Thursday, September 03, 2009
123 Broad Street
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This was my home when I was growing up. I lived here until I finished college and joined the Navy.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Project-Kaisei - Sailing Vessel Kaisei
What does a blog about sailing vessels, what people do with trash, and an airplane nicknamed "Rivet Ball" have in common? As always truth is stranger than fiction and as is often the case these days Facebook plays a role. My cousin, Robert L. Brown, a retired teacher, active historian, and former Air Force Officer was at one time a crew dog on a plane flying out of a small island in Alaska, an island called Shemya. "Rivet Ball" flew out of the single runway on Shemya and along the Russian coastline capturing electronic intelligence and evidence of Soviet ICBM launches. The weather was terrible and landings were always a challenge. On one of those landings in bad weather "Rivet Ball" encountered slush and ice on the runway preventing the braking needed to stop. "Rivet Ball" slid off the end of the runway and ended up a twisted and broken bird but her crew escaped with minor injuries. King Hawes and my cousin were fellow crew dogs on the broken plane and have remained friends ever since. Recently I encountered King on Facebook and knowing the connection to my cousin we became Facebook friends. It was then that I learned that he has some very talented daughters, the youngest, Karen is maintaining a the blog Open Waters where she is documenting her experiences on the sailing brig Kaisei. The excerpt below is from her blog.
Kaisei Meets New Horizon
Just a quick update, because internet access is a little iffy out at sea. . . I’m traveling west and north, on the brigantine Kaisei – a tall-mast ship with Ocean Voyages Institute. We’re over 1,000 miles from nearest land, taking a short swim break in the deep waters. The crew of 25 are enjoying a much-needed break from the long days and short nights – or long nights and short days (depending on what shift you’re working)!
I’m onboard as the medic, engineer, and computer geek/website assistant to the blog for Project Kaisei – Sailing Vessel Kaisei. There’s a second ship, the New Horizon, which is also working with OVI on Project Kaisei.
Obviously, I’m also onboard for my exploration of trash, for Trash Trip. The fact that I’m out at sea, searching for the plastic vortex of trash, is a dream come true! I have known about the gyre but never imagined it possible to reach. We have seen plenty of bits and pieces of trash along the way but we have yet to encounter the elusive island of floating trash. The gyre is a big place and we’re a small vessel. If and when we do encounter it I can only imagine how that will feel!
Find pictures and updates about our ship at the blog for The Kaisei and I will post my own updates when I can and when I return. Thanks to all who have contacted me so far – I will reply when I’m back on land
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Florida decrease in population a good thing or bad?
In my humble opinion this could be, in the long run, the best thing that has happened to our state in decades. The reality is that no society can live on growth forever. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we live with limited resources. Food, energy, water, all are limited. We have been living beyond our means for half a century now. It is time for Florida, the US, and the world to stop counting on growth to pay for everything and for everyone to realize that there is a certain population that is sustainable. We passed that level a very long time ago and the continuing degradation of our environment is the result.
For Florida, 'end of an era' of population growth - USATODAY.com
For Florida, 'end of an era' of population growth - USATODAY.com
Last month came the most jaw-dropping announcement of all: The state that made population growth the linchpin of its economy for more than 60 years lost a net 58,000 people this year, according to newly released estimates for April 1.
"It's the end of an era," says Robert Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. "Florida represents an entire postwar vision of the good life — palm trees, low cost and no taxes, just easy living. They could turn it around, but in the short haul, it's paradise lost."
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Geography and Sex Offenders
1554 Walnut Avenue Antioch , antioch ca - Google Maps
Hindsight is 20 20 but wouldn't a simple Internet connection and Google Maps combined with the fact that the guy who kidnapped and imprisoned that poor California girl for 18 years was a registered sex offender have enabled the police or other authorities to rescue her sooner? A Google mashup of locations of registered sex offenders combined with the link above would have shown something fishy going on. Seems that local building or zoning code enforcement using the Google Maps tool would have revealed some serious code violations. A GIS map of property lines and the image above would have shown that he was running some sort of illicit activity on part of his property.
Hindsight is 20 20 but wouldn't a simple Internet connection and Google Maps combined with the fact that the guy who kidnapped and imprisoned that poor California girl for 18 years was a registered sex offender have enabled the police or other authorities to rescue her sooner? A Google mashup of locations of registered sex offenders combined with the link above would have shown something fishy going on. Seems that local building or zoning code enforcement using the Google Maps tool would have revealed some serious code violations. A GIS map of property lines and the image above would have shown that he was running some sort of illicit activity on part of his property.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
70th Wedding Anniversary
8/6/09
The Brown’s are a model for marriage, celebrate 70th
By Chris Bullard
While divorce rates in the U.S. hover around 50 percent, one Clarendon county couple is setting the example of long-term commitment.
Marrying at the ages of 19, Robert and Jeanette Brown will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary on Aug. 9.
How did they do it?
“That’s a question I can’t answer,” Jeanette said. “I guess it was meant to be.”
Growing up in Sumter, Robert and Jeanette met in a high school typing class.
“When we were coming up, people just met at somebody’s house,” Robert said. “The girls and boys went to different schools after a certain grade. I needed a typing class, and it was my job to lead the football team over to the girl’s school for it. We ended up sitting by each other in the class.”
“He was dating someone else at the time,” added Jeanette. “But they broke up, and I mended his heart.”
On Aug. 9, 1939, the two were married in a Lutheran church on the corner of North Washington Street and Hampton Avenue in Sumter, where a Tuomey Hospital parking garage now stands.
“There wasn’t any air conditioning in the church and the men wore white linen suites,” recalled Robert. “I remember it was so hot we were sweating through the suits and one boy had to go home and change because you could see his blue striped shorts.
“They pinned white sheets all over the pulpit and put smilax on there. It was beautiful.”
“That was the trend back then,” added Jeanette.
The couple spent their honeymoon in Washington D.C. with only $100.
 |
CHRIS BULLARD/Manning Times |
| Robert and Jeanette Brown stand together on the front porch of their home on Lake Marion. The Browns, married at the age of 19, will soon celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary. |
“I kept books of our money and we came home with 68 cents,” said Jeanette. “We said we didn’t live on money, but on love. But I learned that wasn’t true.”
As life continued on for the couple, they had one child, Robert Brown III. Jeanette retired from Sumter County Health Department Vital Statistics in 1978 and Robert retired as Vice President of Wachovia Bank in Sumter in 1982.
Robert III, who now lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., sees his parents as a model for maintaining a long-lived relationship.
“Mom and Dad have always enjoyed life and have many good friends in the Manning and Sumter area,” he said. “I believe their ability to enjoy the best in people and to enjoy time spent with good friends has been a part of their long marriage. In these times of marriages that only last a few years, they are a model of what a marriage contract really means.”
“As we aged we’ve gotten into a social group. We go to a breakfast club and a supper club,” said Jeanette. “We love Clarendon.”
“Our neighbors really look out for us and we live in a great community,” said Robert.
To celebrate this anniversary, many of the Brown’s friends and neighbors planned a party.
“We had a big 50th anniversary,” said Jeanette. “For our 60th anniversary there was a banner that said ‘For 60 loving years.’ I told them they spelled love wrong – it should be endure.”
The Browns now also have one grandson and three great-grandchildren. So what’s next for this enduring couple?
“We live day by day,” said Jeanette.
“We’re just going on with our plans,” added Robert. “Why stop?”
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The Real Facts on Health Care Reform by AARP
AARP - Health Action Now! : Myths vs. Facts
Don't Let the Myths About Health Care Reform Scare You.
There are special interest groups trying to block progress on health care reform by using myths and scare tactics. Like the notion that health care reform would ration your care, hurt Medicare or be a government takeover. Actually, these are false statements.
All of the health care reform plans currently being debated in Congress would ensure that you and your doctor are the ones making decisions about your health. The majority of working Americans will continue to receive their health care through their employer. In addition, health care reform will strengthen Medicare by eliminating billions of dollars in waste while lowering prescription drug prices.
Throughout the debate on how to fix what's broken about our health care system, AARP pledges to help you cut through the noise and find the facts about what health care reform means for you and your family. When we see special interests using scare tactics, we'll make sure you're given the facts so you can make informed decisions about health care reform.
The following are some of the most common myths being spread about health care reform and the facts that prove them wrong – click here to watch a video by AARP on the myths and facts of reform.
Vacation Mode, August 18, 2009
We were away from home from August 3rd to August 17th. During that period all electronics were unplugged except for two DVRs and the Acer Aspire One netbook that functions as the server for BBBrown.mysolarlog.com. Two inefficient non-Energy Star refrigerators were running as well as the pool pump 5 hours a day. The weather was relatively good for solar generation but the ambient temperatures were high, in the 90s. The jump in percentage generated can be clearly seen in this chart which shows daily percent generated since January 1 of this year, 2009.Friday, August 14, 2009
Florida's Solar Incentives NPR Market Place
Solar energy gains ground in Florida | Marketplace From American Public Media
More on Sustainability
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Solar energy gains ground in Florida
Gainesville, Fla. is the first city in the country to adopt a new solar incentive program, making it profitable for an average person or business to put up solar panels and begin feeding power back to the grid. Jennifer Collins reports.
Kai Ryssdal: Gainesville, Florida sits right in the heart of the Sunshine State. It's probably best know for its powerhouse college football team, the University of Florida Gators. The city's also started attracting attention for power of a different sort. Solar energy. Panels are popping up all over the city. So are the economic benefits. Jennifer Collins has more from the Marketplace Sustainability Desk.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Plastic and water
Solutions Journal
What a strange concept. Love bottled water? Have you ever thought about the fact that thte bottles are made from oil and the water, in most cases, is just tap water? If it is truly water from distant mountain springs then oil is used to ship it all over the world. Very bizarre.
What a strange concept. Love bottled water? Have you ever thought about the fact that thte bottles are made from oil and the water, in most cases, is just tap water? If it is truly water from distant mountain springs then oil is used to ship it all over the world. Very bizarre.
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
I Feel Better About Our Computers
I thought we were not the norm with our three desktops and three laptops. I guess that is not so unusual after all according to this very interesting article at ZDNet:
How many PCs are enough? 5? 10? | Tech News on ZDNet
How many PCs are enough? 5? 10? | Tech News on ZDNet
Despite a PC market in freefall, it seems silicon.com readers are still packing a fair few pieces of hardware.
Asked how many PCs - including laptops, desktops and netbooks - they own, 45 per cent of ZDNet sister site silicon.com readers who responded admitted to having between three and five.
An even more hardware-heavy 32 per cent claimed to have between five and 10 computers tucked away while another six per cent 'fessed up to having more than 10 machines. And presumably very large houses and/or understanding partners.
At the low end, 11 per cent owned up to having a pair of PCs, five per cent said they own just one and a hardware-shunning one per cent said they have no PCs at all (which presumably means they responded to the poll either in the office or on a friend's hardware.)
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monk Parakeets
Last week my granddaughters and I bought two new birdfeeders. One is a hanging feeder and the other a platform feeder. We told the girls that we were hoping the hanging tubular one would attract some parrots. Amazingly, parrots have visited the feeder. Well, to be technically correct parakeets have visited. We have had one Black Hooded Parakeet and three Monk Parakeets. I grabbed my video camera and shooting through the kitchen window and the patio screens got this short video.
See http://invasions.bio.utk.edu/invaders/monk.html for more info on the Monk Parakeet as an invader.
See http://invasions.bio.utk.edu/invaders/monk.html for more info on the Monk Parakeet as an invader.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Gambling the Future? Excerpts from Dave Cohen's article on ASPO-USA
Is Business-As-Usual Likely In A Peak Oil Scenario? :: ASPO-USA: Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas
2010-2020 — The Decisive Decade
If the peak oil hypothesis is correct, world oil production will likely be in decline well before 2020. During this same period, the United States may (or may not) implement a cap & trade system to rein in CO2 emissions. The proposed legislation aims to cut emissions 17% below 2005 levels by 2020. Emissions declined in 2008 following on the oil shock of 2007. The financial meltdown in 2008:Q3 guarantees a similar emissions decline in 2009.
As I described in The Reign of Error, Europe already has a cap & trade system in place. Europe’s carbon market, created under the Kyoto Protocol, has not actually resulted in reduced emissions in the Eurozone. This sleight-of-hand is due to allowable offsets whereby a putative reduction outside of Europe (e.g. in Asia, or Africa) is counted as a reduction within Europe. At best, Europe has reduced the carbon intensity of any economic growth that took place since the formation of the carbon market. The proposed cap & trade system in the United States contains the same loophole.
Assuming that peak oil occurs early in the next decade, and the currently envisioned cap & trade system, which goes into effect in 2012, is actually implemented, we can expect an overall decline in carbon emissions in the United States during the period 2010-2020. If growing emissions are a necessary condition for economic growth, as I have argued here and in The Radical Hypothesis, it follows that the American economy will shrink, not grow, in the coming decade.
If world oil production peaks, I predict most people will forget about terrifying business-as-usual climate scenarios. Instead, they will get down to the hard business of replacing oil by any means possible. If the economy is shrinking, any means necessary will be used to jump start growth. I am not so much interested in what should happen. I am interested in what will happen.
Thus, the years 2010-2020 will likely be the decisive decade of the 21st century. We should know by 2020 whether economies can grow as emissions decline. The result will define our response to anthropogenic climate change in all the decades to follow. We will know whether the consensus view espoused by Joe Romm, John Holdren and many others, as I have believed all along, is merely a politically expedient, faith-based “green jobs” guess about how things will turn out. Should that guess be proved wrong, our political leaders will run the other way.
Contact the author at dave.aspo@gmail.com
Thursday, July 23, 2009
My friend Troy's Philipine Adventure
Welcome to Troys 2009 Uhaj Native Village Adventure
Rick and Cordella live next door to us and our best friends. They are an extraordinary family who live an intensive life outside their work life which in itself is intense. They travel to Honduras and work at a school for girls with their church. They are involved in a lot of other charitable organizations as well as their church. This summer, their son Troy, traveled to Banaue in the Philippines to study native woodcarving from a master wood carver there. He has documented his adventure with photos and a diary on this website. He will be coming home soon and we all are excited about hearing the details of his summer study adventure in Banaue. Barbara and I believe that this adventure and the experiences he is having are absolutely amazing. Troy has traveled half way around the planet on his own. Lived in a remote village in the Philippines and studied the art of woodcarving with only hand tools for a month. He has also hiked to remote sites and has lived in an area that has farmed the steep hillsides growing rice in terraced fields for centuries. We cannot wait to see him and hear of his adventures and we know he is anxious to return home but will miss the friends that he has made there.
Rick and Cordella live next door to us and our best friends. They are an extraordinary family who live an intensive life outside their work life which in itself is intense. They travel to Honduras and work at a school for girls with their church. They are involved in a lot of other charitable organizations as well as their church. This summer, their son Troy, traveled to Banaue in the Philippines to study native woodcarving from a master wood carver there. He has documented his adventure with photos and a diary on this website. He will be coming home soon and we all are excited about hearing the details of his summer study adventure in Banaue. Barbara and I believe that this adventure and the experiences he is having are absolutely amazing. Troy has traveled half way around the planet on his own. Lived in a remote village in the Philippines and studied the art of woodcarving with only hand tools for a month. He has also hiked to remote sites and has lived in an area that has farmed the steep hillsides growing rice in terraced fields for centuries. We cannot wait to see him and hear of his adventures and we know he is anxious to return home but will miss the friends that he has made there.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Images of Mass Consumption
There is a strange beauty in these images of mass consumption but also conflicting feelings of horror. The feelings are like those when you are driving and a bad accident has occurred and you have to drive right by it. You don't want to look but something compels you to.
The Images by Chris Jordan
The Images by Chris Jordan
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy
About FARE
The Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy “FARE” is a coalition of concerned individuals, businesses, communities, associations, policy makers, non-profits, and renewable energy producers. FARE is dedicated to educating and engaging Floridians on Renewable Energy Dividends. RED's have proven to be the most wide-spread and effective legislation for the promotion of renewable energy. Support FARE today and help secure a future for Florida that includes job creation, energy independence and environmental stewardship.
Weather and NPR
Our weather has been unusually hot. High temps daily in the 90s. That is really unusual for us. Even so, our PV system has been cranking out 35 percent and up of our energy. With the AC running constantly that is not too bad. We still have a lot of work to do on conservation. When our major appliances get old enough we will replace them with Energy Star ones. We have two refrigerators and that alone should save us about 10+ KWH per day. It is more cost effective to replace inefficient appliances than it is to add more solar panels.
A couple of days ago while taking Barbara to the dentist I turned on the radio. It happened to be tuned to NPR and the Dian Rehm show. They were talking about solar energy. It was a good show with a great panel made up of:
Rob Lamkin, CEO, Cool Earth Solar
Rhone Resch, president and chief executive officer, Solar Energy Industries Association
Peter Fox-Penner, principal and chairman emeritus, The Brattle Group, an international economic consulting firm,former Department of Energy official, and author of the forthcoming Island Press book "Smart Power"
Alex Daue, Renewable Energy Coordinator with the Wilderness Society.
Something urged me to call in and boy was I shocked when they took my call. I was so surprised that my thoughts were not as organized as I would have liked them to be. I still managed to convey some of our experiences of living in a solar home and got a nice compliment from the panel. You can go to the Diane Rehm Show website and listen if you want. My call came in about two thirds of the way into the show. Click here to go to the website. The audio links are on the right.
A couple of days ago while taking Barbara to the dentist I turned on the radio. It happened to be tuned to NPR and the Dian Rehm show. They were talking about solar energy. It was a good show with a great panel made up of:
Rob Lamkin, CEO, Cool Earth Solar
Rhone Resch, president and chief executive officer, Solar Energy Industries Association
Peter Fox-Penner, principal and chairman emeritus, The Brattle Group, an international economic consulting firm,former Department of Energy official, and author of the forthcoming Island Press book "Smart Power"
Alex Daue, Renewable Energy Coordinator with the Wilderness Society.
Something urged me to call in and boy was I shocked when they took my call. I was so surprised that my thoughts were not as organized as I would have liked them to be. I still managed to convey some of our experiences of living in a solar home and got a nice compliment from the panel. You can go to the Diane Rehm Show website and listen if you want. My call came in about two thirds of the way into the show. Click here to go to the website. The audio links are on the right.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Another Tiny PC
fit-PC2 Wiki
CompuLab introduces fit-PC2 – the smallest, most power-efficient Intel Atom PC to date. fit-PC2 architecture is what sets it apart from other nettop PCs - fit-PC2 is designed around the Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz and the ultra low power Intel US15W system controller hub, rather than the Atom N270 and 945G used in other nettop-PCs, thereby reducing power consumption by more than two thirds.
US15W incorporates hardware video acceleration. This allows fit-PC2 to run Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux at just 6W and to play full HD 1080p H.264 video using less than 7W.
Unique Features
Size
The most striking feature of fit-PC2 is its size - 4" x 4.5" x 1.05" - smaller than a CD.
Fanless Operation
fit-PC2 is totally fanless - the all-aluminum case dissipates heat. This has two advantages -
*
o fit-PC2 is noiseless, or absolutely silent if used with a solid state disk.
o Increased reliability due to no moving parts.
Wall Wart Computer
Marvell SheevaPlug: $99 Linux PC hidden in a wall-wart - SlashGear
Marvell SheevaPlug: $99 Linux PC hidden in a wall-wart
By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Feb 24th 2009
Worth Reading?
NoYes
+92 [96 votes]
Marvell have been talking up their SheevaPlug reference design, a wall-wart power plug that actually hides an entire Linux PC. Priced at $99, inside the SheevaPlug there’s an ARM-based 1.2GHz Sheeva embedded processor, 512MB of DDR2 memory, 512MB of flash storage, gigabit ethernet and USB 2.0; in fact the development kit is available now.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Black-hooded Parakeet
We had one of these on our bird feeder this morning. Since we use one of those weight balanced feeders, the parakeet was unable to perch without closing the cover over the seed. I heard the typical sounds of a parrot and I always try to see them even though they are fairly common in this area . To my surprise, a Nanday or Black-hooded parakeet was trying to land on the feeder. I understand that they are an invasive species but it sure was pretty.
Roar and Brake
This comment extracted from a CNET article on the Toyota Prius sure struck a nerve. We have noticed the same thing as we drive. People sit at a light. The light turns green and the stomp the accelerator to get to the next light which turns red just as they arrive. We cruise past in "old man mode" and they stomp it and brake hard at the next light as we cruise through. It was amuzing to see someone else express this as well as this commentor on the web site did.
Chasing the Toyota Prius' 50-mpg nirvana | Green Tech - CNET News
Chasing the Toyota Prius' 50-mpg nirvana | Green Tech - CNET News
@sausagebiscuit
What I do find amusing is that most traffic lights are timed for a specific road speed. I can't tell you how many times, I have been passed by a guy doing 5 over the limit. While I drive the limit. 90% of the time I find him stopped at the next light. As I roll up doing the speed limit the light turns green I don't need to brake or accelerate. I pass the guy who passed me, only to see him roar up past me again. And we repeat the process over and over, as he roars past brakes hard at the light sits, and grumbles then roars past again.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Solar Startups in the Sunshine State
Some of Central Florida's solar-power companies - OrlandoSentinel.com
Energy Alternatives, DeLand: A former airline pilot, Sandra Williams was waiting in a long line of planes in New York when she suddenly became aware of what she calls "my long history of bad fossil-fuel karma." She whipped out a calculator and determined that she had personally been responsible for using 1.5 million gallons of gas in her aviation career. She hung up her captain's uniform and started working on a book called The Queen of Green Tells All. In 2005, she started her company and got to work installing solar water heaters in homes and businesses. Williams is seeking grants to do solar education.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Great way to use rainwater.
Rain2o: Source for Rain Water Harvesting Equipment
HOW MUCH RAIN FALLS ON YOUR ROOF?
Would you be surprised to hear 50,000 gallons annually? That’s the answer when big and small homes are averaged together and different levels of rain fall are taken into account (see Table 1). A modest ½” of rain yields 700 gallons of rain water on a typical roof and all of that pours through your downspouts. Rain barrels are an excellent way to collect and store some of your rain water for use between rains, for example, to water your gardens using soaker hoses. The cost to set up a few rain barrels is modest and easily recouped through savings from reduced water and sewer bills.
Laser "cure" for blindness tested (BBC)
This is pretty exciting news for our older friends who may have macular degeneration.
BBC NEWS | Health | Laser 'cure' for blindness tested
BBC NEWS | Health | Laser 'cure' for blindness tested
Laser 'cure' for blindness tested
Elderly eye
AMD causes blurred or distorted central vision
A ground-breaking laser treatment could prevent millions of older people from going blind, experts believe.
The technique helps reverse the effects of age-related macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world.
Developed by pioneering eye expert Professor John Marshall of King's College London, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Five new apps for the Iphone
Five fab apps for iPhone OS 3.0 and the new 3GS
Here's a quick look at five applications iPhone and iPod Touch owners should consider. The easiest way to track them down is by accessing the App Store on the iPhone and searching for the app title. (You can do it in iTunes, too, if you want.)
Friday, July 03, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Florida lawmakers just can't get it right. Sunshine State? Not yet.
Solar disarray: Lawmakers bungle green push
As a blazing sun bore down this week, Southwest Florida got a sweltering reminder of true solar power.
With the intensity and frequency of its sunshine, Florida should be a world leader in harnessing this potent form of renewable energy.
Yet, the state has only a handful of commercial solar arrays, offers a paltry $5 million rebate program and serves merely as a conduit for federal stimulus funds targeted to renewable energy projects.
Despite good goals set by Gov. Charlie Crist, Florida has done too little to increase the use and generation of solar power or to encourage businesses or jobs in developing, supplying or installing the equipment.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Behind the scenes...how RC gear really works.
RC Gear from Crazy Builders on Vimeo.
This is a pretty interesting explanation of how RC, Radio Control, gear works. We take a lot of this for granted but when you see what goes on behind the scenes you understand just how remarkable the technology is today. Wait for the end. Pretty funny.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Aspire One Solar Logger
My new netbook, and Acer Aspire One. This one is running Windows XP and is functioning as the server that uploads data to http://bbbrown.mysolarlog.com/ . It takes the place of a headless Dell machine running Windows Vista. This change reduces energy consumption of the server by 1.22 kwh per day. This is a significant savings over the old machine and is just one little bit of energy that we are no longer consuming. It is amazing how many small things we have plugged in that are sucking small amounts of energy. It all adds up.
webkit
Talk about a steady decline. Internet Explorer has been gliding down from the altitude it got by being bundled with all new computers. Does this mean that the PC user community is getting more savvy with time? Firefox shows a steady growth. I just tested the new Safari 4 on my Mac and it has some very nice features. I believe that it is built on the Gecko engine like the new Firefox. I have also test Chrome by Google and it is really fast but as of yet has few addons or enhancements. For now, I will stick with Firefox as my web browser.
Dramatic gains in truck efficiency through aerodynamic testing.
AeroTruck E-38096: Air flow testing on aerodynamic truck
During a decade spanning the 1970s and 1980s, Dryden researchers conducted tests to determine the extent to which adjustments in the shape of trucks reduced aerodynamic drag and improved efficiency. During the tests, the vehicle's sides were fitted with tufts, or strings, that showed air flow. The investigators concluded that rounding the vertical corners front and rear reduced drag by 40 percent, yet decreased the vehicle's internal volume by only 1.3 percent. Rounding both the vertical and horizontal corners cut drag by 54 percent, resulting in a three percent loss of internal volume. A second group of tests added a faired underbody and a boat tail, the latter feature resulting in drag reduction of about 15 percent.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
My Firefox Add Ons
Believe me when I say I have done a LOT of testing with Firefox addons. After considerable experimentation this is my current stable of Firefox addons that provide such incredible functionality that I have yet to see a web browser that approaches this setup. I'll publish a series of discussions about each of these in the future and what I find so useful about each of them but for now, here is my list:
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Firefox and the "Awesomebar"
A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3 :: The Mozilla Blog
A Little Something Awesome about Firefox 3
Posted by Mary Colvig
April 21st, 2008 · Mozilla News, Tips & Tricks
Deb Richardson, author of the about:mozilla newsletter, wrote one of the better explanations I’ve seen on the “AwesomeBar,” Firefox 3’s revamped URL bar. It’s not the most humble of names, but if you check out Deb’s post you’ll see why it’s earned it.
In Deb’s words, here’s a quick snapshot of what makes Firefox 3’s URL bar just so awesome:
Dubbed the “AwesomeBar”, it lets you use the URL field of your browser to do a keyword search of your history and bookmarks. No longer do you have to know the domain of the page you’re looking for — the AwesomeBar will match what you’re typing (even multiple words!) against the URLs, page titles, and tags in your bookmarks and history, returning results sorted by “frecency” (an algorithm combining frequency + recency).
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Only in South Florida
Iguana problems tackled at Palm Beach County symposium -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Leapin' lizards. Literally.
More than 100 people showed up at the Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service building west of West Palm Beach on Tuesday to learn about everything iguana. There was information ranging from what plants are most vulnerable to an iguana palate to how to harass and euthanize them if they become a nuisance.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Cooliris for Firefox
I love this addition to Firefox. It is a stunningly beautiful way to browse photos and videos by category or on any web page. This is one of my recommended Firefox add ons.
Cooliris :: Firefox Add-ons
Cooliris :: Firefox Add-ons
Full-Screen, 3D -- Cooliris is simply the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from the Web or your desktop. Effortlessly scroll a "3D Wall" of your content from Facebook, Google Images, YouTube, Flickr, and hundreds more.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The future of browsing, at least with Firefox our favorite browser.
From "ReadWriteWeb" a glimpse into the future of web browsers. We currently use Firefox with several add ons that give our browser customized power. One of these is called Ubiquity and another enhances tabbed browsing. The add ons that we find useful to us seem to be useful to others too. The future of Firefox seems to incorporate all of them into the browser itself. We find this article innteresting and perhaps you will too.
The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity - ReadWriteWeb
The Future of Firefox: No Tabs, Built-In Ubiquity - ReadWriteWeb
Thanks to its extensibility, Firefox quickly became the favorite browser for most power users. But while extensions are a great way to make Firefox more functional, Mozilla's designers are also currently thinking about a complete redesign of the way the browser looks and feels, in order to keep up with changing usage patterns. The most radical proposal we have seen so far would do away with the standard browser tabs, and replace them with an interface that looks more like iTunes than Firefox.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Earth Trainer Tomato Growing
This is a great set of instructions for growing tomatoes hydroponically in plastic storage containers. The link is here. Complete instructions including videos are available. Just continue through the article to the bottom. I've always had an interest in this and will probably give it a try this spring. I used a hydroponically watered feed tray to start some Amaryllis seedlings. They are all doing well. One of our lilies produced big seed heads and just as an experiment we tried germinating them by using what is known as the "California Method.' It involves floating the seeds in glass containers until they germinate. I used some big glass casserole trays and it worked. I would say we got about a fifty percent germination rate. The method of growing described in this tomato article might also be a great way to continue growing those seedlings. I am definitely going to give this a try.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Nice Orchids For You..
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Nice Orchids For You..
View more presentations from Dinisha .
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Plug-in Vehicles for Clean transportation
This this technology is far off in the future? Watch a video about a family who has driven for 7 years and 70,000 miles with no gas and using only the energy generated from their solar panels. This could have been implemented almost a decade ago and was not. Our own house generates excess energy during the day. We could use it to charge up a plug in vehicle.
Watch this fascinating video right here.
Watch this fascinating video right here.
New things in Gmail
Gmail has served us well as a web based email client. The developers are always coming up with new things to make it even more appealing. Here are some new features that I really like:
...and this one is especially nice. It is still under development but works well. The delay needs to be a bit longer or user configurable. But, this is very nice. We used to have an undo in our email at work and it saved me many times when I sent something and then had second thoughts about it.
 | YouTube previews in mail by Stanley C and Braden K Shows a video preview whenever you receive a YouTube link in an email. You can watch the video right inline! |
 | Picasa previews in mail by Dan, Stanley, Mark & Umesh Shows photos previews whenever you receive a Picasa link in an email. |
 | Flickr previews in mail by Dan P Shows photos previews whenever you receive a Flickr link in an email. |
...and this one is especially nice. It is still under development but works well. The delay needs to be a bit longer or user configurable. But, this is very nice. We used to have an undo in our email at work and it saved me many times when I sent something and then had second thoughts about it.
 | Undo Send by Yuzo F Oops, hit "Send" too soon? Stop messages from being sent for a few seconds after hitting the send button. |
Thursday, March 19, 2009
First Ever Whale Sedation
A right whale was sedated in order to remove entangled fishing gear. About 90 percent of the gear was removed. Read more.
Solar systems thirty percent off. Buy now.
Solar stuff that Obama will help you buy.
The new tax credits amount to thirty percent off for photovoltaic and solar water heating systems. If only we had the money. Well in Florida you also get $4 a watt for photovoltaic systems and $500 for solar water heaters. So, for photovoltaic systems that is almost another thirty percent off. Wow. Wish the tax credit cap had been removed when we installed ours. We would have saved a LOT.
The new tax credits amount to thirty percent off for photovoltaic and solar water heating systems. If only we had the money. Well in Florida you also get $4 a watt for photovoltaic systems and $500 for solar water heaters. So, for photovoltaic systems that is almost another thirty percent off. Wow. Wish the tax credit cap had been removed when we installed ours. We would have saved a LOT.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Mozy Backups
After years of using external hard drives and all sorts of other backup schemes for my computers I took the plunge and decided to give Mozy a try. This site is a good summary of the service. I gave up thinking I could be a reliable support service for my own computers. First I switched to using Google Mail when it first came out. I admit that much of the decision was based on the functionality I saw in their calendar and the way it integrated with email. So, we have used Gmail and Google Calendar for years now and have been extremely happy with it. I won't go into all of the reasons because this post is about Mozy. You can read the excellent review of the service at this site. I'll post more about my use of this service as time goes on. Our two computers, a Mac and a PC, are in the initial backup stage right now. That is a bit time consuming but once the first backup is completed all others are incremental so that they should take only a short time. I was satisfied with the security and privacy protections at Mozy. Thanks Nick Barardi for an excellent overview and review of Mozy.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Energy Panel Discussion
This is an insight into what the future holds for energy management and monitoring.
Thursday, March 05, 2009
They sail on pink oil, the strangest sailing club in the world.
Sail World - Powerboat-world: Sail and sailing, cruising, boating news
I found this article to be fascinating from a sailing viewpoint and from a geographical viewpoint. I might also add that anyone with an interest in water management would find the story about this transient lake in Australia intriguing as well. Sailors are indeed some of the most interesting people in the world.
I found this article to be fascinating from a sailing viewpoint and from a geographical viewpoint. I might also add that anyone with an interest in water management would find the story about this transient lake in Australia intriguing as well. Sailors are indeed some of the most interesting people in the world.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
My Favorite Firefox Addons
These are the Firefox add on applications that I have installed. Extensive testing and evaluation have demonstrated that these are most useful for every day web browsing and file manipulation.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Greem Tax Credits In New Stimulus Bill
How You Can Green Your Home and Cash in on Stimulus Money | Environment | AlterNet
Hampton Falls, N.H. -- Energy-saving systems for the attic, basement, and in between have effectively gone on sale, courtesy of the United States Congress.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Mothership Media Center
This is the media center in the Mothership, my Iphone in Ipod mode with a Belkin FM transmitter that sends the music to the FM radio. This puts our huge library of music into a very small package with a great graphical search interface. This makes owning the Iphone worthwhile if none of the other amazing functions and applications were available. The music quality is better than the speakers we have in the Mothership. We can listen to hours and hours of our favorite music this way. A real plus is that the power consumption is extremely low.
Google Maps or Mapquest? Vote here.
Reader Poll: Google Maps or MapQuest?
Here at Lifehacker, most of us made the switch to Google Maps in its early days—back before MapQuest had added any of the AJAX map scrolling and zooming that made Google Maps stand out. Still, when it comes to getting directions, I'm always surprised when I hear people use MapQuest as a verb the same way they use Google (i.e., "I'll just MapQuest it."). So we're curious to hear which you're using for your mapping and directions needs:
LED, CFL or Incandescent? Ask Pablo
LED lights | Salon Life
A 10W CFL, available online for $6.90, has an expected median lifetime of 10,000 hours. While this is about 10 times longer than the life expectancy of an incandescent bulb, it is only one-fifth the expected life of the LED. So LEDs have the potential of cutting down on ladder time by a factor of 50 over incandescent bulbs! At about 25 cents apiece, the incandescent has by far the lowest upfront cost, which is why many people still use them. If we normalize the cost of all the bulbs over a 50,000-hour period, the incandescent bulbs cost $12.50, while CFL bulbs cost $34.50, and the LED bulb costs $59.95. But, as you may already know, the upfront cost of a bulb is by far the cheapest part. It's the electricity required to operate the bulb that adds up.
Over a period of 50,000 hours, a 40W incandescent bulb will use 2,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh). At 15 cents per kWh, this will put $300 in the pocket of your local utility, bringing the total cost of the incandescent bulb, over 50,000 hours, up to $312.50. The CFL bulb only uses 500kWh over the same time period, or $75, totaling $109.50. Finally, the LED bulb will use 350kWh for $52.50, with a total cost of $112.45. So, in this example, the LED light does cost a few dollars more but the difference is negligible. Think of the time you will save by not running to the store to buy bulbs and climbing the ladder to change them.
Buy a Prius or a used car?
Prius Envy | Mother Jones
So how are we nonengineers supposed to know when to junk our old car without guilt? By Päster's numbers, building an average midsize car in 2007 emitted 18,000 pounds of CO2—about the same as burning 900 gallons of gas. He won't commit to exact numbers, but he does have a rule of thumb: If your jalopy is moderately efficient (i.e., gets better than 25 mpg) and you don't drive it much, keeping it is better than buying a new car. "But if you have an old car with pretty lousy fuel economy," he says, "then you're better off getting a new car because the emissions from making a new car are really not that big compared to the emissions from using the car."
Friday, February 06, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Place Names
Tranquility Cove and Tranquility Cove (in Clarendon County, SC)
Found these references to Tranquility Cove on the Internet. Interesting that the name is referenced in many places that are part of the internet. It would have been impossible for my grandfather to have imagined this when he stood here before the lake was flooded and named it. The name "Tranquility Cove" appears in many places now including all of the US Geological Survey maps. Every place name has a history. The one that I remember most vividly is "Cape Canaveral." When I was stationed there in the Navy back in the 1960's, Congress tried to change the name of the town as well as the base to "Cape Kennedy." A great furor erupted in the town and the protest resulted in the name remaining the original "Cape Canaveral." How many fascinating place names based on a real story have been wiped clean by some well meaning city council, state government, or congress to honor some contemporary person or event. This is shameful in my opinion because original place names should be protected along with their history and meaning.
Found these references to Tranquility Cove on the Internet. Interesting that the name is referenced in many places that are part of the internet. It would have been impossible for my grandfather to have imagined this when he stood here before the lake was flooded and named it. The name "Tranquility Cove" appears in many places now including all of the US Geological Survey maps. Every place name has a history. The one that I remember most vividly is "Cape Canaveral." When I was stationed there in the Navy back in the 1960's, Congress tried to change the name of the town as well as the base to "Cape Kennedy." A great furor erupted in the town and the protest resulted in the name remaining the original "Cape Canaveral." How many fascinating place names based on a real story have been wiped clean by some well meaning city council, state government, or congress to honor some contemporary person or event. This is shameful in my opinion because original place names should be protected along with their history and meaning.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Mac Mini as Web Kiosk
I live 500 miles away from my mom and dad. My dad has been a Webtv/MSNTV user now for over a decade. It has served him well giving us communications that we would never had had without it. He knows it well and is quite comfortable using it. Over the last year I have become concerned about the device's limited ability to keep up as web site evolve rapidly to contain more and more features based on Flash and other programming that challenge the device's capabilities. Simply playing a YouTube video from beginning to end has become an impossibility.
Without being overly critical and detailing the limitations of Webtv/MSNTV I want to document the solution I came up with as a backup with the goal of migrating completely to in time. I decided that a Mac Mini was the best solution. It is very small in size, not much larger physically than a thick paperback book yet it has surprising capabilities.
I chose the display first and sense dad's tv was an old Sony CRT it was time to migrate to a more modern unit. Based on a combination of price, capability, and positive reviews on the internet we purchased a 48 inch Sharp Aquos LCD TV that had an HDMI input. The 1020 x 740 progressive display capability essentially gave us a 48 inch computer monitor combined with a beautiful TV display. This particular TV gave us enough signal input options that we could also incorporate the Webtv/MSNTV unit into the mix by simply using one of the RCA inputs. Of course we hooked up his DirecTivo satellite receiver to another of the inputs.
Next we added the Mac Mini to the mix by using a DVI to HDMI cable which we had ordered at the same time we ordered the Mac Mini. It is important to order this so that it is available when you hook up the Mac Mini as they can be a bit hard to find if you live in a rural area. There is quite a bit of debate on the net as to the relative merits of HDMI as opposed to composite input but we decided on the DVI to HDMI as a good compromise.
We ran into a bit of a challenge with the upscaling of the signal from the Mac Mini to the Aquos TV. It is not a show stopper but does require a bit of twiddling with the TV settings. The signal from the Mac is 1024 by 7??? and the TV is a 1080 P display. ???? There are settings on the TV that allow one to matchup the two.
Once the hardware is setup and configured properly you end up with a really nice 48 inch display for internet browsing and email. A bonus is that the Mac Mini also functions as a nice DVD player when properly configured thereby eliminating one unit in the home theatre setup. The system is functional at this point but when migrating a Webtv/MSNTV user to a PC/Mac windowed desktop environment there are a number of tweaks that are necessary to insure a seamless and easy to use system. There is nothing particularly difficult about this tweaking but it did require a lot of research to find everything to make it work with minimal user effort.
I chose to use the Firefox Browser because of its wealth of add ons and plugins that ease the fine tuning for ease of used and the new large display. Webtv uses Hotmail, now Windows Live Mail I think. It was necessary to migrate that into the Firefox Browser too.
Firefox has many options available as far as appearance goes by using various themes. After much trial and error we settled on the xxxxx theme which gives large icons which match up nicely with the display. We also changed the minimum font size to 18 to give good readability from a lounger chair distance from the TV.
Hotmail or Windows Live Mail is the same web based email used by the Webtv/MSNTV so choosing it saves all mail and addresses used on the MSNTV unit. This can be a hard concept for some Webtv users. It is difficult for them to understand that their email can be accessed and managed using any internet capable computer. It might require some effort to explain this so that the Webtv user has confidence that they do not have to return to the old unit to manage their email.
The default on the Mac is to go use the built in Mail client for any mailto links or for sending web page URLS through the file/send/link option in Firefox. After a lot of research we found that installing a small application called Webmailer solved the problem. Get webmailer here. The Firefox preferences might have to be changed to use Webmailer for all email links. Webmailer essentially adds an option pane in Mac OS X so that one can choose various webmail options such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and many others.
The chat function was important for my dad and I and at first this seemed a difficult challenge. There seemed at first glance no easy way to adapt Ichat to use the old MS Instant Messenger that my dad was used to. I tried Meebo, a nice web based chat solution based on Ajax. I like it but my dad did not. Finally we settled on a free solution called Adium that can be dowloaded and installed easily. It is a nice chat solution that has many options and can handle all web chat systems including MS Instant Messenger, Yahoo, AOL, and a multitude of others.
I wanted to be able to manage the setup remotely so I investigated the remote desktop management solutions. The simplist seemed to be to turn on sharing with a password and the installation of the Vine Server to allow VNC access remotely. This works just fine but requires a bit of fiddling with the Cayman router/modem to send port 5900 to the internal IP of the Mac Mini. Once this is setup one can use any VNC client to remotely control the Mac Mini. With a good broadband connection this gives complete control over the unit allowing me to do maintenance and repairs from anywhere.
One of our goals was to add an audio/video chat capability which was impossible on the Webtv/MSNTV unit. We installed a Logitech 9000 Pro webcam on the system. This is simply a USB plugin. The Mac recognized it instantly and it required no configuration. Gotta love the Macs for their capability to recognize hardware with no twiddling or loading of software.
We then installed Skype, a free software package that gives video chat capability. On the Mac it also recognized the Logitech Webcam and we were able to video chat with our my son and his children 500 miles away. This works very well uses technology just as it should be used to bring people together over any geographic distance. The fact that it is all free is a wonderful thing for families.
Once the system hardware and software were setup for ease of use I created a home page on my server to provide a familiar and easy start page that I could edit and manage from my home office location. I added links for the sites that my mom and dad like to visit on a regular basis, the local weather, and the most common search sites such as Google, Wikipedia, and Snopes for checking out those wonderful Internet Myths that circulate by email
There are a lot of training issues in migrating from a Webt/MSNTV to a real computer system that allows multi tasking and windowing. I won't go into those at this time but they are real and require a LOT of patience and training. The benefits are great though and well worth the effort. I am impressed with the result, a nice computer/home theatre setup that is easy to use and powerful enough to handle almost any website.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/apple/use-your-mac-mini-as-a-media-server-part-1/
VNC on the Mac
http://www.dssw.co.uk/blog/2007/05/14/a-vnc-server-is-included-in-mac-os-x-104/
http://www.freemacblog.com/mac-server-series-setting-up-vnc-on-your-mac/
Other nice addons:
http://www.malarkeysoftware.com/projects_PhotoGrabbr.html Photo Grabbr
Without being overly critical and detailing the limitations of Webtv/MSNTV I want to document the solution I came up with as a backup with the goal of migrating completely to in time. I decided that a Mac Mini was the best solution. It is very small in size, not much larger physically than a thick paperback book yet it has surprising capabilities.
I chose the display first and sense dad's tv was an old Sony CRT it was time to migrate to a more modern unit. Based on a combination of price, capability, and positive reviews on the internet we purchased a 48 inch Sharp Aquos LCD TV that had an HDMI input. The 1020 x 740 progressive display capability essentially gave us a 48 inch computer monitor combined with a beautiful TV display. This particular TV gave us enough signal input options that we could also incorporate the Webtv/MSNTV unit into the mix by simply using one of the RCA inputs. Of course we hooked up his DirecTivo satellite receiver to another of the inputs.
Next we added the Mac Mini to the mix by using a DVI to HDMI cable which we had ordered at the same time we ordered the Mac Mini. It is important to order this so that it is available when you hook up the Mac Mini as they can be a bit hard to find if you live in a rural area. There is quite a bit of debate on the net as to the relative merits of HDMI as opposed to composite input but we decided on the DVI to HDMI as a good compromise.
We ran into a bit of a challenge with the upscaling of the signal from the Mac Mini to the Aquos TV. It is not a show stopper but does require a bit of twiddling with the TV settings. The signal from the Mac is 1024 by 7??? and the TV is a 1080 P display. ???? There are settings on the TV that allow one to matchup the two.
Once the hardware is setup and configured properly you end up with a really nice 48 inch display for internet browsing and email. A bonus is that the Mac Mini also functions as a nice DVD player when properly configured thereby eliminating one unit in the home theatre setup. The system is functional at this point but when migrating a Webtv/MSNTV user to a PC/Mac windowed desktop environment there are a number of tweaks that are necessary to insure a seamless and easy to use system. There is nothing particularly difficult about this tweaking but it did require a lot of research to find everything to make it work with minimal user effort.
I chose to use the Firefox Browser because of its wealth of add ons and plugins that ease the fine tuning for ease of used and the new large display. Webtv uses Hotmail, now Windows Live Mail I think. It was necessary to migrate that into the Firefox Browser too.
Firefox has many options available as far as appearance goes by using various themes. After much trial and error we settled on the xxxxx theme which gives large icons which match up nicely with the display. We also changed the minimum font size to 18 to give good readability from a lounger chair distance from the TV.
Hotmail or Windows Live Mail is the same web based email used by the Webtv/MSNTV so choosing it saves all mail and addresses used on the MSNTV unit. This can be a hard concept for some Webtv users. It is difficult for them to understand that their email can be accessed and managed using any internet capable computer. It might require some effort to explain this so that the Webtv user has confidence that they do not have to return to the old unit to manage their email.
The default on the Mac is to go use the built in Mail client for any mailto links or for sending web page URLS through the file/send/link option in Firefox. After a lot of research we found that installing a small application called Webmailer solved the problem. Get webmailer here. The Firefox preferences might have to be changed to use Webmailer for all email links. Webmailer essentially adds an option pane in Mac OS X so that one can choose various webmail options such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and many others.
The chat function was important for my dad and I and at first this seemed a difficult challenge. There seemed at first glance no easy way to adapt Ichat to use the old MS Instant Messenger that my dad was used to. I tried Meebo, a nice web based chat solution based on Ajax. I like it but my dad did not. Finally we settled on a free solution called Adium that can be dowloaded and installed easily. It is a nice chat solution that has many options and can handle all web chat systems including MS Instant Messenger, Yahoo, AOL, and a multitude of others.
I wanted to be able to manage the setup remotely so I investigated the remote desktop management solutions. The simplist seemed to be to turn on sharing with a password and the installation of the Vine Server to allow VNC access remotely. This works just fine but requires a bit of fiddling with the Cayman router/modem to send port 5900 to the internal IP of the Mac Mini. Once this is setup one can use any VNC client to remotely control the Mac Mini. With a good broadband connection this gives complete control over the unit allowing me to do maintenance and repairs from anywhere.
One of our goals was to add an audio/video chat capability which was impossible on the Webtv/MSNTV unit. We installed a Logitech 9000 Pro webcam on the system. This is simply a USB plugin. The Mac recognized it instantly and it required no configuration. Gotta love the Macs for their capability to recognize hardware with no twiddling or loading of software.
We then installed Skype, a free software package that gives video chat capability. On the Mac it also recognized the Logitech Webcam and we were able to video chat with our my son and his children 500 miles away. This works very well uses technology just as it should be used to bring people together over any geographic distance. The fact that it is all free is a wonderful thing for families.
Once the system hardware and software were setup for ease of use I created a home page on my server to provide a familiar and easy start page that I could edit and manage from my home office location. I added links for the sites that my mom and dad like to visit on a regular basis, the local weather, and the most common search sites such as Google, Wikipedia, and Snopes for checking out those wonderful Internet Myths that circulate by email
There are a lot of training issues in migrating from a Webt/MSNTV to a real computer system that allows multi tasking and windowing. I won't go into those at this time but they are real and require a LOT of patience and training. The benefits are great though and well worth the effort. I am impressed with the result, a nice computer/home theatre setup that is easy to use and powerful enough to handle almost any website.
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/apple/use-your-mac-mini-as-a-media-server-part-1/
VNC on the Mac
http://www.dssw.co.uk/blog/2007/05/14/a-vnc-server-is-included-in-mac-os-x-104/
http://www.freemacblog.com/mac-server-series-setting-up-vnc-on-your-mac/
Other nice addons:
http://www.malarkeysoftware.com/projects_PhotoGrabbr.html Photo Grabbr
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Just want to share with you my experience with the Acer Aspire One in the solid state Linux configuration. The little netbook is a perfect Internet appliance. You are not going to be doing heavy duty image processing or video editing on it but I have found it can do it if you want to I loaded GIMP, the open source version of Photoshop on it and it works fine.
Mine, the Linux version, comes with a 16 gb solid state drive but has a slot for expansion via an SD card. I bought an 8 gb card for it for $12.95 from supermediastore. Today I see they have a 16 gb card for $24.95. This still leaves a slot for the SD card from your camera or other device free. I am 100 percent happy with the solid state version and would not buy a Windows XP version for this little machine.
It connects automatically to any available WiFi access point with no problem. It boots and runs very fast and gives me two hours of battery life with no special settings. I personally would not spend the extra $150 plus to get a Windows version with a rotating hard drive in it since that is pushing the little machine beyond the Internet appliance usage I intended it for. I just thought that this might be useful information for anyone considering buying one for this purpose. I paid $250 for mine and I love it.
Here is a great video review of the machine from the Tiger Direct Laptop Lounge. The one reviewed is the Windows XP one which is great if you are more comfortable with that OS but you are going to spend more and I don't really think that is necessary. Also, I just don't like the idea of a spinning drive in a machine like this. It is going to be with you all the time. In the car, on the bus, everywhere. I just think the solid state one is going to be more durable in the long run. Plus, you can bet that the kids are going to be playing with it when you are not using it.
Here are some news items about the Aspire One harvested by Google News:
Mine, the Linux version, comes with a 16 gb solid state drive but has a slot for expansion via an SD card. I bought an 8 gb card for it for $12.95 from supermediastore. Today I see they have a 16 gb card for $24.95. This still leaves a slot for the SD card from your camera or other device free. I am 100 percent happy with the solid state version and would not buy a Windows XP version for this little machine.
It connects automatically to any available WiFi access point with no problem. It boots and runs very fast and gives me two hours of battery life with no special settings. I personally would not spend the extra $150 plus to get a Windows version with a rotating hard drive in it since that is pushing the little machine beyond the Internet appliance usage I intended it for. I just thought that this might be useful information for anyone considering buying one for this purpose. I paid $250 for mine and I love it.
Here is a great video review of the machine from the Tiger Direct Laptop Lounge. The one reviewed is the Windows XP one which is great if you are more comfortable with that OS but you are going to spend more and I don't really think that is necessary. Also, I just don't like the idea of a spinning drive in a machine like this. It is going to be with you all the time. In the car, on the bus, everywhere. I just think the solid state one is going to be more durable in the long run. Plus, you can bet that the kids are going to be playing with it when you are not using it.
Here are some news items about the Aspire One harvested by Google News:
| Really, you’re going to buy it for me? ZDNet - USA He loves the Acer Aspire One and it has made it vastly easier for him to work, both in and out of class. This particular 9th-grader has Pervasive ... See all stories on this topic |
| The end of my love affair with Apple? ZDNet - USA As more teachers and students have a chance to play with the Acer Aspire One netbook that I’ve been floating around, most find, even if they don’t care for ... See all stories on this topic |
| Acer Aspire ONE now available at sub-Rs.15k VARIndia (press release) - New Delhi,India The icing on the cake being the fully loaded Windows XP Home version of the Aspire ONE now available for the very first time at an incredible price of under ... See all stories on this topic |
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
The Mouse That Changed Computing
Closeup of mouse image - Photos: Engelbart's demo, 40 years later - CNET News
Fascinating article and photos of the first computer mouse. It was indeed, "The Mouse that Changed Computing."
Fascinating article and photos of the first computer mouse. It was indeed, "The Mouse that Changed Computing."
RechargeIT by Google
RechargeIT.org
This site shows the results of a controlled experiment by Google comparing a full range of vehicles from all internal combustion power to plug in hybrids. The results are quite interesting. As one would expect, the plug in hybrid did quite well but look at the Ford Escape plug in hybrid. Pretty impressive for a small SUV. I didn't know a plug in version was available but I did know that the Ford Escape Hybrid won some awards for its innovative design.
This site shows the results of a controlled experiment by Google comparing a full range of vehicles from all internal combustion power to plug in hybrids. The results are quite interesting. As one would expect, the plug in hybrid did quite well but look at the Ford Escape plug in hybrid. Pretty impressive for a small SUV. I didn't know a plug in version was available but I did know that the Ford Escape Hybrid won some awards for its innovative design.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Congress moves on energy
There was big news in the solar industry as recent as last week. This, to me, is an example of how government can promote activity in an area without being heavy handed about it. For the last five years or so, I don't know the exact number, there has been a tax credit offered for anyone installing a solar electric system on their home or business. The tax credit is calculated as 30 percent of the cost of the installation. Remember, this is a tax credit not a deduction. But, the problem has been that the tax credit has been capped at $2,000. So, let's say I put in a $30,000 photovoltaic electrical generating system. I would get a 30 percent tax credit the year I put it in. The problem has been that the tax credit has been capped at $2,000. So, in my example, the $30,000 system would receive a tax credit of $2,000 instead of $10,000. This week the congress approved a new energy bill. It removed the cap on the tax credit for solar systems. That means that the example system costing $30,000 would net the owner a $10,000 tax credit. Now we have a real incentive in place. To carry our example farther, let's say the owner lives in Florida and has installed a 3,000 watt photovoltaic system on his house. Florida gives a $4 a watt rebate for installing a system. Now, the owner gets another $12,000 in cash for his system. The tax credit and the cash rebate total $22,000 leaving the owner with a net cost of $8,000 for a 3 kilowatt electrical generating system. The payoff assuming a benefit of $1,000 a year would be 8 years.
With the world having passed the peak of global oil production based on various calculations, it can be assumed that the price of energy obtained from petroleum is going to continue to climb over the coming years until oil becomes too expensive to extract from the earth. Various other sources of petroleum will enjoy some resurgence as the price of crude oil inexorably climbs due to reduced production all over the world. Sporadic forays into offshore drilling and exploitation of limited domestic sources will yield at best a few years reprieve. The industrialization of China and India will force demand higher in spite of any action the US takes to conserve. Americans are already feeling the pinch. The recent spike in gasoline prices has changed the automobile market at all levels affecting not only the manufacturers but also the dealers and most importantly the owners of gas consuming monsters that we have all been encouraged to buy over the last decade or so. If you own a large SUV and have gone in to trade for a new vehicle you have found that the value of your shiny Chevy Suburban that you cared for over the years has plummeted to near nothing. GM and Chrysler are in negotiations to form a single larger company in the throws of survival. Detroit has based its hopes on the Chevy Volt, an all electric vehicle that will cost over $30,000 and will not go into production until 2010. Meanwhile, Toyota dealers have up to a 10 month waiting list in some areas for the Prius, their much loved 50 mpg hybrid which has been in production for over 12 years. Detroit missed the boat completely.
With the present world wide economic crisis along with the future declining global oil supply, it is good that the USA has now elevated alternate energy production to a higher level of importance. Hydrogen is a very long way off in my opinion. T. Boone Pickens Plan which emphasises natural gas will require the installation of a nation wide refueling infrastructure. I spoke with a representative of our local public utility, the gas company, and asked him where the refueling stations were. He confirmed that there were none in Florida for private vehicles and that the only ones in place are for government vehicles. Florida under Governor Charlie Crist has put in place requirements that government agencies reduce their grid electrical consumption by a set amount by a certain date. One commonly sees Toyota Prius government vehicles in the area where I live.
In this perspective, the approval by congress and the president of the latest energy bill which reduces the cap on solar tax credits and contains a number of other beneficial requirements such as demanding an increase in overall automobile fuel efficiency will provide a boost to new alternate energy industries and has taken a baby step in reducing our bizarre dependency on oil as an energy source. Oil that we must buy from people who hate us but profit greatly from us. We are like drug addicts who pay money to the dealer because of our addiction. We hate the dealer but our addiction ties us to him in a strange pathological way.
I highly recommend James Howard Kunstler's book, "The Long Emergency," from which much of this information was obtained. I alse recommend going to Wikipedia and reading the entry for "Hubbert's Curve" or "Hubbert's Peak." The Kunstler book really puts the present day energy, economic, and political situation in perspective. We do face a "Long Emergency" in the coming years and the faster the US restructures itself to deal with it the better. It is important to understand this change in global politics to survive the coming years and to reposition our country militarily and energy-wise for us to survive as a nation. So, in my opinion and others, reducing our dependency on petroleum is a national defense emergency and the removal of the cap on tax credits for solar systems is on small step that will stimulate movement in the right direction. We are a nation unique in the world because of our creativity and resilience but we have become complacent in our sleepwalking through the last twenty years while under our oil addiction. We can wake up but we had better do it fast.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Free Office Suite
Screenshot Tour: A First Look at OpenOffice.org 3.0
Here is a free equivalent to the popular commercial office suite. Why on earth would anyone pay hundreds of dollars for the unbelievably popular expensive one when one could use this one? Why? Because most people believe that they must buy the commercial product in order to be able to produce documents that are compatible with other sites. Well, they do not. I have used Open Office for years and it is totally compatible with all documents and spreadsheets and does not cost a penny. Now version 3.0 will be available next week and it is certainly a mature product. Get it and don't waste your money buying expensive commercial office suites.
Here is a free equivalent to the popular commercial office suite. Why on earth would anyone pay hundreds of dollars for the unbelievably popular expensive one when one could use this one? Why? Because most people believe that they must buy the commercial product in order to be able to produce documents that are compatible with other sites. Well, they do not. I have used Open Office for years and it is totally compatible with all documents and spreadsheets and does not cost a penny. Now version 3.0 will be available next week and it is certainly a mature product. Get it and don't waste your money buying expensive commercial office suites.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
WiseStamp an Email Signature that works for you!
Hey, this really works and works well. If you use Firefox as your browser along with web based email such as Google mail this is a nice way to add a signature block to your mails. I find it works effortlessly and can be configured to automatically add your signature to each email or you can use it as i do as an option at the end of typing an email. So far I have no complaints and really like it. The site even provides a few examples that you can capture and edit for your own use. Mine looks like this:
Hey, this really works and works well. If you use Firefox as your browser along with web based email such as Google mail this is a nice way to add a signature block to your mails. I find it works effortlessly and can be configured to automatically add your signature to each email or you can use it as i do as an option at the end of typing an email. So far I have no complaints and really like it. The site even provides a few examples that you can capture and edit for your own use. Mine looks like this:
Green Expo 08
I attended the Green Expo at the Palm Beach Community College
yesterday. It was a small but interesting collection of displays and
tables manned by representatives of various vendors and public
agencies. Some of the people there were former colleagues of mine at
the SFWMD and we had a nice visit with them. There was one solar
installer represented. They showed great interest in our home and in
the monitoring software. I now wish I had brought some of our
brochures for our monitoring software along to distribute to them.
They were really interested in our product so I gave them the website,
http://www.mysolarlog.com/ and am confident they will visit it.
Their website is http://www.abundantenergy.com/ .
One vendor had an interesting product that I may follow up on. It
is a clear acrylic addon for your windows that works like a storm
window. The product installs a clear acrylic pane in a magnetic frame
over the existing windows creating a double pane window at 70 percent
less cost than replacing the windows. I might look into it for certain
windows on my house that give the greatest heat load. Their website,
which I have not visited yet, is http://www.window-insulators.com/
We bought a couple of plants from the Native Plant Society table
where we also chatted for a bit with an old friend who is a member of
the society.
All in all it was a pleasant experience but I
was struck by the fact that it could have been much, much more than it
was. We did not attend the rain barrel workshop even though we have an
interest in that area. But there seemed to be little advertising of
the event in advance in the wider community. I had hoped that the
Florida electric car group could have exhibited there and that other
workshops and talks could have been available to the public. There was
great interest in our house and what our experience has been living
with PV. Perhaps we can have more participation in the next one. It
was a rainy day all day and that probably prevented more people from
coming.
yesterday. It was a small but interesting collection of displays and
tables manned by representatives of various vendors and public
agencies. Some of the people there were former colleagues of mine at
the SFWMD and we had a nice visit with them. There was one solar
installer represented. They showed great interest in our home and in
the monitoring software. I now wish I had brought some of our
brochures for our monitoring software along to distribute to them.
They were really interested in our product so I gave them the website,
http://www.mysolarlog.com/ and am confident they will visit it.
Their website is http://www.abundantenergy.com/ .
One vendor had an interesting product that I may follow up on. It
is a clear acrylic addon for your windows that works like a storm
window. The product installs a clear acrylic pane in a magnetic frame
over the existing windows creating a double pane window at 70 percent
less cost than replacing the windows. I might look into it for certain
windows on my house that give the greatest heat load. Their website,
which I have not visited yet, is http://www.window-insulators.
We bought a couple of plants from the Native Plant Society table
where we also chatted for a bit with an old friend who is a member of
the society.
All in all it was a pleasant experience but I
was struck by the fact that it could have been much, much more than it
was. We did not attend the rain barrel workshop even though we have an
interest in that area. But there seemed to be little advertising of
the event in advance in the wider community. I had hoped that the
Florida electric car group could have exhibited there and that other
workshops and talks could have been available to the public. There was
great interest in our house and what our experience has been living
with PV. Perhaps we can have more participation in the next one. It
was a rainy day all day and that probably prevented more people from
coming.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Utility Trucks Head for Texas
My son travels a lot for his work. Using his Iphone he sent me this photo this morning of Florida Power and Light trucks traveling west on I-10 west of Tallahassee headed for Texas for relief work. As a resident of South Florida where we had four hurricanes in one year I can only say that it is amazing that we live in a country where the states can help each other out like this. I know that they are reimbursed for the expenses incurred but even so the fact that a day or two after a major storm like Ike these trucks can be on the road and on their way to help is fantastic.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Timelapse
Here is a short timelapse I took this morning. It is fascinating to shoot these things by just leaving the camera running using a CHDK script that enables an intervalometer control. The atmosphere is fascinating and as you see here when speeded (sped?) up so that we are more aware of it, it is always in motion and beautifully so.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Update for our friends and family:
Solar Logging Software
We are nearing completion on our solar logging software. This is my test site.
http://bbbrown.mysolarlog.com/
...and this is the main site.
http://www.mysolarlog.com
Automated Camera Scripting and KAP Robots
I have been experimenting with loading CHDK scripts on my Canon point and shoot A700 camera. You can read more about CHDK at http://www.hackaday.com/2008/05/27/how-to-expand-your-camera-with-chdk/ . My first attempts at time lapse using the scripts can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FICIKSYeioA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8p2V8bOGNM&feature=related . Needless to say this also involved an exploration of Mencoder in Linux to create the video clips. Video clip creation from series of stills is pretty easy in Linux but the editing is still maturing.
All of this CHDK stuff is in preparation for launching an automated KAP rig based on the old one but using a small circuit board that automates all of the pans and tilts. http://skyware.fam-engels.de/aurico/overview_en.htm This in combination with CHDK KAP scripting eliminates the need for radio transmitter and receiver. It also eliminates the need for a shutter servo. Removing those two components should lighten the rig quite a bit. Bench testing proved flawless operation of all components. Flight testing needed next. It will be fun to just fly the kite and get the photos as a side benefit.
Router Soup Ups
That spare Liniksys WRT-54G router has now been put to good use. I loaded the DD-WRT software on it thereby enhancing greatly the capabilies of the router. DD-WRT is open source router software that replaces the Linksys firmware. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page My goal in doing this was to create a repeater that could be used in the motorhome to enhance weak signals in campgrounds. I got that working today and the repeater now resides in the motorhome providing an extra benefit of filling in the north side of the house with solid wifi signal. I will add a high gain antenna to the motorhome and we will create our own ad hoc networks on the fly with this setup. No more struggling to aim the laptop to acquire a signal blocked by trees or poorly located antennas. It works and it works great. Next time WRT-54Gs go on sale you might consider picking up one to use as a repeater.
Linux and Our PCs
Running Kubuntu Linux quite comfortably on all machines now. I have kept my desktop as dual boot to use for the Microsoft Flight Simulator. My laptop has KDE 4.1, under developmant, and KDE 3.5, rock solid.
Current Reading
"The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore. This book is taking me longer to read than any I have read recently. I read a few pages, get pissed off and put it down for a while. Then I go back to it. I feel like a "Pawn in Their Game" as made famous by Bob Dylan's song.
Movies
While watching some YouTube videos of places we have visited and one town in Colorado in particular I found a video that took scenes from "True Grit" and found the real life locations where scenes were filmed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUP9rOLf30 They all were in our favorite town in Colorado, Ouray. Now "True Grit" is at the top of our Netflix que followed by "The Kite Runner." Gotta get those Dalai Lama videos back in the mail so I can move on the John Wayne. The other one is old concerts of "The Grateful Dead."
Photos and Videos
I have been working on my project of getting all my old color print negatives digitized. Walgreens does such a good job at such a reasonable price. I have been taking them to the new store at Forest Hill and Congress. Finally getting a lot of my valuable travel photos and aviation pics on CD. I have also been pumping them up to Flickr to share with others. http://www.flickr.com/bbbrown Scanning the old photos myself is a long and tedious process that I have not given due diligence to.
Random Day Trips
About to ressurect our old one random trip a week thing. Not sure how we are going to do it but Ikea is on our list and I have a set of waypoints named "Mom and Pop Burger Joints" loaded in the GPS. There is also that barbecue place in Fort Peirce. Too bad we have to travel that far for reallly good barbecue.
Solar Cooker
So far I have just boiled water in my solar oven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsWZ0sLubXU Hope to cook a meal in it when the sun comes back out.
Solar Logging Software
We are nearing completion on our solar logging software. This is my test site.
http://bbbrown.mysolarlog.com/
...and this is the main site.
http://www.mysolarlog.com
Automated Camera Scripting and KAP Robots
I have been experimenting with loading CHDK scripts on my Canon point and shoot A700 camera. You can read more about CHDK at http://www.hackaday.com/2008/05/27/how-to-expand-your-camera-with-chdk/ . My first attempts at time lapse using the scripts can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FICIKSYeioA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8p2V8bOGNM&feature=related . Needless to say this also involved an exploration of Mencoder in Linux to create the video clips. Video clip creation from series of stills is pretty easy in Linux but the editing is still maturing.
All of this CHDK stuff is in preparation for launching an automated KAP rig based on the old one but using a small circuit board that automates all of the pans and tilts. http://skyware.fam-engels.de/aurico/overview_en.htm This in combination with CHDK KAP scripting eliminates the need for radio transmitter and receiver. It also eliminates the need for a shutter servo. Removing those two components should lighten the rig quite a bit. Bench testing proved flawless operation of all components. Flight testing needed next. It will be fun to just fly the kite and get the photos as a side benefit.
Router Soup Ups
That spare Liniksys WRT-54G router has now been put to good use. I loaded the DD-WRT software on it thereby enhancing greatly the capabilies of the router. DD-WRT is open source router software that replaces the Linksys firmware. http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page My goal in doing this was to create a repeater that could be used in the motorhome to enhance weak signals in campgrounds. I got that working today and the repeater now resides in the motorhome providing an extra benefit of filling in the north side of the house with solid wifi signal. I will add a high gain antenna to the motorhome and we will create our own ad hoc networks on the fly with this setup. No more struggling to aim the laptop to acquire a signal blocked by trees or poorly located antennas. It works and it works great. Next time WRT-54Gs go on sale you might consider picking up one to use as a repeater.
Linux and Our PCs
Running Kubuntu Linux quite comfortably on all machines now. I have kept my desktop as dual boot to use for the Microsoft Flight Simulator. My laptop has KDE 4.1, under developmant, and KDE 3.5, rock solid.
Current Reading
"The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore. This book is taking me longer to read than any I have read recently. I read a few pages, get pissed off and put it down for a while. Then I go back to it. I feel like a "Pawn in Their Game" as made famous by Bob Dylan's song.
Movies
While watching some YouTube videos of places we have visited and one town in Colorado in particular I found a video that took scenes from "True Grit" and found the real life locations where scenes were filmed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EUP9rOLf30 They all were in our favorite town in Colorado, Ouray. Now "True Grit" is at the top of our Netflix que followed by "The Kite Runner." Gotta get those Dalai Lama videos back in the mail so I can move on the John Wayne. The other one is old concerts of "The Grateful Dead."
Photos and Videos
I have been working on my project of getting all my old color print negatives digitized. Walgreens does such a good job at such a reasonable price. I have been taking them to the new store at Forest Hill and Congress. Finally getting a lot of my valuable travel photos and aviation pics on CD. I have also been pumping them up to Flickr to share with others. http://www.flickr.com/bbbrown Scanning the old photos myself is a long and tedious process that I have not given due diligence to.
Random Day Trips
About to ressurect our old one random trip a week thing. Not sure how we are going to do it but Ikea is on our list and I have a set of waypoints named "Mom and Pop Burger Joints" loaded in the GPS. There is also that barbecue place in Fort Peirce. Too bad we have to travel that far for reallly good barbecue.
Solar Cooker
So far I have just boiled water in my solar oven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsWZ0sLubXU Hope to cook a meal in it when the sun comes back out.
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