Electric Vehicles are here!

Electric Vehicles are here!

Why do I say this? Because every day I am seeing electric vehicles EVs during my commute in the lower mainland of British Columbia.  I see EVs in Abbotsford, in Langley, and in Surrey BC.  These are not promotional vehicles wrapped in announcements that cry out "this is an eco-friendly vehicle",  but rather normal people going about their lives without creating additional pollution.

I've been telling my kids that by the time that they are old enough to buy a car,  they will have a choice between an older technology that uses a tank of poisonous carcinogenic explosive flammable fuel,  or a cleaner simpler technology that uses electricity.  It seems this is happening even more rapidly than I expected.

Electric vehicles are commercially available.

In terms of Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) I see Tesla model S,X,3 & Nissan Leaf & Chevy Bolt & BMW I3 & Kia Soul & Hyundai Kona electric cars on the road,  and this is really important because it shows some healthy competition in the market place. All of these manufacturers are equipped to produce EVs and are making money selling EVs. Emotive a non profit EV car advocacy group defines Electric car as any car that can be plugged in to charge it's battery.  By that definition, Plug-in Hybrid Electric vehicles fit the bill, which in a way is good, because they are a necessary transitional technology to help us use less gasoline as we transition to clean Transportation.  But lets not get stuck in the transition if we can move more directly towards the goal.

Anyone can go to a Nissan or Chevy or Tesla or Hyundai or Kia dealer and purchase a BEV. It doesn't require any special knowledge, just money. Soon as supply increases, the auto makers will bring the pricing in line with their existing gas burning vehicles because customers understand that it shouldn't cost is more money to make a responsible choice.  For many people purchasing a used EV will be the economical way into EV ownership.  There are useful comparison sites online like Cargurus.ca where you can see the EVs you are interested in and compare prices and features before you spend time visiting car dealers. Here are the Battery Electric Vehicles currently available in BC (courtesy the http://pluginbc.ca website.)

What about Charging?

In Quebec polling data suggests that 90% of charging occurs at home and that makes sense because cars spend most of their time parked there.  We can expect a similar profile elsewhere. 90% of the time these cars don't "need" a public charger.  When it comes to public chargers, I see that within 7 minutes drive from my home in Abbotsford there are 9 different places where a I can recharge my EV, but between my house and those charging stations are literally 1000s of houses which have electricity.  My point is that we are accustomed to driving to a gas station because we wouldn't dream of storing dangerous gasoline in residential neighbourhoods. But with electric vehicles, chargers can be installed at any home. In the same way that we put our mobile phones on to charge at night, electric vehicles can be plugged in to be recharged.

For longer distance travel, EVs are starting to have the needed infrastructure.  There are 1000 public EV chargers in British Columbia today, with more arriving every week.  Below you can see just a small sample of the bottom left corner of BC's Mainland.  (Visit PlugShare.com to find more public chargers)

Fast chargers (level 3 chargers) are appearing along major highways with the support of electric utilities and government funding.  This is making long distance travel possible even for Electric Vehicles with relatively shorter ranges.  Below you can see an image showing an overview of North American fast chargers.  You will notice they tend to follow major highways. (Graphics courtesy PlugShare.com)

In addition to home charging, we are already seeing restaurants like Tim Hortons including chargers at some of their restaurants so drivers can recharge while they stop for lunch, and energy companies like Petro Canada are installing fast chargers at some of their "gas" stations. As drivers choose businesses that let them charge up, other businesses will catch on and the number of chargers will increase. It will be easier and easier to find a place to recharge. These public "destination" chargers not only provide a convenience of "topping up" the charge when out and about, but they provide a bridge for the time when new EV owners are waiting to get their home chargers installed, a bridge for EV owners who live where their strata has not accommodated their request for a charger a safety net for EV owners who miscalculated and ran out of power before they could return home.
In the United states and Canada, the number of electric charging locations exceeds the number of compressed natural gas (CNG) charging stations.  Apart from well funded transit systems, CNG has failed to replace gasoline and diesel as a cleaner alternative. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) are pulling into the lead as a clean replacement for polluting transportation..

What about range anxiety?

I haven't yet met an electric car owner who has range anxiety.  Not one.  It's a bit of a red herring.  With most charging happening at home and most commuting well under the range of electric vehicles (100km commute and 170km of range for our 2017 Nissan Leaf) there is less of an issue than the media might lead us to believe.  So buy the correct car for your needs.  If you need a vehicle to get groceries and commute, almost any BEV will do.  If you need to travel to visit clients all day long, purchase an EV with greater range.  Financial ProTip: Most drivers would be financially ahead to rent a truck or SUV when they need one, rather than driving more vehicle than they really need.

With the nation's of the world committing to lower their greenhouse gas emissions, and with a population that is disgusted by the pollution our gas cars leave in their wake, the time is now and the market is ripe for a wholesale shift to electric cars.  Electric Vehicles are here!

Netflix Streaming in Canada. Strengths and suggestions for improvement

Netflix.ca streaming is affordable at $9CAD/month for unlimited streaming.
The quality is fine, and watching it on the Wii makes it really easy.  Watching on the Apple TV offers better quality (I'd recommend Apple TV).

Room for Improvement.
*1. Allow a shopping cart / list of movies to watch so folks can make note of movies they'd like to watch another time and "set them aside".
*2. allow  a "cancel" option on the "skip ahead screen" for those cases where I click on something and can't get back to the point in the movie I was at.
3. (allow categories of my own creation) instead of the auto-magically created ones. (films with a strong female lead...) Films like the Princess Bride...
*4. allow profiles within an account so that when my kids watch Barney and Dora the Explorer, Netflix doesn't start suggesting  "Greg's picks" like "the wiggles" or "wonder pets".  I want plots with a twist, compelling character development and innovative story telling...  Having more than one person in my family essentially wastes  the intelligent recommendation engine Netflix has developed.
Thanks Netflix
5. It isn't clear if Netflix shows me the entire collection, or if I'm seeing a "favourites list".  It should be more obvious...??
*6. Put a volume control on the netflix interface for Wii.   People already have the wii-mote in their hands, don't make them search for another remote.
7. I don't want to see the same show/movie listed in every list you show me.  It creates the impression you only have 100 movies.  (apply a "don't re-use" rule in suggestions).

Netflix Advantages..
1. It really is "instant"  I only have to wait a couple seconds for any of the movies or shows to start.
2. Netflix usually remembers where i left off with a movie so I can resume.
3. the movies are pausable, so it behaves like a PVR, I can go back to catch quiet dialogue or epic finales.
4. The value is really good.  For the price of 2 movie rentals a month I can watch limitless TV shows and movies from Netflix catalogue.  Given the price of gas and the tyranny of "late fees" the value is exceptional.

How Businesses can make Carpooling work for them.

How does it work?

Fewer parking spaces to construct.
Less congestion in the parking lot and on the roads.
Employees have more transportation options.
Better air quality.

Employees are better rested when they arrive at work.  Since half of them didn't actually drive.  In the cases of HOV lanes there may even be reduced travel time. (lower stress)
Employees can discuss work with colleagues outside business hours becoming better informed, resolving misunderstandings.
Employees have better connections.
Having already socialized on the way in, carpoolers may be more likely to "hit the ground running".

Carpooling is a great opportunity.  What can you do to encourage carpooling and make it easy for your employees to use this great option?

My top 3 "reading list" for eating healthy and being healthy in 2014

OK, first things first. These aren't NEW books, but I don't think we need NEW I think we need GOOD.  This is my road tested top 3 list from the last year, so if these worked in 2013 they will work in 2014. I'm linking to Amazon since I find my experience with ordering books from them to be superior.

Simplest Advice Award is to "Drop the refined sugar."

Watch this video.  Nope it isn't cats people pull up your comfy chair and settle down for a smart hour long intellectual presentation that will cause you to re-think sugar.Sugar the Bitter Truth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM Kind of makes me thankful for endocrinologists with an axe to grind.



There is even a book about the video if you insist on watching it in paperback (Mom and Dad I'm talking to you). The Real Truth About Sugar-- Dr. Robert Lustig's Video Lecture "Sugar: The Bitter Truth"

Most Audacious Title award goes to: Never Be Sick Again by Raymond Francis.  

Yeah the title was a real turn-off for me as well, but the biochemistry and advice seems to make good sense.  If you are easily turned off by writing style you may need to push through a bit of "I can't believe everybody else is wrong."  But I'll tell you, the content is well worth the read. Kudos on content, the title didn't help with credibility.  The jacket sums it up well; "There is only One Disease: Malfunctioning cells. All cell malfunction can be reduced to Two Causes: Deficiency and Toxicity.
By addressing the Two Causes through the Six Pathways (Nutrition, Toxin, Psychological, Physical, Genetic, Medical) almost all disease can be prevented or reversed."
Never Be Sick Again: Health Is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It

Longest Read award goes to: Eat Drink and be Merry 

by Walter C. Willett, M.D., with Patrick J. Skerrett
Walter. Willett, , is chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.  You can learn more here:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/books/Eat_Drink_and_Be_Healthy  
Grounded in science and closely associated with the research of the Harvard Medical School, this book is a good thorough read for understanding health and nutrition.

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating

To your Health!
Greg.

Centralized vs Decentralized work and the impact on Quality

"Centralized vs Decentralized"

These two terms explicitly describe "where" an activity takes place.

I think sometimes teams might implicitly choose to use these two terms as euphemisms for "performed in a standardized manner by experts" versus "performed with high variability by a crowd".

Such an implicit meaning is not necessarily fair because there are both pros and cons to each approach.

Expert processing is expensive with limited availability but more likely to be consistent.  

Crowd processing is harder to control (activity and outcome) but ultimately quite cost efficient if it works.

I know sometimes our team is  troubled by the “variability” in distributed activity. (e.g. Do project owners get their software listed in the software list, do change owners complete risk scores etc.)

And I know sometimes we are tempted to switch models and “centralize” to address these issues.  But time and money are short for our Quality Improvement team and centralization and the transformation to centralization is expensive.

While that may be an appropriate solution, it isn’t necessarily arrived at after a careful assessment of all of the alternatives.

For example, there are ways to leverage the “bandwidth” of the crowd without necessarily sacrificing quality of results.  i.e. While not controlling activity we may find appropriate means to positively affect outcome, whether through support or appropriate feedback loops, or gates etc.

It makes me think that I want to invest in my own learning about how to influence the outcomes, rather than necessarily taking over the work involved in the activity…

Here is an interesting excerpt on 3 kinds of “crowd wisdom” found in “disorganized decisions”

Read on... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds 

Types of crowd wisdom[edit]

Surowiecki breaks down the advantages he sees in disorganized decisions into three main types, which he classifies as

·         Cognition

Thinking and information Processing

Market judgment, which he argues can be much faster, more reliable, and less subject to political forces than the deliberations of experts or expert committees.

·         Coordination

Coordination of behavior includes optimizing the utilization of a popular bar and not colliding in moving traffic flows. The book is replete with examples from experimental economics, but this section relies more on naturally occurring experiments such as pedestrians optimizing the pavement flow or the extent of crowding in popular restaurants. He examines how common understanding within a culture allows remarkably accurate judgments about specific reactions of other members of the culture.

·         Cooperation

How groups of people can form networks of trust without a central system controlling their behavior or directly enforcing their compliance. This section is especially pro free market.

Cheers!

Building a IT Service Catalog in 5 easy steps

This is a bit of a brain-dump of how to build the list.  The "5 easy steps" is a sarcastic protest against formula blog writing and the stupefying titles chosen for those posts. (thanks for tolerating my protest)

Begin a list.  Use excel, it does everything you need.
Write down all the services you know about, and then expect to stumble across many more services you haven't listed.  The list gets built iteratively which lets you avoid anxiety about it being incomplete.

For each service listed in define WHAT the service is.  Normally this involves a noun like "Network services".  Describe what the service provides in terms the requestors will understand.
List the verbs that apply to the service.  These are the common changes;
"Server - Backup", "Server - Restore", "Network - VLAN creation" etc.

Under each service, list what changes can be requested.  If the changes are valid but not request-able  mark those as "internal or technical" services.

I'm going to be vague on purpose and drift from "service to change".  If you have a tiny IT shop where BOB does everything this won't make sense, but if you support 30,000 users like we do where I work, then this will fit OK.

List who designs the service. There should be a group / department, and an actual person's name.  The name is the person you talk to if you need to ask that the service be modified to operate differently.

List who delivers the service changes.  Sometimes its the designer, often a group of IT foot soldiers who follow orders.  There should be a group / department, and an actual person's name.  The person named here is the one who gets complaints about how the service is delivered.

List what pre-requisites are necessary in order to request the change.
- Perhaps there are security approvals, or budget approvals required BEFORE requesting service.
- Don't get in the habit of holding requests for service in a holding pattern while the customer disappears to get pre-requisites.

List the minimum data set that the service delivery team requires in order to successfully deliver service.
- By way of example, in our organization, for Software, we need to know; Vendor, Title, Version/edition, PCname/device, cost centre number, requestor's department.

List the expected turnaround.  If your customer knows the service is normally delivered in 10 business days, this helps set the tone so they don't start "escalating" the next day.

Link to "Standard operating procedures" that have been developed to support consistent delivery of the changes related to the service.
Link to policies your requestors will need to follow / agree to; (electronic use policies/ password policies etc.)
Link to user documentation.
List "How to access the service" beginning with "Call the service desk at 604-555-1212".
Link to any request forms you have in place to support the service and related changes.
List eligibility information if you know it;  e.g. the marking software is available to instructors and teaching assistants but not students...

Enjoy!  I hope this helps.  If you want me to post a template that might be helpful, leave me a comment below.

Getting to ITIL - Where to start

When undertaking a quality program like implementing the ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library), it can be tempting to try to "do everything".  ITIL is particularly beguiling in this respect since pretty much everything it suggests is reasonable, important and such a gosh darn good idea.

I mean, we want to be able to manage incidents right? and to control changes, and to have a service desk, and to fulfill requests, and to manage capacity and to.... the list goes on.  On the one hand there are more problems to solve than staff to solve them (or hours in the day) on the other hand there are so many good opportunities, you basically can't lose, any improvement at all is useful.

The question is; "where to start?"

While I'm sure the answer depends on your individual situation, in my experience and from my conversations with other IT professionals, there seems to be a common pattern.

In a way it resembles medical triage.  Triage originated in World War I with French doctors treating the battlefield wounded at the aid stations behind the front.  They divided the wounded into 3 categories;

• Those who are likely to live, regardless of what care they receive;
• Those who are likely to die, regardless of what care they receive;
• Those for whom immediate care might make a positive difference in outcome

In the same way, there are areas of ITSM where;

• service will continue on without intervention;
• service or circumstance is so broken that available resources cannot remedy the situation;
• service can be significantly improved through intervention.

By applying triage as a model, effort is applied where it will do the greatest good.

PRO-TIP: Your IT staff are smart and usually see these areas of greatest opportunity.  Their pain. (sometimes cleverly disguised as complaints) will highlight items that need to be addressed (first).

In another way it resembles the discipline of fire-fighting.
Firefighting is a field that has gone from willing volunteers in ties and suits smoking cigars who showed up with their buckets to "bucket brigade practice", to an age where we have embedded fire-proofing in every building code and consequently every building in North America (and beyond).  The concrete firewalls, the sprinklers, the pull stations, the crash bars on exit doors, the exit signs, the fire marshalls, the extinguishers by the exit, the public annunciation systems.  By designing buildings so that they don't burn (easily) and by planning so that people can survive, we live in a totally different era, one where homes and businesses don't get lost to fire so regularly.

So, as with firefighting, in IT;
1. Put out the fires. Incident management provides response capabilities.  Without the ability to respond in a planned and appropriate way, IT organizations are so disrupted by unmanaged incidents that they can't function effectively.
2. Stop lighting new fires.  Change management is many things but in a nutshell it is about controlling the changes that are made to the infrastructure (and systems) in a production environment so that the randomness of uncontrolled changes don't disrupt service.
3. Plan fire prevention, Take stock of the existing fire hazards and make a list of the most pressing / dangerous ones.
4. Start fire proofing.  You have a plan. Work that plan.

PRO-TIP: Start light!  Nothing scares away talented staff more than making them follow a process that is too heavy.

Thanks for listening.  I wish you success as you make things better and improve the world :-)
Greg.

The Robots I Love (and can afford) UPDATED

70+ years of robots in science fiction have failed to yield anything
similar in real life. Our movies and books feature human companions,
even substitutes. The robots we have today still resemble machinery
and are best suited to completing singular tasks. Even in the field of
academic robotics we see robo snakes for inspecting pipes and other
non humanlike robots.  It is clear that people won't be "copied" or
replaced anytime soon.

But we do have simple robots that can do work for us which ease our
burdens. These are the robots that are taking hold, filing niches and
being built by the millions. Their simplicity and mass market
application make them affordable.

Our first robot (or the first one I recognized) was the cruise control in our car, able to maintain a constant speed while driving, suitable for ensuring that long road
trips stay on pace and that flatland travel uses fuel efficiently.

Our second robot was the motion sensor light which would faithfully
watch to see if light was required, and then turn it on, ensuring the safety
of people and even the occasional cat.

Our next robots were a pair of dehumidistat that could detect when air
In our house was too moist and activate a fan to vent the humid air. This allowed
fans to run automatically ensuring the health of our house's air
without running too long. This balance helps prevent venting too much
heated air during the winter. So they help us be healthy and save us money.

Perhaps the most obvious robot we have is Roomba a vacuuming robot
whose enthusiasm for vacuuming more than makes up for its wandering
approach. Roomba may only get 85% of the dirt but that is
85% I didn't have to clean, and it isn't always the same 85%, meaning
that repeated runs achieve a higher rate of cleaning. Apart from the
cleaning, Roomba puts itself away when it is finished and recharges
itself so it is ready to clean at the next scheduled time.

Maybe The most primitive of robots is the alarm clock which counts the time
And could wake you up at a predetermined time. Something that is difficult to do yourself while sleeping.

The washing machine is a robot with muscle, vigorously scrubbing our
clothes, rinsing the soap out and then squeezing out most of the water
by spinning. Along with its partner the dryer, these two machines
process many pounds of clothing each week, making our lives cleaner
and healthier.  I regret that in over 50 years we have not observed a
variation on these machines which would allow the dryer to eject its
load into a waiting basket in order to receive a load which would in
turn be ejected by the washer.   I think we have an opportunity here
that we are missing. A laundry processing system where the clothes
enter the chute upstairs and appear clean and dry in the basket
downstairs.


The dishwasher saves us countless hours by washing and rinsing and
drying dishes we would otherwise have to pile and wash by hand. There
is still the trick of getting the dishes in and out but overall it
saves human labour.

The automated lawn sprinkler system can obey restrictive watering
restrictions while keeping your lswn green and in some cases by
monitoring rainfall. Ranging from $100 these systems allow you to
remain on schedule (or in bed) without performing mundane
"hose management".

Thermostats - central or "zone" keep the temperature "right". This
May not be apparent until you try a wood fire and feel the room heat and then
cool beyond the range of comfort.

These robots take an incremental approach to serving us, often unnoticed and understated. These are the robots I love (and can afford)..

Update; lights lights lights lights. 

 Home Depot sells a $30 Leviton light switch that has an astronomical calendar in it. In a nutshell it can accept latitude longitude, time zone and more in order to accurately determine when the sun will rise and set so that your outdoor lights turn on a few minutes before sunset and turn themselves off again when the sun rises. 

And on a slightly sheepish note when wiring the lighting for my garage I didn't put the light switch within reach of the door.  So I installed a $20 motion sensing light switch that "sees" when I am entering the garage and switches on the lights. 

Ok, if you are like me you detest banging your shins in the dark. So I took a radio shack sound activated wall plugin, attached a string of white LED Xmas lights and threw them under te bed. Now when milt feet hit the floor in the morning I am greeted by the soft bite glow from under the bed illuminating my path safely. 

And finally when I get up in the dark winter months, I get dressed in the dark so I don't wake my wife with the light. IKEA sells a wonderfull $18 motion sensing light I have mounted in the closet above the door. When the door opens the small led light comes on for 15 seconds which is just long enough for me to differentiate the different shirt colours in the closet so I make a better choice!

Cheers I hope that helps someone. 

Use Noise Insulating Earbuds to Protect Your Hearing

Do you ever find yourself at a very loud concert or sporting event and wish you had brought your ear plugs to protect your hearing? 


 In a pinch you might be able to use your Ipod's earbuds if you have earbuds that are noise insulating. They can drop ambient noise by about 20db making them a reasonable and less flourescent alternative to the bright orange ear plugs you left at home.  Of course you will want to make sure they aren't attached to an Ipod playing loud music.

Make Short Impulsive Phone Calls to Improve the World

Something neat happened this morning.  I had 2 Walmart products in my hand and as I turned them over I realized the peaches were in a container that is not recyclable in my area (number 7 plastic means "other") but the apple sauce was in a recyclable container. (number 5 is polypropylene).  I also noticed the toll free number for customer service on the package, so I asked the kids to stop making noise and I picked up the phone.  5 minutes later I'd left a message asking them to work with their suppliers to get the product I described into a recyclable container rather than a disposable container that would just end up in a landfill (or worse incineration).  While on the line I remembered their eggs come in styrofoam rather than biodegradable... so I added that to my call.  How easy.. 5 minutes and I've reached out and asked for things to be better, and explained that as a customer I will feel better about buying their products if I can recycle their packaging.

So let me encourage you to be impulsive and call customer service when you notice a small improvement that can be made.  Maybe its a pothole that needs fixing, or a safety concern with traffic.  Just take the few minutes and call so the people who can make a change have the info they need.

Challenge:  Make 1 impulsive "improve the world" call this week.

Tips:

• Be nice.  The person on the phone is being paid to help you.  The problem wasn't caused by them.
• Ask for a callback or update so you can be informed of the progress they make.
• Ask if the company is working on that sort of thing.  If so ask if there is another place you can call to provide this information. (I don't care who you are, transformational change is hard work)
• Don't attempt to control... Just ask for what you want and explain your motivation.

Cheers,  have fun making the world a better place.
Greg.

Lifehacking - Tips - Use old socks to protect hardwood floors (and toes)

I love our hardwood floors.  We worked really hard as a family to install them, and we do our best to keep them in good shape, including making some of our beds wear socks on their feet.  Originally this started as an attempt to protect our toes from being stubbed in the night on bed legs, but it has proven so effective at protecting the hardwood floors that I had to share this tip with you.

New Online Games Blog Announcement

As you know my blog http://makelifeexcellent.blogspot.com is all about excellence in design, sustainable living and life hacking and how that relates to technology and society.  Sometimes I've written about unrelated topics mostly because I haven't had another place to write those things.  I wanted to mention that I've launched a blog experiment where I'll also be writing on my online video game blog. So if you like Facebook's Cityville, or are looking for fun free online games, head over to the onlinegamesdigest.blogspot.com site to read.

Cheers,
Greg

How to protect yourself on the Internet

If you are Internet savvy this list is nothing new, but if your online security could use an upgrade, check out the following list of Internet security precautions.

You have very real concerns about protecting yourself from identity theft, about getting the junk and viruses off of your computer.  They seem to come climbing back on as soon as you clean them off. Your friends tell you they got a virus in an email from you. It seems that your computer is doing things you didn't tell it to.  Since the Internet is so useful and its benefits are becoming a common  part of our daily lives wouldn't it be great to be better protected?

Tips and Tricks to succeed at CityVille on Facebook

I have come to enjoy playing Zynga's CityVille on facebook even though I never thought I'd play a "Facebook game".  Here are some tips that I've employed to ensure an enjoyable and effective time playing CityVille.  After looking briefly at privacy, spam, finances and managing in-game resources you will better understand how to have fun while succeeding at CityVille.

3 reasons for and against New Years Resolutions

I don't like New Years resolutions for 3 reasons;

1. They tend to be hard things that I'm not doing now, so that means change and effort.
2. The idea of resolving to be better or do things better shouldn't be reserved for 1 day a year.
3. There are a lot of voices out there "telling people what to resolve".

But I've found 3 reasons to dig in my heels and participate;

1. I rarely take adequate time to reflect on my life and self-assess.
2. I fail to "resolve" because I fear the outcome being beyond my control.  I give in to fear and don't even "choose" to do better.   Better to attempt and fail or only achieve half, than to not live intentionally.
3. We're all in this together.  Those who succeed are inspiration for others. Those who struggle are team-mates with those of us who fix our eyes on "What could be" and try.

Cheers,
Greg.

Why I've given up on rechargeable batteries.

I feel cheated and betrayed.  For years I've made small efforts to be responsible in purchasing rechargeable batteries.  I wanted to reduce the number of batteries going to a landfill, I wanted to be responsible with money by not having to re-purchase batteries.  I wanted to do the right thing.    But I feel like the promises made and prices charged by battery manufacturers weren't genuinely intended to support the widescale adoption of rechargeable batteries. Its been a long process but for now I've finally given up. :-(

Google provides free phone calls from GMail to anywhere in North America. (reasonable rates for overseas)

Cyrus (+1)  and Lifehacker pointed out that Gmail has now allowed phone calls to be placed straight from Gmail.

Google announces it here (along with a cute video)

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/call-phones-from-gmail.html

I thought you would like to know about this. Here is an overview. 

http://www.google.com/chat/voice/

Rates

Free calls anywhere in North America till Dec 31^st, fair rates elsewhere.

http://www.google.com/chat/voice/compare.html

https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/rates

Review

• I used it for 2 hours yesterday and the quality was very very clear. :-)
• It is super easy. 
• It will dial people from your Google contacts list (accessed through Gmail)
• It integrates with your Google voice account if you have one. (calling credit, history, google voice # on caller ID etc.)

Requirements

• You need a Gmail account. (free fast good)
• It requires a browser plug-in that you would otherwise install for using Google chat’s “voice-chat” feature.
• It requires a speaker/headphones and microphone
• (um and an Internet connection)

Use

• In Gmail on the left were you see “chat” and your friends below your status;
• Rather than clicking on a person and starting a chat,
• you click “call phones” and it presents you with a keypad.
• Type the number you want 604-555-1212 etc… and it starts ringing
• OR type a contact from your gmail contacts.

UPDATE: Gmail has extended free North American phone calls for all of 2011.  Thank you Gmail.  I know this is one of many factors causing my friends to consider giving up their home phones.

Enjoy! I hope this saves you money and helps you connect with the people that matter to you.

Cheers, Greg

Say no to flyers and newspapers to save trees, reduce clutter and save money.

The experiment is a success.

Each year, our household saves 2.1 mature trees per year by refusing flyers and newspapers.

At our house, we have more time, less mess, less stress, the paperboy gets his route done faster and we save trees from being unnecessarily, cut down, transported, processed, printed and delivered to our door.

US Pollution Database Aggregates Public Polluter data

I just found this online resource for finding local information (including reported release of pollutants)

http://www.thisweknow.org/l/WA/Bellingham 

If we look at what Blaine, Bellingham, Lynden, Sumas Washington (which are the closest US Cities to British Columbia) are releasing it is quite surprising what is going into our air.  Without actually counting the numbers, it seems that the BP Cherry Point refinery is spewing the greatest variety of pollutants into our local air-

shed.  For those of you who are unaware, air quality in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia's "Lower Mainland" ia problematic, with local mountains creating a funnelling effect that seems to concentrate air pollution as it travels eastward. (The wind is normally gentle from the West) 

Despite the thickness of the black line on the map that marks our border with the United States, American pollutants continue to defy international law by illegally crossing our border without permission.  Seems that elimination of pollutants at source is the only option, since we realize our neighbours to the south aren't being malicious, and suffer as much as we do from the careless release of toxic chemicals.

Resources like this make the facts Open to the public and form a foundation for reasonable and informed grassroots efforts to improve air quality.

BP? what are you doing to my kid's health?

Now to bring balance to the force, we also need to see a listing of Canadian factories and pollutants.  If anyone reading this knows of a similar Canadian resource, let me know.  

Thanks,

Greg.

Cities designed to be "idle-free" - Strategies for Reducing Idling

Much of our traffic infrastructure is designed to facilitate a smooth flow of traffic, but other aspects promote idling.  Traffic lights where entire phalanxes of cars sit still with their engines running.  This is sad because it wastes petroleum which is a non-renewable toxic resource, creates unnecessary air pollution for my children to breathe, and it effectively syphons money out of people's pockets by causing them to get 0 mpg.  There are some very real savings that come from a reduction in idling


2 sources of idling have been addressed

• In cities, we are past the days were people would leave a vehicle running and go into the store thanks to concerns about car theft (who said it was all bad?).  
• We are past the point where people believe their car needs to run for several minutes to "warm up" before being driven.  Thankfully vehicle technology has made advances in that area, so we only have cars idling when they are likely to need to move forward again.

4 sources of idling still exist.

• When idling at railway crossings, traffic will typically be stopped for several minutes and this is an excellent time for people to turn off their engines.  Signage is beginning to be deployed to educate people about not idling their vehicles at railway crossings which I observe is having some effect.  For example the Township of Langley as part of its "Idling gets you Nowhere" campaign has deployed signage to reduce idling at railway crossings where Langley experiences mile long coal trains several times a day.   Railway underpasses and overpasses eliminate this source of idling at a greater initial construction cost.
• When idling in traffic at intersections with a stop sign or stop light we do idle, but it seems we're all thinking "what if that guy's car doesn't start.  Along these lines the BC idle-free website encourages people to eliminate idling except when "in traffic".  While some vehicles like the Toyota Prius will automatically turn off the car's gas engine when it is idling (solves idling for all the situations), most drivers aren't going to turn their vehicle off in traffic.  Effective creation of overpasses (the ones without traffic lights at both ends) can eliminate idling, as can right hand turn lanes which allow traffic to keep moving "around" an intersection without being unnecessarily stopped by the light.  Round-abouts are increasingly being chosen as an effective traffic control device which permits continued traffic flow rather than the stop and idle pattern offered by traffic lights.  The Cities of Abbotsford, Langley and Surrey are deploying effective traffic circles which are receiving growing acceptance among drivers.
• Traffic jams promote idling when the entire road is full, and the traffic inches forward and stops, inches forward and stops.  In this case, the entire freeway is idling.  If there was a culture of turning off your engine and letting the traffic ahead inch forward for a minute or 2 and then pulling forward and repeating the process this might eliminate a great deal of the idling.  Rebecca from BC's IdleFree program pointed out an innovation at the Peace Arch border crossing which uses traffic control signals and appropriate signage in order to do this exact thing. (Thanks for the link Rebecca!)  It's called "Greening the Border" and you can read about it here; http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/greening_the_border/greening.htm.
• Drive-thru services are the final place where I observe vehicles idling.  The drivers are waiting inside, they are caused to inch forward and stop inch forward and stop, and the properties have limited room to allow for vehicle queuing.  Whether this be the bank, the Costco gas bar line-up or the local Tim Horton's drive-thru, people are sitting in the vehicles waiting to move forward.  Not only does this create general air pollution and general waste, but it has a very direct exposure to the staff who must work in drive-thrus.  In Abbotsford BC, the Tim Horton's drive-thru on Sumas way is similar to most in that it has a constant line of 5-10 vehicles all day long and during peak periods it easily has 15 vehicles in line.  Because the line moves frequently, drivers in line must remain ready to move forward. With 5-10 small moves, drivers are unlikely to turn their car on and off that many times. What they need is a way to advance in the line without restarting their vehicle.

My proposal for a "Carbon Neutral Drive-Thru" design.
If the drive-thru lane sloped downward at an appropriate grade from the start of the lane to the drive through windows, customers could turn off their car, and simply take their foot off the brake when they wanted to advance.  Remember we are talking about a movement of 20ft at a time at extremely slow speeds (gravity power only) on a gentle slope. At these speeds, the assistance of power brakes becomes unnecessary for the average passenger vehicle.  This drive-thru recommendation is a development consideration with the long term return of potential reduced emissions for the life of the property.  it requires more planning than simply posting signs. It requires;

• Determine the best incline to overcome the rolling resistance for most passenger vehicles. 
• Publish information on this design concept to all cities and municipalities, for their use in supporting property developers.  
• Allow developers to adopt the plans .
• Grant recognition to those developers/ restaurants who adopt "carbon neutral drive-thrus".

Given the overall cost of development, grading the drive-thru lane is minuscule.


If every drive-thru in a city were developed to this standard, the potential for literally 1000s of cars a day to avoid unnecessary idling is huge.


Cheers, I hope this idea is helpful to you.
Greg.