOW !

It is built upon a linux distribution called Ubuntu . And then the other technologies are layered on. Drivers for control-devices from X10 and Insteon are built-in, making it an extremely flexible system, suitable for all budgets. My only concern actually lay in one aspect of the solution - how much do I have to mess around importing songs, movies & other media for streaming ?

In a much more proprietary format, Apple has been working on media-dsitribution for years. The foundation is iTunes - not really an application so much as a means of purchasing media content from Apple ! They then layer on products to "assist" in those purchases... Through the use of the AirPort Express (a wireless Access point with ports for printer & speakers), I can stream music from iTunes on my laptop to the speakers I plug into the APE.

Just a few days ago, Apple announced AirPlay, which allows the streaming of video content to compatible devices, including the newly re-engineered AppleTV. It is a wireless device which has a high-definition cable I plug into my TV. So I can stream a movie, either from my iTunes, streamed from Apple, or from Netflix - which is now available in Canada !

So what if I built an iTunes-based media server, and streamed content to the AirPort Expresses and to some AppleTV devices. It would represent a well-designed system, with great commercial-grade support, and not completely destroy my budget ! Take it one step further - I could control all the playback from the Apple Remote application on my iPod/iPhone/iPad... Very swish !

So I can control the media streaming with Apple's products for a couple of thousand dollars. Then I can start on the home-automation path with LinuxMCE. So then I can create lighting & climate "moods" appropriate to my needs - like watching TV, or hosting a party. If my control device is an iPhone or an iPad, I ca control things when I am not even at home ! How cool is that ?!?

The final layer - what about installing a software-based phone application on my control device. I could either install microphones in each room & have the system decide where to route calls to, or use a headset - bluetooth or otherwise.

As you can see, the opportunities are endless. I am quite excited about this project, although I am still in the early stages of writing the business case for approval from the Minister of Finance (aka my wife !).

The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Gun Registry in Canada

There is great debate lately about the Canadian Federal Government's long-gun registry. There is a private member's bill that has been tabled by Candice Hoeppner in the House of Commons which seeks to abolish the registry. It is quickly becoming a Liberals vs Conservatives talking point, with the Chiefs of Police nationwide weighing in with their opinions.

The best discussion I have heard so far relates this back to simple roots: Urban Canada vs Rural Canada. The urbanites make the argument that long guns have no place in society. Anybody who owns or uses one must be interested or involved in the perpetration of a crime. As such, those that already exist need to be registered and licensed. Anyone failing to register a long gun in their possession is subject to a fine.

There is a huge outcry from the Chiefs of Police, who defend the gun registry stating that they are provided a modicum of safety by having prior knowledge that a gun is present in a household when they are called to an incident, such as domestic violence. Interestingly, Chief Hanson of Calgary has called the value of the registry into question, and doesn't stand with his brethren Chiefs.

The people in rural areas believe that owning a gun is as much a part of their way of life as owning pants. It is protection from the natural elements that exist in their environment. Living in areas of our nation where there is very little population density means sharing your environment with all manner of fauna - bears, coyotes, cougars and wolves.

What make the Registry so irrelevant  is that it seeks only to control "long guns",  rifles and the like. I suspect that the violent crimes the Registry seeks to manage are perpetrated with pistols and other forms of hand-guns, not covered by the Registry. Further, I would wager that the very same criminals who would perpetrate violent crimes using handguns are just as unlikely to want to register such a firearm. As such, I can't see much protection being offered by the Registry.

So where does the value of the Long Gun Registry come into play ? Was it worth the initial $2billion is purportedly cost to set up, and then the further millions required to maintain it ? Are we ANY safer with it than without it ?

I for one would like to see the figures. Show me cold, hard statistics which irrefutably prove that the establishment of the Federal Gun Registry has been DIRECTLY linked to the lowering of the number of violent crimes perpetrated in Canada. Frankly, I don't think it is possible that statistics could show that. As such, I question the value of the long gun registry.


The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Open Source Education - Khan Academy

Following closely on the heels of some previous posts on Open-Source education, I stumbled upon the Khan Academy http://www.khanacedemy.org/ this morning. The work of just one man (Salman Khan), it numbers some 1600 lectures in YouTube video format which cover subjects ranging from Calculous to Economics. It is an impressive body of work, and one that is sure to change the way people are educated around the world.



While not one to condone or encourage celebrity endorsements, I will point out tha Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has not only publicly referred to the Khan Acedemy a number of times, but he has also enrolled his own children. Take that for whatever you wish.



I for one am pleased to see that the notion of Open-Source education is really taking root - I checked out the Khan Academy this morning, and there was ~4500 individulas logged in. How inspiring is that ?



The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !

Where are the Leaders ?

A fellow I know on FaceBook asked the question "Where is the official opposition ?". I offer this as my response - 


Effective opposition is only one part of the problem. Where is the effective Government ? It is squandered on a Parliamentary system which allows for the creation of successive Minority Governments.

But it is made even worse by the "milquetoast" (Thanks MS - I shamelessly borrow it from you !) candidates put forth by the parties. We haven't had a solid "leader" in decades. Seems we are, as a people, incapable of breeding true Statesmen. It is _MY_ humble opinion that the last true Statesman Canada had was Trudeau.

Look at the current crop of lame ducks:
1) the Right Honourable Stephen Harper - ( the title goes with the post, so leave it alone !) I will start by admitting I voted for him. I am a conservative by nature (note the small "c"), so it is the most reasonable path... But seriously, the best the Conservative Party could come up with is a policy-wonk from Red Deer ? A house-plant has more personality !

2) Michael Ignatieff - the man is sooo far out of touch with the Canadian populace, he may as well have stayed in Cambridge, MA. The last think Canada needs is an elitist intellectual in high office ! His predecessor was Stephane Dion - OMG, I felt bad for the Liberal Party those days...

3) Jack Layton - is charismatic & down-to-earth. Too bad he's a Socialist ! Many of his ideas are solid - I liked the CONCEPT of "kitchen table politics", but in reality he should stay in Toronto. His politics have no place in Western Canada. And I suspect he is almost as welcome in Quebec ! LOL

4) Gilles Duceppe - seriously, how can the leader of a Party whose ENTIRE raison d'etre is to separate from Federation be a NATIONAL party ?!? But I will give the guy one small point - during a pre-election Town Hall, he was asked what his first priority would be if elected Prime Minister. He had the guts to respond that he had ZERO expectation of EVER being elected to that position. But if he was elected to the Official Opposition... LOL

5) All the rest - Valueless lobbyists who server only to further subdivide the vote !

So as a Canadian electorate, we are left with the option of voting for the LESSER of three (or four, or five) evils !

It is even WORSE if you live outside of Ontario & Quebec. Those of us who don't WANT to live in Toronto or Montreal are left without a voice in Government. By the time it is 08:00 PM in Sault Ste Marie, the election is effectively over. There are simply not enough seats left in Western Canada to sway the vote.

Every day, as I drive in to Calgary, I pass a billboard sign which reads "Less Ottawa & More Alberta", with a web-site endorsing the Western Cessation from the Nation. I am NOT a Separatist, but I have learned to understand where those sentiments come from !

I will now withdraw from my soap-box & listen to you all discuss the merits of the Liberal Gun Registry !


The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !