Three Year Anniversary

Life changing moment 3 years ago this very one. Was in operating room, on the table getting left hip replaced. Good news still here to report on it. Bad news, it didn't go well. No need to re-hash that part. Did it to be rid of pain, be more mobile, be more engaging. Pain makes one quite grumpy. I can be good at grumpy. 

Download now or watch on posterous

Hip Movie Two.mov (5941 KB)

               Dec 2006  9PM

Still got the pain. Because of that, over used my right side, left hip was replaced, so now right side is quite cranky. My recommendation, avoid the surgery. One in 7 hip surgeries, in Alberta, have complications. Determine if your hip is actually the source of the pain. I didn't do that . 

My pelvis is the source of my pain issues. It's out of alignment. Working on adjusting that. Do that every day. Physiotherapy and exercise can mitigate allot of pain. 

Be well

#yeg  

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Expensive Power is Real Good Thing

It's a good day, when something is learned. Had another one, when I took in a presentation by Gordon Howell. He's likely our city's leading advocate for solar energy systems and sustainable communities.

"The most expensive power there, that's what I want" he told 300 people, at CN Theatre at Grant McEwan College. He sees expensive power as a path to Grid Parity. That's close at hand. Solar power systems could be at cost parity with grid power by 2013. Didn't know that!

Howell has crunched his numbers, and believes the cost of operating a house size solar system power system and the cost of buying grid power will be equivalent, by 2013.

"Price drives behavioural change. When things cost more, we change how we use them. Applied to power there's two things high prices will do. We'll use less of it. We'll develop more efficient products systems and process to do that", according to Howell

Here's why he thinks Grid Parity is coming, quickly,

Cost of power is increasing 4.5% annually.

Cost of house sized Solar Systems are decreasing 4.5% Annually

The real cost of power is 10.54 cents kWh/h in Edmonton.

Real cost of power delivered by a $30000 solar system, amortized over 25 years, is 27 cents/kWh

That's a 17 cent /kWh disconnect. How will that be made up in 4 years?

Cost of grid power is increasing annually 4.5%

New costs for grid power are coming.

Transmission Lines will add 10 cents. /kWh (more than that if lines are buried)

Carbon taxes will increase natural gas and coal costs. Alberta, (we, us) is ' investing' in carbon capture to the tune of $2 billion. That's going to show up as a tax, or a fee, on our power bill somewhere, hopefully in plain sight! Those taxes are coming, in the next two years.

However for this initial discussion, we'll leave those costs at zero. Take a look at these numbers.

In 2013 the cost of power, in Edmonton, adjusted for the annual increase will be 14.33 cents / kWh.

Now add the cost of the new transmission lines 10cents/ kWh,

In 2013, we can expect the cost of power to be 24.33 cents /kWh .

So by 2013, the disconnect between the grid and your own solar system is 3 cents.

That will be made up by the decrease, in the cost of the solar systems. Those costs have been coming down by 4.5% a year for the last 15, according to Howell.

It will cost us 22.14 cents for power from a solar system that will deliver 6600 kWh/ yr . That's current average in Alberta. Hate averages, however it's a catch all, when we summarize. It will cost 24.33 cents to buy the same amount of power from the grid.

So who will you buy your power from, in 2013 the utility company or yourself.

I had no idea Grid Parity is so close at hand.

Did you.

Be real interesting to watch how fossil fuel companies, the utilities, and the government respond. Wonder if they'll enable or hinder?

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Lost and Found Lots of Money!

Discovered we leave an estimated $360,000 worth of our belongings at EIA , every year. All manner of stuff too, from cell phones and glasses to cold hard cash!




Lost and Found is an important service offering at airports. Our perception seems to be if we leave it behind, it's gone. That's not necessarily so. There's a 90% chance of getting it back, with a modicum of effort on our part.

EIA holds items for 90 days before it's donated to various local charities for disposal. The time lag is the key to retrieval.

There's room for better coordination between the airlines and the airports, too. Currently, there are two independent systems trying to solve the same problem. One would do a better job.

If you leave your belongings on the plane, they'll likely end up in a centralized airline site, far away from you. If you can get through to the Airline Lost and Found department, if they have one, reuniting you and your belongings depends on your description matching the detail inputted into their data base. Lots of 'if's' there. The major dis-connect is trying to get through to any airline, via telephone. That's an excruciating process.

A simpler customer focused solution takes two steps. Consign items, left on the plane to the local airport lost and found. Airlines can enable local airport customer service desks by sharing passenger data with them. The airlines know every passenger by seat number. They know where they came from. Where they went.

Consigning items left on board and sharing passenger data to proactive local Airport Customer Service Desks increases the probability we'll get our stuff back. Local, in this case, is where the flight originates. It might only take a single call, assuming it wasn't your cell phone, you left behind!


Three benefits to that approach.
Airlines drop a service they do poorly, reduce costs, save and make more money.
Higher probability of reuniting owners and belongings
Greater Customer satisfaction

Wonder if EIA and West Jest would consider a pilot project. Interestingly, couldn't find a link to West Jet's Lost and Found, on their website.

Got a lost and found story, share it.

Canadian Airport Lost and Found List
Canadian Airport Lost and Found List 2

Airport and Airline Links

Open Closed and Social- The Ultimate Mashup- #yeg

Three seemingly unconnected net experiences just got my attention . 

Content throttling based, on geo tagging, is incipiently eating the ubiquity of indvidual internet experience Restricting consumption to where media companies deem it appropriate to protect bogus legacy distribution agreements. Bogus because the agreements are an overlay of monopolistic notions of copy right. 

                                             

Open, collaborative, transparent, efficient, dissemination of information with " News"  as a core element is Jeff Jarvis' mantra which may be morphing into a lament.

And Chris Brogan,  at the 6 minute mark of the video below, asks key questions. What matters in the open collaborative and transparent space that Jarvis seeks?  

Not sure how they connect, feel they do, and you?

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Video Test

Ok will try out the video side of Posterous. These experiments usually don't work for me, so we'll do it anyway.

Download now or watch on posterous

3 Tips # 1.mov (2765 KB)

Now in real post we want to script it like this and then add another clip.

Download now or watch on posterous

3 Tips # 2.mov (1681 KB)

Ok then more script a list of things would go here.
So here goes, let's see .

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Open Source the Arena Project

Wonder if an there's an undertow of distrust building on the new Arena Project . The project's disappeared from public view. After a concerted media blitz a month ago, it's been very quiet, publicly, recently.

There's fulminating concern about a tax payer subsidy. Not sure why. Tax payers subsidize everything. That's how our current economic and business system works. All public enterprise is subsidized. Roads, transit systems, libraries, are generally considered community benefits funded communally by taxes.

The debate begins, when there is a private public partnership. Perception intervenes. Positions are staked. Polarization clouds the picture. Focus on the new arena, as a worthy public enterprise, a deserving candidate for community investment, is legitimate public discourse. As it is for the new Art Gallery, the Over Pass at 23rd Avenue, and every other enabling infrastructure project.

There was great public influence in getting the bridge, at 23rd Ave built. Cost, though an issue, was trumped by the value the bridge brings to city. A piece of that value is enabling the commerce at South Edmonton Common. Value is the proposition that needs to be addressed, in the arena discourse.




At this stage, one thing the Arena project offers is opportunity. The project is a laboratory, or could be. Let's 'open source' it! Let's collect, archive, catalog, curate all the information, in all it's forms.

Make it accessible, easily search-able, findable and hence valuable! Coalesce, the talents, resources, and skills of private, public, and citizen media, the city, the developer, and the public library to do that. Open all the information, including lobbyists' discussions and reports. If gaming legislation needs to be changed, report why and the benefit to everyone!

Use the arena project to create new collaborative business practices, based on open respectful dialogue, public discussion, full and complete disclosure. Demonstrate, by building the project, those practices can work. Change the way business is conducted in this berg.

Lots of value in that, what do you think?

First Demo Camp, local 'geeks' deserve more scrutiny.

Took in Demo Camp Edmonton. It's a regular gathering of a segment of the technology community.  A couple hundred enthusiasts, and programmers filled a lecture hall, in the Enginerring Building, at the University of Alberta.  

As an outsider, well I'm not a programmer, I wondered? What's the utility the value? Didn't see it at first, in the games presented. However upon review, games are well games, fun is ok. 

There were four presentations that got my attention.

BookThat Bet, built on the Facebook Platform "scratches an itch", says inventor, Reg Cheramy. A testosterone soother for guys and hormone modifier for gals, in the friendly wager realm. I'll take the Riders over the Stamps and the Als over the Lions for a six pack. Knowing Cheramy, he'll take that bet. Not many he won't. The viral component is interesting. Using Facebook friends and connections can get in on the action. However, in quick perusal there's several similar offerings out there.

Selfchecker.com is a tool designed to enhance the on line learning experience. Enable students and teachers to monitor progress. Facilitate testing as a learning process. The idea going forward is to build communities around the platform that would eliminate jurisdictional issues associated with curriculum. 

                      

3DI is an impressive group. They taken game and simulation technology put them together. Created a business which reduces equipment training costs, and may eventually lead to remote controlled robotic operation of heavy equipment for the mining and oil and gas industry.

                                                        

Caterpillar and the US Army are amongst this company's clients.

CIE, Central Institute for Exploration is an interactive, community based, on and offline learning tool. Go and sign up for the Beta test. It's designed for kids 8-12 years old and their parents.  Find it here . This is truly an impressive award winning tool.

Talented, passionate, and somewhat entrepreneurial and most importantly local, this is an enterprising  group, in our town, which deserves closer scrutiny and mentoring from the larger business community.  

#yeg #in

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