Weekend before last I walked up by hellfire club, Massey's wood and then up further in woods and hills near there with Martin and friends.
On Sunday Fionnuala showed me the walk up to the Blue light. We put trailgators on both our bikes. Kate with Fionnuala and Maeve with me. Cycled to bottom then climbed up. Had fruit at the top outside small houses with lots of interesting statues outside. Met some horses (had an apple core to give one), met lady in sweet shop, had a guinness for me :) and then back down.
Lashed rain in morning but lovely and sunny for us.
Midedle of path had mud & leaves washed cleanly away.
Up near top at boggy place a spring was welling up, looked like maybe a big pool would form if someone stood in the wrong place.
The Dublin Mountains Initiative gave a talk at the Green Party meeting.
Very interesting. Had seen DMI before and liked the ideas alot. Impressed with the list of organisations they're affiliated with but it makes sense really. Woah. 45000 associated members :). I think DMI are providing the vision and it looks like they've also got coilte, the county councils and parks & wildlife all on board. Things also seem to be moving forward. Initial reports done and now a study area is formed in places extending to the National park. The ideas on rambler buses sound excellent.
http://dublinmountains.ie/ Maybe less cars will invade the area and more people enjoying the outdoors :-)
Hopefully this will also benefit the locals!
The walk in the hills was lovely but somehow it is always a bit annoying to drive to the walk.
And then if walking and have to go on road you have to watch out.
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
planning ideas, provide simple social areas/spaces/facilities
We have loads of space really in our estate.
Nice big green area.
Some of it wooded/bushes, lots of grass.
Paths and coming a transformation of old tennis courts into MUGA.
We're very lucky.
Luas is coming very close soon as well.
Very very lucky.
But things could be better with some simple changes.
Everyone with gardens needs to get rid of green waste.
We have a very awkward corner with a pile of clippings/rotting plant material.
An area for green waste would be useful for everyone on any estate with gardens.
Common facilities for recycling and composting can save space needed by every house or apartment.
Garden and allotment space for apartments especially release green-fingered urban dwellers from urban stress for a time.
We're lucky to have an active residents association http://lhra.info
Good contact is maintained with the council (the parks dept, roads, ...).
Meetings are held in people's houses or local pubs.
Equipment is stored in various people's houses and sheds. (Gazebos for outdoor days, soccer goals, tools, ...)
Any estate or apartment complex could easily have communal meeting and storage areas.
As well as residents groups using these it can provide a space for any local games or music or sports or whatever clubs to both meet and to store equipment.
On the continent in Germany some apartment complexes have useful communal areas.
With space for meetings or parties, space for storage and shared facilities - clothes laundring, shared heating systems, ...
Apartment living can especially be more restricted and some communal space can really increase the possibilities people have for doing many activities - whether it be doing some laundry, DIY, holding a toddler or 60th birthday party or simply storing bikes/tents/canoes/...
If we expect some communal space to be provided in housing estates and especially apartment complexes and if we start asking for or demanding the space (are there any empty apartments built unattractively below ground level that are unoccupied and could be converted? :-) :-P) Then we can give ourselves the space and freedom to do many things.
Am I making sense here?
Please tell everyone! :)
If you have opportunity to give input into planning then as a point suggest that communal utility, meeting and storage areas should be provided. Retro-fitting shared facilities is more difficult than having them up front. So consider laundry, heating.
Nice big green area.
Some of it wooded/bushes, lots of grass.
Paths and coming a transformation of old tennis courts into MUGA.
We're very lucky.
Luas is coming very close soon as well.
Very very lucky.
But things could be better with some simple changes.
Everyone with gardens needs to get rid of green waste.
We have a very awkward corner with a pile of clippings/rotting plant material.
An area for green waste would be useful for everyone on any estate with gardens.
Common facilities for recycling and composting can save space needed by every house or apartment.
Garden and allotment space for apartments especially release green-fingered urban dwellers from urban stress for a time.
We're lucky to have an active residents association http://lhra.info
Good contact is maintained with the council (the parks dept, roads, ...).
Meetings are held in people's houses or local pubs.
Equipment is stored in various people's houses and sheds. (Gazebos for outdoor days, soccer goals, tools, ...)
Any estate or apartment complex could easily have communal meeting and storage areas.
As well as residents groups using these it can provide a space for any local games or music or sports or whatever clubs to both meet and to store equipment.
On the continent in Germany some apartment complexes have useful communal areas.
With space for meetings or parties, space for storage and shared facilities - clothes laundring, shared heating systems, ...
Apartment living can especially be more restricted and some communal space can really increase the possibilities people have for doing many activities - whether it be doing some laundry, DIY, holding a toddler or 60th birthday party or simply storing bikes/tents/canoes/...
If we expect some communal space to be provided in housing estates and especially apartment complexes and if we start asking for or demanding the space (are there any empty apartments built unattractively below ground level that are unoccupied and could be converted? :-) :-P) Then we can give ourselves the space and freedom to do many things.
Am I making sense here?
Please tell everyone! :)
If you have opportunity to give input into planning then as a point suggest that communal utility, meeting and storage areas should be provided. Retro-fitting shared facilities is more difficult than having them up front. So consider laundry, heating.
Friday, 20 June 2008
green party science tech
entered on my Green party skillz form: >;) muaghahahaha >;)
OCCUPATION / SKILLS: Computer Programmer (server unix/embedded, development environment tools)
DEGREES/DIPLOMAS: BEng Computer Engineering 1.1 (UL)
SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE: Everyone stand back! I know regular expressions.
SPECIAL INTERESTS: science technology music education cycling windsurfing/watersports kites environment ...
Policy on IT, ... Hmmm.
http://greenparty.ie/en/policies/information_technology/information_technology
Oh all of stuff on website is soooo old :( must try and update somewhat
especially: http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/kids/index.html
OCCUPATION / SKILLS: Computer Programmer (server unix/embedded, development environment tools)
DEGREES/DIPLOMAS: BEng Computer Engineering 1.1 (UL)
SPECIALIST KNOWLEDGE: Everyone stand back! I know regular expressions.
SPECIAL INTERESTS: science technology music education cycling windsurfing/watersports kites environment ...
Policy on IT, ... Hmmm.
http://greenparty.ie/en/policies/information_technology/information_technology
Oh all of stuff on website is soooo old :( must try and update somewhat
especially: http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/kids/index.html
Sunday, 15 June 2008
camping up North o nthe weekend
Happy Birthday Pauline! :)
We were up in Northern Ireland this weekend camping:
http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/photos/20080515/
Lovely place, Carnfunnock Country Park just North of Larne, lots of big trees and little birds.
Park run by council, was an old estate, has nice country walks, walled gardens lots of things for kids - playground, crazy golf, cute electric carts, bouncy castle. There were horses jumping on Saturday.
http://www.larne.gov.uk/template1.asp?pid=588&area=6&text=1
http://www.carnfunnock.com/>carnfunnock.com
On Friday we flew planes in work (Mike, David and Saf have bought) outside in pub courtyard.
Most exciting was when plane flewup onto nets on top of astro-turf pitch. Uoh ohhh!
It's wheels stuck in net, me clibming and shaking net made it go nose down and more embedded :(
THen Cian threw full bottle up and missed catching it one tine *Sploosh*.
A less full bottle made it go WHEE! zoom up and then Mike started engineso it flew to escapement Uoh ohhh down to road.
Recovered successfully.
Good day, Gerard back from tons of demos of main products and zenoss monitoring the monitoring products too which went well.
Lots of work to do.
At 3:30 or so Fionn & kids collected me and we drove North using Dublin port tunnel.
A bit of traffic in Belfast alright, roadworks. Surprised up North no motorways pretty much but loads of dual carrigeways.
Missed a road to Larne I think but didn't go too far wrong.
Nice to see the sea again and soon at campsite.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=10496886038202576987,54.915978,-5.883149&saddr=37+Mt+Eagle+Grove,+Dublin+18,+Ireland&daddr=53.35383,-6.225128+to:Coast+Rd,+Ballygally,+Larne,+County+Antrim,+BT40+2QZ,+United+Kingdom+(Carfunnock+County+Park)&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=12&via=1&sll=53.336613,-6.251221&sspn=0.133252,0.277061&ie=UTF8&ll=54.072283,-6.146851&spn=2.09518,4.432983&z=8
Fionn checks in while kids roll on steep hill.
Then car drive in up steep hill, Humm where to put tent?
Tent up and tea gotten by Fionn.
Amid exuberent young teens encroaching on our personal camping space. oi! :)
We have a lovely tree to scramble on.
We explore a little, walk up a steep hill, kids each have a grumpy moment - not Kate though.
Phew! Bed.
Very full day Saturday. Urgh up 5:30 and bring Kate to loo.
Lots of tweety birds.
Sleep. Up and breakfast 8:30/9ish.
Big breakfast sausages and all. Fionn had managed to drive to shop and back without me noticing!
Then we find the big playground with lighthouse slide. We play in there then Daire plays big chess with Fionn.
Then Daire plays table tennis with Fionn. Then I play teble tennis - Daire starts hammering me and I go 14 - 0 down.
But then I start to get some scores. We go back and forth for ages and I gradually get some points but in end he wins comfortably 21:16 or something. phew! Girls have gone with Fionn to bouncy castle.
We go find them, see trees (a few are marked with name) and see horses jumping, golf, people barbequing, cricket, remote control pirate boats ...
Girls are thirsty and head back to tent.
Daire & I thirsty too, we buy a club orange and play crazy golf.
Then somehow miraculously find girls in the middle of the maze!
Walk up hill at that side, visit wild garden, run down woody hollow, be trolls under half-drained pond, Kate and I explore further over, then back down and rub nose and head of friendly heifir.
THEN ... we must have eaten something?
But we get in car and head North. Maeve collapses asleep. After a bit it is revealed (a bit like Bilbo visiting Beorn) that oh the famous rope bridge and giants causeway are up this direction ... :) We get to rope bridge just in time and get a job to tell person taking tickets at other end that we're last. 1k? walk over me with Maeve, she walks a good bit. Lots of people somehow walk past the last people over. Rope bridge is a bit scary holding a 3yr old's hand! Very nice on the island.
After that on for the Giant's causeway!!
Madness :) We walk down to first turn, visit the beach see some interesting things but head back.
Now looking for food we goto Portrush which has scary young party people all over the place.
On to Coleraine and right in the middle find Italian kindof just stull open 9:30pm and have nice food.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=10496886038202576987,54.915978,-5.883149%3B9651638354027809797,55.238790,-6.348010%3B5721550351046306821,55.231714,-6.515337%3B16707423386322783317,55.233170,-6.517250%3B12516532731610591884,55.199310,-6.653980%3B8922713719876197161,55.136190,-6.643200%3B6911609096525310997,55.132590,-6.669150&saddr=Coast+Rd,+Ballygally,+Larne,+County+Antrim,+BT40+2QZ,+United+Kingdom+(Carfunnock+County+Park)&daddr=Whitepark+Rd+%4055.238790,+-6.348010+to:B147%2FCauseway+Rd+%4055.231714,+-6.515337+to:Unknown+road+%4055.233170,+-6.517250+to:Unknown+road+%4055.199310,+-6.653980+to:A29%2FRing+Rd+%4055.136190,+-6.643200+to:Church+Ln+%4055.132590,+-6.669150+to:54.90662,-5.885925&mra=mi&mrcr=4&mrsp=7&sz=9&via=1,5&sll=55.084509,-6.324005&sspn=1.021846,2.216492&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9
Back to campsite just after midnight.
Kids conked completely.
Adults too.
On Sunday
In morning we got breakfast, packed up (a bit hastily for my relaxed person - for fear of rain I think).
And headed for Belfast after playground.
W5 science museum in Belfast yesterday. wow! It is good fun.
First it wasn't open, we got smoothies and sandwiches.
Then in science museum, we were in the place for young kids for ages.
I made tall wooden tower, figured out chopsticks another wooden construction, ...
THEN we found some of the rest of the place.
Daire & I made electric cars.
Big scalectrix propulsion, click-together plastic whatsitcalled stuff.
Daire had a looong car. extra longness added to add weight to front to keep contact in slot.
I had an ungainly tall wobbly yoke with myriad problems going straight.
Had a monster wheel on front for a while too.
We ran and found girls at fireworks show.
Last poeople in that place too.
It was quiet enough for such a great place!
I also observed later to waider:
All the Northern Irish people seem much less extrovert than people are down here?
And it's really really weird driving where it seems that all the other drivers
know the rules of the road! Especially weird on roundabouts.
(note: I'm totally not extrovert, weird being in a country where your own slightly repressed ? personality type is the norm!)
We were up in Northern Ireland this weekend camping:
http://www.dspsrv.com/~jamesc/photos/20080515/
Lovely place, Carnfunnock Country Park just North of Larne, lots of big trees and little birds.
Park run by council, was an old estate, has nice country walks, walled gardens lots of things for kids - playground, crazy golf, cute electric carts, bouncy castle. There were horses jumping on Saturday.
http://www.larne.gov.uk/template1.asp?pid=588&area=6&text=1
http://www.carnfunnock.com/>carnfunnock.com
On Friday we flew planes in work (Mike, David and Saf have bought) outside in pub courtyard.
Most exciting was when plane flewup onto nets on top of astro-turf pitch. Uoh ohhh!
It's wheels stuck in net, me clibming and shaking net made it go nose down and more embedded :(
THen Cian threw full bottle up and missed catching it one tine *Sploosh*.
A less full bottle made it go WHEE! zoom up and then Mike started engineso it flew to escapement Uoh ohhh down to road.
Recovered successfully.
Good day, Gerard back from tons of demos of main products and zenoss monitoring the monitoring products too which went well.
Lots of work to do.
At 3:30 or so Fionn & kids collected me and we drove North using Dublin port tunnel.
A bit of traffic in Belfast alright, roadworks. Surprised up North no motorways pretty much but loads of dual carrigeways.
Missed a road to Larne I think but didn't go too far wrong.
Nice to see the sea again and soon at campsite.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=10496886038202576987,54.915978,-5.883149&saddr=37+Mt+Eagle+Grove,+Dublin+18,+Ireland&daddr=53.35383,-6.225128+to:Coast+Rd,+Ballygally,+Larne,+County+Antrim,+BT40+2QZ,+United+Kingdom+(Carfunnock+County+Park)&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=12&via=1&sll=53.336613,-6.251221&sspn=0.133252,0.277061&ie=UTF8&ll=54.072283,-6.146851&spn=2.09518,4.432983&z=8
Fionn checks in while kids roll on steep hill.
Then car drive in up steep hill, Humm where to put tent?
Tent up and tea gotten by Fionn.
Amid exuberent young teens encroaching on our personal camping space. oi! :)
We have a lovely tree to scramble on.
We explore a little, walk up a steep hill, kids each have a grumpy moment - not Kate though.
Phew! Bed.
Very full day Saturday. Urgh up 5:30 and bring Kate to loo.
Lots of tweety birds.
Sleep. Up and breakfast 8:30/9ish.
Big breakfast sausages and all. Fionn had managed to drive to shop and back without me noticing!
Then we find the big playground with lighthouse slide. We play in there then Daire plays big chess with Fionn.
Then Daire plays table tennis with Fionn. Then I play teble tennis - Daire starts hammering me and I go 14 - 0 down.
But then I start to get some scores. We go back and forth for ages and I gradually get some points but in end he wins comfortably 21:16 or something. phew! Girls have gone with Fionn to bouncy castle.
We go find them, see trees (a few are marked with name) and see horses jumping, golf, people barbequing, cricket, remote control pirate boats ...
Girls are thirsty and head back to tent.
Daire & I thirsty too, we buy a club orange and play crazy golf.
Then somehow miraculously find girls in the middle of the maze!
Walk up hill at that side, visit wild garden, run down woody hollow, be trolls under half-drained pond, Kate and I explore further over, then back down and rub nose and head of friendly heifir.
THEN ... we must have eaten something?
But we get in car and head North. Maeve collapses asleep. After a bit it is revealed (a bit like Bilbo visiting Beorn) that oh the famous rope bridge and giants causeway are up this direction ... :) We get to rope bridge just in time and get a job to tell person taking tickets at other end that we're last. 1k? walk over me with Maeve, she walks a good bit. Lots of people somehow walk past the last people over. Rope bridge is a bit scary holding a 3yr old's hand! Very nice on the island.
After that on for the Giant's causeway!!
Madness :) We walk down to first turn, visit the beach see some interesting things but head back.
Now looking for food we goto Portrush which has scary young party people all over the place.
On to Coleraine and right in the middle find Italian kindof just stull open 9:30pm and have nice food.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=10496886038202576987,54.915978,-5.883149%3B9651638354027809797,55.238790,-6.348010%3B5721550351046306821,55.231714,-6.515337%3B16707423386322783317,55.233170,-6.517250%3B12516532731610591884,55.199310,-6.653980%3B8922713719876197161,55.136190,-6.643200%3B6911609096525310997,55.132590,-6.669150&saddr=Coast+Rd,+Ballygally,+Larne,+County+Antrim,+BT40+2QZ,+United+Kingdom+(Carfunnock+County+Park)&daddr=Whitepark+Rd+%4055.238790,+-6.348010+to:B147%2FCauseway+Rd+%4055.231714,+-6.515337+to:Unknown+road+%4055.233170,+-6.517250+to:Unknown+road+%4055.199310,+-6.653980+to:A29%2FRing+Rd+%4055.136190,+-6.643200+to:Church+Ln+%4055.132590,+-6.669150+to:54.90662,-5.885925&mra=mi&mrcr=4&mrsp=7&sz=9&via=1,5&sll=55.084509,-6.324005&sspn=1.021846,2.216492&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9
Back to campsite just after midnight.
Kids conked completely.
Adults too.
On Sunday
In morning we got breakfast, packed up (a bit hastily for my relaxed person - for fear of rain I think).
And headed for Belfast after playground.
W5 science museum in Belfast yesterday. wow! It is good fun.
First it wasn't open, we got smoothies and sandwiches.
Then in science museum, we were in the place for young kids for ages.
I made tall wooden tower, figured out chopsticks another wooden construction, ...
THEN we found some of the rest of the place.
Daire & I made electric cars.
Big scalectrix propulsion, click-together plastic whatsitcalled stuff.
Daire had a looong car. extra longness added to add weight to front to keep contact in slot.
I had an ungainly tall wobbly yoke with myriad problems going straight.
Had a monster wheel on front for a while too.
We ran and found girls at fireworks show.
Last poeople in that place too.
It was quiet enough for such a great place!
I also observed later to waider:
All the Northern Irish people seem much less extrovert than people are down here?
And it's really really weird driving where it seems that all the other drivers
know the rules of the road! Especially weird on roundabouts.
(note: I'm totally not extrovert, weird being in a country where your own slightly repressed ? personality type is the norm!)
Thursday, 17 April 2008
zenoss: creasting zencommand custom plugins
Loads of work for me on Zenoss last few weeks.
FINALLY the class system/zProperties/rrd Templates/etc are making some sense to the inside of my head. We want to monitor buckets of data.
I posted this to here to see what people think:
http://community.zenoss.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18670#18670
I've added tons of stuff to Zenoss_configuration page in wiki yesterday, some today.
Up till 3:30am last night - I stopped when windows/mouse died.
I managed to put a zenoss template which contained several graphs and datasources into a ZenPack and then delete it and was not able to load it back. ARGH! So something else to figure out.
I had a couple of awkward problems to solve when getting a zencommand plugin to work so I thought I would share. If my analysis is correct this information might also be useful to others and could possibly be used to enhance the documentation on creating zencommand plugins.
So please take a look and see if this is useful.
J.
== Tip when working with zencommands. ==
If ONE data point in a whole template has an error (can have multiple graphs, data sources and points) then the data does not get stored in rrdtool. Even though testing with "zencommand run" reports a "storing" message. It might be safer to define datasources and graphs in a few seperate templates instead of one template.
In that way an error appearing for one piece of data would not cause all data retrieve to stop.
I'm still finding it a little awkward how best to manage classes and attributes in zenoss.
== Large data values received had a problem being stored if set to AVERAGE, use COUNTER instead ==
Value returned was FramesReceived=74609722 but rrdtool tried to insert 74609722.0.
Fix is easy, use COUNTER instead of AVERAGE for those large data types.
(It could happen that a value monitored for a long time could grow and suddenly cause this kind of problem is a surprising way.)
== zencommand has some problems scaling. ==
... if you quickly hack together a plugin! Smile
"ERROR zen.zencommand: [Errno 24] Too many open files"
I see per-process open file limits of 254 and 258 on solaris 10 boxes.
zencommand fires off multiple processes ( number of servers * data sources ) to retrieve data.
One may edit zencommand.py and reduce MAX_CONNECTIONS
gsed -i s/MAX_CONNECTIONS=256/MAX_CONNECTIONS=16/ $ZENHOME/Products/ZenRRD/zencommand.py
Problems were reduced but not eliminated.
There were 15 servers in list and 3 zencommand datasources 15 * 3 = 45 which is not too many.
If you implement a zencommand plugin that causes zencommand to use up file handles you can run into this issue. I have a generic plugin which is called with different parameters to feed several data sources. The performance template was applied to a list of solaris servers.
The first incarnation of the plugin is a script which calls nagios plugin check_http and also uses a temporary file. I figure plugin is too slow/heavy; bash is spawned and another process to call check_http. Essentially best practice for plugins is to keep them very light and do any messing/work on the server side.
We wish to add more servers and more data sources using plugins like this. So it must scale. There is a limitation on what resources plugins are allowed to use which may not be very obvious.
FINALLY the class system/zProperties/rrd Templates/etc are making some sense to the inside of my head. We want to monitor buckets of data.
I posted this to here to see what people think:
http://community.zenoss.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=18670#18670
I've added tons of stuff to Zenoss_configuration page in wiki yesterday, some today.
Up till 3:30am last night - I stopped when windows/mouse died.
I managed to put a zenoss template which contained several graphs and datasources into a ZenPack and then delete it and was not able to load it back. ARGH! So something else to figure out.
I had a couple of awkward problems to solve when getting a zencommand plugin to work so I thought I would share. If my analysis is correct this information might also be useful to others and could possibly be used to enhance the documentation on creating zencommand plugins.
So please take a look and see if this is useful.
J.
== Tip when working with zencommands. ==
If ONE data point in a whole template has an error (can have multiple graphs, data sources and points) then the data does not get stored in rrdtool. Even though testing with "zencommand run" reports a "storing" message. It might be safer to define datasources and graphs in a few seperate templates instead of one template.
In that way an error appearing for one piece of data would not cause all data retrieve to stop.
I'm still finding it a little awkward how best to manage classes and attributes in zenoss.
== Large data values received had a problem being stored if set to AVERAGE, use COUNTER instead ==
Value returned was FramesReceived=74609722 but rrdtool tried to insert 74609722.0.
2008-04-17 12:36:12 ERROR zen.RRDUtil: rrd error not a simple integer: '74609722.0' Devices/frigg.ie.commprove.test/iubTGenStatusTxt_FramesReceived
Fix is easy, use COUNTER instead of AVERAGE for those large data types.
(It could happen that a value monitored for a long time could grow and suddenly cause this kind of problem is a surprising way.)
== zencommand has some problems scaling. ==
... if you quickly hack together a plugin! Smile
"ERROR zen.zencommand: [Errno 24] Too many open files"
I see per-process open file limits of 254 and 258 on solaris 10 boxes.
zencommand fires off multiple processes ( number of servers * data sources ) to retrieve data.
One may edit zencommand.py and reduce MAX_CONNECTIONS
gsed -i s/MAX_CONNECTIONS=256/MAX_CONNECTIONS=16/ $ZENHOME/Products/ZenRRD/zencommand.py
Problems were reduced but not eliminated.
There were 15 servers in list and 3 zencommand datasources 15 * 3 = 45 which is not too many.
If you implement a zencommand plugin that causes zencommand to use up file handles you can run into this issue. I have a generic plugin which is called with different parameters to feed several data sources. The performance template was applied to a list of solaris servers.
The first incarnation of the plugin is a script which calls nagios plugin check_http and also uses a temporary file. I figure plugin is too slow/heavy; bash is spawned and another process to call check_http. Essentially best practice for plugins is to keep them very light and do any messing/work on the server side.
We wish to add more servers and more data sources using plugins like this. So it must scale. There is a limitation on what resources plugins are allowed to use which may not be very obvious.
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
parental fears and kids independance - public transport
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/why-i-let-my-9-year-old-ride-subway-alone
"Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence."
I came across Mayer Hillman's writings on environment, transport a while ago.
http://www.spokeseastkent.org.uk/mayer.htm
Parental Fears and Loss of Children's independance
http://www.psi.org.uk/people/person.asp?person_id=30
Mayer Hillman
Our minor adventures with the Dublin bus to school can be seen a bit in this blog.
Daire & Kate are now mostly getting the very nice Kelly bus to school.
Occasionally the Dublin bus.
And some other families locally are also getting it so there is mostly a decent bunch of kids travelling the same route and older ones are watching out for the smaller ones.
First Story (Mom lets 9yr old rude NY subway home) Via Bruce Schneier on security
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/04/overestimating.html
Overestimating Threats Against Children
And off topic a Myriad is 10000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad
"Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence."
I came across Mayer Hillman's writings on environment, transport a while ago.
http://www.spokeseastkent.org.uk/mayer.htm
Parental Fears and Loss of Children's independance
http://www.psi.org.uk/people/person.asp?person_id=30
Mayer Hillman
Our minor adventures with the Dublin bus to school can be seen a bit in this blog.
Daire & Kate are now mostly getting the very nice Kelly bus to school.
Occasionally the Dublin bus.
And some other families locally are also getting it so there is mostly a decent bunch of kids travelling the same route and older ones are watching out for the smaller ones.
First Story (Mom lets 9yr old rude NY subway home) Via Bruce Schneier on security
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/04/overestimating.html
Overestimating Threats Against Children
And off topic a Myriad is 10000 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myriad
Wednesday, 9 April 2008
standards to reduce waste (remote-control, mobile phone charger devices)
Standards in general.
No, not in general. A method of using standards to limit resource use (reduce waste of materials/energy and general). Make the manufacturing/commercial applicance world slightly
more efficient hopefully.
Statement of problem (the easy bit):
Companies have a moral obligation (to the environment and to frustrated users) to make things standard and inter-operable. Particularily in my mind now are:
* infra-red remote controls
* mobile phone chargers and any general chargers/transformers
* mobile-phone and other electronic devices connection cables
* batteries ~maybe~
* light-bulb connections ~maybe~
* in-car devices (radios, ...)
You need a certain amount of flexability to change your interfaces to improve them. e.g. to make things smaller/cheaper/use less power. BUT infra-red remote controls and some accessories for mobile phones in particular are items which are purposefully made incompatible so that the customer is tied to one manufacturer to replace them.
This means lots of accidental revenue for the company for each unique remote control that a customer loses. But it also means there is a waste. Much less of these devices need be made.
Can the benefit to customers and to the environment be evaluated for these cases?
Companies purposefully seek to block competition from an area where they are dominant.
This should be made disadvantageous.
If a standard(S) can be defined for device(D) used to interface to a larger machine or systems(M).
And requirements on standard S can be defined as SR.
If a company has machine or system(M1) with interface(I1) and devices(D1) available implementing I1.
If the requirements of the interface to the system M1 can be defined as a subset of SR but if the interface is not compatible with standard S then a consumer and environment tax should be levied on system M1 especially and also on incompatible devices D1.
In plainer english D might be a remote control, M would be a TV.
D might be a mobile-phone charger, M would be a mobile phone.
M could be a light-bulb and SR a definition of requirements on light output, lifetime and manufacturing cost in resources).
In practice this could be difficult to implement. :) :-P
It can be very hard to get standards accepted.
The engineering and technology industry has to have standards in key areas to facilitate the
advancement of the industry but open standards can reduce the advantage that a closed system and
monopoly gives a company financially. So standards are not developed by the industry in many cases where they should be. Because most of reward of science/technology is through industry we have
an environment where openness is discouraged. This stifles experimentation and general sci/tech/...
advancement.
But, anyway, like, y'know:
1. Specific cases of this method of controlling waste can be legislated for.
e.g. Legislation on the control on sale of light-bulbs which are not(or less!? :))
environmentally friendly is somewhat similar to a control like this.
General legislation might make niche areas more wasteful?
Think about: using cheaper lightbulbs in an environment where bulbs are in more
rugged environment (i.e. our kids bedrooms!) might generate less waste, ...
2. On a larger scale (global or starting as European/American/Russian/Asian/...) standards can
be defined and rules set so that the overhead of setting standards, evaluating benefits of
having standard and decisions on conformance can be made (with less waste! :) )
This is (an attempt at defining) a general method of controlling waste.
Waste which is financially advantageous to entities to promote by accident of having a monopoly over a manufacture of interface-devices.
Brought to you by the letters S, D, R and I, on a Wednesday and probably as a result of consumption of too much caffeine and too much thinking. :-7
No, not in general. A method of using standards to limit resource use (reduce waste of materials/energy and general). Make the manufacturing/commercial applicance world slightly
more efficient hopefully.
Statement of problem (the easy bit):
Companies have a moral obligation (to the environment and to frustrated users) to make things standard and inter-operable. Particularily in my mind now are:
* infra-red remote controls
* mobile phone chargers and any general chargers/transformers
* mobile-phone and other electronic devices connection cables
* batteries ~maybe~
* light-bulb connections ~maybe~
* in-car devices (radios, ...)
You need a certain amount of flexability to change your interfaces to improve them. e.g. to make things smaller/cheaper/use less power. BUT infra-red remote controls and some accessories for mobile phones in particular are items which are purposefully made incompatible so that the customer is tied to one manufacturer to replace them.
This means lots of accidental revenue for the company for each unique remote control that a customer loses. But it also means there is a waste. Much less of these devices need be made.
Can the benefit to customers and to the environment be evaluated for these cases?
Companies purposefully seek to block competition from an area where they are dominant.
This should be made disadvantageous.
If a standard(S) can be defined for device(D) used to interface to a larger machine or systems(M).
And requirements on standard S can be defined as SR.
If a company has machine or system(M1) with interface(I1) and devices(D1) available implementing I1.
If the requirements of the interface to the system M1 can be defined as a subset of SR but if the interface is not compatible with standard S then a consumer and environment tax should be levied on system M1 especially and also on incompatible devices D1.
In plainer english D might be a remote control, M would be a TV.
D might be a mobile-phone charger, M would be a mobile phone.
M could be a light-bulb and SR a definition of requirements on light output, lifetime and manufacturing cost in resources).
In practice this could be difficult to implement. :) :-P
It can be very hard to get standards accepted.
The engineering and technology industry has to have standards in key areas to facilitate the
advancement of the industry but open standards can reduce the advantage that a closed system and
monopoly gives a company financially. So standards are not developed by the industry in many cases where they should be. Because most of reward of science/technology is through industry we have
an environment where openness is discouraged. This stifles experimentation and general sci/tech/...
advancement.
But, anyway, like, y'know:
1. Specific cases of this method of controlling waste can be legislated for.
e.g. Legislation on the control on sale of light-bulbs which are not(or less!? :))
environmentally friendly is somewhat similar to a control like this.
General legislation might make niche areas more wasteful?
Think about: using cheaper lightbulbs in an environment where bulbs are in more
rugged environment (i.e. our kids bedrooms!) might generate less waste, ...
2. On a larger scale (global or starting as European/American/Russian/Asian/...) standards can
be defined and rules set so that the overhead of setting standards, evaluating benefits of
having standard and decisions on conformance can be made (with less waste! :) )
This is (an attempt at defining) a general method of controlling waste.
Waste which is financially advantageous to entities to promote by accident of having a monopoly over a manufacture of interface-devices.
Brought to you by the letters S, D, R and I, on a Wednesday and probably as a result of consumption of too much caffeine and too much thinking. :-7
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