Is a Bloom Box in every home the future?
I have just spotted a great write up over on TechCrunch regarding a Silicon Valley start-up called Bloom Energy.
They claim to have invented a power cell the size of a house brick that can generate enough power for a small family home. They even claim that the likes of FedEx, Google and eBay are already using their products in the real world.
60 Minutes have done a report on the company, it’s technology and it’s vision
Is it the future?
I know if the price was right, I could be tempted.
Is it real or ever going to go mainstream?
Who knows but I wish I had a stake in it right now.
Video : The Bloom Box on CBS 60 Minutes
We know where you live (revisited)
Several months ago I posted THIS article entitled “We know where you live”
At the time I discussed how a lot of the new location aware social networking sites could actually be used to work out where you live, where you are right now and thus work out when you are away from home.
Over the last year or so, many more such sites have been launched with a popular one being Foursquare. The idea of Foursquare is that you “check in” via an application on your mobile phone each time you go somewhere new (such as a bar or a museum) and this information is then used to let your friends know where you are and to allow others in the same location give you advice on things to do.
This information is also posted in real time to Twitter and Facebook.
If you read my previous article then you can probably work out what’s coming next.
Some bright sparks have just launched a website called Please Rob Me. It pulls information from these various services and then displays it for the world to see
Powerful stuff isn’t it?
More importantly though this website is to demonstrate a point. Indeed on the Please Rob Me website they say:
The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.
So once again, if you are using these location aware social networking sites, please stop and think because not only are you telling people where you are, but you are also telling people where you are not!
Going Green: A new ultra efficient server
As with my last post, in my challenge to save some polar bears, I am on a drive to cut my energy consumption.
So my office is the main culprit and in that office are a couple of servers that obviously run 24×7. These were clearly my first target.
So my home server does a number of things but it’s primary role is as file storage and backups plus it also runs VMware so I can test out software and run things like our home CCTV software that refuses to run on anything except a Windows XP box.
So after a little bit of research, I could see that the Intel Atom chipset was the way to go.
Over the last few years, Intel have been producing low energy processors initially for the Netbook market but now for anything that needs to keep power consumption down. A little bit of digging revealed that Intel have just launched their Atom D510 CPU which is a dual core hyper threading chip that runs at 1.66GHz and supports a full 64bit instruction set.
Intel package this already welded to a motherboard so ship this as a pre configured unit the Intel D510M
As you can see, this thing has passive cooling (so it runs silent) and just about everything on board. It does have a single PCI slot just in case. It’s also really really small.
So to turn this into a fully working PC, all I have needed to buy is a case, some RAM and a hard drive.
So I have loaded this thing up with 4GB of RAM, a 2.5” laptop hard drive and a nice small form factor case. All my storage is external using SATA HDD caddies so what I have ended up with is this.
All of this is drawing less than 60 watts when running flat out which is impressive to say the least.
But how does such a tiny PC perform?
Well we are running Windows Server 2008 R2 64bit and then I am running VMware Server which in turn has a couple of XP virtual machines running on it right now.
So this is impressive
Of course the really impressive thing is the heat. Remember this uses passive cooling.
And even though all of this looks good, it keeps getting better as this whole lot cost less than £200 delivered!
So I have now gone from 2 servers, each running at 200W (so 400W in total if you haven’t got a calculator to hand) to 1 server that is running silent, cool and even with all those hard drives, less than 60W.
For those that are interested, I think this setup would be fantastic to run Windows Home Server on if that’s your thing
In any case, I think I have saved my first polar bear.
I think I have killed a polar bear
It’s true. I fear the melting polar ice caps and global warming might all be my fault!
Let me explain
When we moved into our new energy efficient home Three and a bit years ago I spent a lot of time and effort trying to sort out our electricity supply. It wasn’t that the lights didn’t work or that the cables weren’t in the right place, just that nobody would admit to being our supplier and so each quarter I would pay my gas bill, pay my water bill and so on but was always very aware that I was missing an electricity bill.
So it got to the point where I spoke to the regulator who told me that the rules had just changed and that if a power company fails to bill you, when they do eventually realise, the most they can back bill you is 12 months. At this point I gave up writing letters and making phone calls to random power companies on the basis that with every month that passed, that was one more months worth of electricity I would not have to pay for.
I was however aware that “one day” a bill would arrive so in our new and super efficient home, we have replaced every single light bulb with energy efficient ones and made sure all our appliances are A rated.
So just before Christmas, that day did indeed come
However once I had explained to the power company that their rules stated that they could not bill me for the full Three and a half years and then we had negotiated a little more, the final bill was not painful at all.
All’s well that ends well as they say.
But now I need to start paying for my electricity and this does focus the mind. I am also in a position to actually shop around now for the best deal on both my electricity and gas so as a result, over the last few days I have taken a good hard look at out homes electricity usage.
Now on gas, things are looking really good. Based on industry figures, our gas usage based on the size of house and the fact we use gas for hot water and heat is over 33% below average. I put part of this down to using a Heatmieser electronic thermostat that paid for itself on the first bill and partly down to having a home insulated to the latest regulations.
But electricity is looking bad. Apparently for a house like ours the average usage is 4000 to 5000 kWh per year. Our usage is over 8000 kWh so is not looking healthy. Now my wife was quick to point out that that in my home office (which I rebuilt and refitted over Christmas), I have over FIFTY 3 pin mains sockets in use. Yes that’s 5 x 10 gang power strips and they are all in use. Look deeper and there are the 2 servers, lots and lots of hard disks, 1 desktop PC, a couple of laptops, network hardware, 5 large screen monitors, 2 laser printers and a really nice lava lamp.
I think we have found the culprit. The lava lamp has to go.
So over the next few months, I need to take a close look at power consumption. My first stop will be tools to actually measure usage but beyond that I need to look at how I can turn all this tech green. I will be posting here as I go and please feel free to comment with ideas and things that have worked for you.
Who knows. By this time next year, I could even have saved a penguin or Two.
SkyDrive from Microsoft gives you 25GB of free online storage. Unlike Google Docs however there are not the same limitations on file types etc and you can only have to access it via the SkyDrive website.
Mike Plate however has just published full details on how to map SkyDrive as a network folder (via WebDAV) under Windows 7 and it works a treat (although it is very slow)
So click here for Mikes step by step instructions.
Now I am guessing that as this uses WebDAV, in theory you should be able to do this under other operating systems but I will let you guys try that one out for yourselves.
Almost Christmas
Well I am not sure where this year has gone. It does not seem that long ago that I was in New York with Teresa yet that was Easter and our summer holidays seem a recent memory too but that was August and yet here we are closing down 2009 and looking into 2010 and a new decade.
But I do have a couple of crazy weeks ahead of me.
This week I have a million and one meetings to cover before I go on annual leave so even now on a Sunday evening I find myself sitting in a hotel somewhere near Swindon. Joy! Come Wednesday night I will be back in this same hotel but not before taking in Powys and Hampshire first. A day working from home on Friday will hopefully see all loose ends tied up before logging off and shutting down until the 4th of January 2010.
And then we have to organise Christmas itself!
So what about you guys. Are you sitting here thinking where the hell did 2009 go because I for one haven’t got a clue.
Yes I have to admit it. I have done it again.
There I was having a conversation with Teresa and before you know it I am booking airline tickets.
This is going to get me into a load of trouble soon as so far I have travelled on impulse to Disneyland Paris, Scotland, Prague and even New York. Each prompted by nothing more than a passing conversation followed by a quick look on the internet and a comment to Teresa like “do you fancy going to New York to do some shopping in a few weeks”!!!
This is dangerous.
So where now?
Well Christmas is coming up and wanting to get into the whole Christmas spirit, we (all of us) are off to Berlin for a few days to check out the famous Christmas markets. This time yesterday we had not even contemplated going away and here I am now with the plane tickets in my hand.
I must stop doing this!
Gone 7
Looking back through the posts on my blog about 18 months ago, the whole Vista saga was interesting to say the least.
I had a nice new quad core desktop machine that ran 64 bit Vista like a dream
I have a nice new (ish) Dell laptop that refused to run Vista no matter what you did to it to the point that I downgraded back to Windows XP and became happy again.
But a few months ago now, Windows 7 came onto the scene and as soon as the final RTM release was available on TechNet, I went ahead and installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit onto my desktop PC.
And it was very very quick and it was very very stable and I was more than a little impressed.
Everything just worked!
So after a few weeks, Windows 7 Professional 32bit was introduced to my Samsung NC20 Netbook. And it was quick, and it was stable and it just worked.
So by now I was getting brave with this new 7 thing so decided to give the Dell laptop another go!
So armed with a copy of Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit and a spare HDD (just in case I needed to roll back) I inserted the DVD. In less than an hour I had a fully working Windows 7 machine with every single bit of hardware working except one.
My HP LaserJet 1018 printer!
Now I need to take a moment here to call out HP and their approach to drivers.
So I have known that Windows 7 has been in the pipeline for some time now and pre release and beta versions have been available to me and HP during this period.
Yet if you go to the HP website, they tell me that drivers for most of their printers will be available by mid November. Now remember that Windows 7 was released to Microsoft business customers 3 months ago, this is a bit shoddy.
But when Vista came out it was the same story. HP were well behind the curve and I had to wait months to get drivers for my very new and expensive Color LaserJet.
But it’s not just Windows. When Red Hat released Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, I was left with 100 servers with no drivers. What servers? HP DL380 servers. That’s what.
So anyhow, back to 7.
So I am now a few weeks in and you know what? Everything just works. Nothing has needed rebooting yet. All my applications work. All my non HP hardware works. I am more than a little impressed. This is what Vista should have been!
Yes it’s a nicer place to be but there are plenty of other websites out there reviewing this new OS so I will let you read the reviews at your leisure but for now, the office has most certainly “gone 7” and is really enjoying it.
Keeping our streets safe
I watched this 3 times and each time thought WTF!
Nice to know that somebody out there cares
Now be careful out there won’t you.
Another hotel mystery explained
I have heard a number of horror stories about what people do with hotel kettles in the past but this was not amongst them.
Likewise I suspect I will approach the iron with care in the future as well as I am guessing flour and suit trousers do not mix.
PS
Having actually stayed in this hotel, I am surprised he actually managed to get an iron in the first place
