This is great fun... Here's a snip of Tasmania

This could get addictive... Thought I'd put a little collage together of the clips from Tasmania... Probably not very interesting, but fun to put together all the same....

Tazmania...



Cheers
JT

You Tube - Is this the way forward?

Just wanted to do a test of the You Tube video service - I was hoping Flickr would come up with the same thing....

Noah in the bath - about 9 months ago...



Cheers
JT

Have you had a Boinc recently?

Yes that the "Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing"

As they say - 'BOINC is free, open-source software for distributed computing'.

What this means is you sign up to a project of your choice, they download you a piece of 'work', and when you PC/Mac/Linux box is not doing anything, it uses the spare CPU cycles to compute the work - along with displaying a screensaver.

You divide up the work as you wish betweeen the projects. There are many projects rangings from looking for aliens, to predicting climate prediction (you might have heard of the BBC experiment?), protein folding, etc, etc... A list of which can be found here (and they are growing all the time). The BBC have made it very user friendly from here.

Basically you can become part of the largest computer in the world.

I am part of the following projects:


Which started with SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) in 1999:


Go on - donate some of your computing power to ClimatePrediction.net!

Give Switches the Flick!

Let's keep pushing our companies to do things like this...

(From the Sydney Morning Herald)...

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EVERY night the Sydney skyline is illuminated by the city's office towers, their lights ablaze.

But at one office tower, when the staff go home the lights go out.

In the largest energy efficiency upgrade to an existing office in Australia, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is saving power and money, and cutting its greenhouse gas emissions without flicking a switch.

Installation of a new lighting system means that each day when the first staff member walks out of the lift and to his or her desk, sensors pick up the movement and turn on the lights. When no movement has been detected for more than 20 minutes the lights go out.

The company will save 630 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions generated by 140 cars. If all office tenants in the city saved energy at this rate, it is estimated it would provide enough surplus energy to power 13,000 homes.

In the middle of a fierce national debate about the greenhouse gases associated with coal-generated electricity and the risks of nuclear power, it was a timely reminder that curbing electricity use was part of the solution to climate change, said the managing director of Big Switch Projects, Gavin Gilchrist, who managed the project for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Economic modelling endorsed by all Australian governments showed that commercial building owners and tenants could cut their energy use by between 30 and 70 per cent, and that implementing those savings would deliver strong economic growth, jobs and big greenhouse gas reductions, Mr Gilchrist said.

"As we debate energy policy in Australia, it's well worth remembering that the cheapest way to meet future energy needs is to stop wasting the stuff in the first place."

PricewaterhouseCoopers had made a global commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions because it made environmental and business sense, said the firm's Australian infrastructure director, Jay Lomax.

"Lighting is the big-ticket item, and that is where the big energy drain is," said Mr Lomax, explaining why the firm spent $1 million over six months to upgrade the lighting in its 32,000 square metres of office space at Darling Park, where 2400 staff work.

Each group of employees is in a zone controlled by one sensor. When that zone has been empty of staff for more than 20 minutes the lights go out.

Electricity is saved not just overnight and at weekends but also during the day when staff are away from their desks at meetings or working off-site with clients.

The project entailed removing 8000 ceiling tiles, dragging 40 kilometres of cable through ceiling spaces and installing 1600 sensors. Electricians plugged in 4800 electrical connections to finish the job.

Mr Lomax said it would take five years to recoup the $1 million spent on the system, but in the four months since its installation the firm had already cut its energy use by 15 per cent.

Refits were also being carried out at the company's office towers in Perth, Canberra, Melbourne and Brisbane.

"The reaction from staff has been really positive. They understand why we are doing it and the benefits to the broader community."

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