The Gravy Train

Worldchanging: Bright Green: November 1941 and the Turning of...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:28:18 +1100

Worldchanging: Bright Green: November 1941 and the Turning of the Tide

The war metaphor has been explore before but after hearing James Hansen speak the other night and mention that we are yet to find our Winston Churchill i thought it worth returning too. Steffen does a good job of framing the darkest hour of the battle against fascism.

I wonder (as James did) whether we need our Pearl Harbour though. Katrina wasn’t it unfortunately (though perhaps if it happened now under Obama’s watch it oculd have been) and i fear that if the analogy holds true the moment it occurs is the moment we re already too far down the track of locked in climate change. Enough pessimism! A hopeful and inspiring blog post at any rate!

RealSki - the first Augmented Reality IPhone app for Skiers...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:04:19 +1100

RealSki - the first Augmented Reality IPhone app for Skiers & Snowboarders | RTP

Awesome! We need this for the Australian slopes.

Tiger 2 …

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:05:34 +1100

Tiger 2 …

Lava’s digital origami tigers are awesome, I’ve...

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 09:05:00 +1100

Lava’s digital origami tigers are awesome, I’ve asked them to do us a set of digital origami eskimos next. The iphone camera doesn’t do it justice.

Jet from the fixie bike club just up the road from foster street...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:53:50 +1100

Jet from the fixie bike club just up the road from foster street on Campbell St surry hills. The crew have been meeting 12-6 sat/sun for a while now and will lend you a hand and tools for a gold coin donation. Love the bike culture that’s spreading thru Sydney lately!

Zeroed it!

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:32:07 +1100

Zeroed it!

Week 1 with Wattson So just checked in on Wattson and uploaded...

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:27:00 +1100

Week 1 with Wattson

So just checked in on Wattson and uploaded our weekly data. Looks pretty good, i guess it’s about trends over time so will be a case of seeing if we can get the figures down. We peaked on the first day which isn’t shown here (not sure why, maybe all of those kettle tests!) and seem to use the most energy in the mornings (no surprises there) but otherwise its showing what I’d expect - i stayed home on Tuesday (showing as Wed i think due to UK/Oz time differences) and my macbook laptop uses 40 W of energy when plugged into the wall (which is a lot when you think about it (= roughly 3 x compact flouros), definitely best to turn your laptop off or sleep it when not in use!) .

Plus the new fridge arrived that day so that would have used some juice firing up (despite being the uber-efficient 4 star rated Fisher Paykel 248L which uses just 387 KW/h per year. btw i highly recommend getting it from appliances online, it was the ultimate e-commerce experience - I ordered it on Monday and it arrived the next day (!) and the guys took the old one to e-waste recycling (!!!)).

Anyway – there’s got to be ways to get our energy down, even though we’re pretty good i think and dont use much – the average Wattson user reduces their energy use by 20 % so we have some serious competition there!

Foxy’s farewell Barbie garage sale … Nailed it!

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:03:00 +1100

Foxy’s farewell Barbie garage sale … Nailed it!

Rentachook - #1 for chicken coops, chooks, feed and all...

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:01:11 +1100

Rentachook - #1 for chicken coops, chooks, feed and all accessories

Sherlock Homes We’ve recently hired some help around the...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:26:00 +1100

Sherlock Homes

We’ve recently hired some help around the house, Wattson (Whats on?) is his name and he’s an energy butler or i guess going with the metaphor he’s our assistant as we act as energy detectives uncovering wasteful devices and practices in our house.

Wattson, designed by DIY Kyoto, is an elegant, simple to use unit that displays your electricity usage in Watts (and $ if you like) as well as glowing colours (Blue = good/low Red = Bad/High). It receives data wirelessly from a wee box you install in your fuse box (if you’re lucky no sparky is needed as you just clamp the induction coil over the wire that leads to your fuse switch). I had some fun trying different wires in our rats nest of a fuse box and running up and down the stairs - turning the kettle on to see if the display goes mental until finding the right one - but i got there.

From there it’s a simple matter of setting up the software (Holmes of course!) and syncing your mac (or PC) to the Wattson and signing up to the online community. You can then track/compare your results with the global Wattson user community. The software also shows CO2 output (though based on UK figures i think so it’ll be low for Australians as we burn so much dirty coal to fire our electricity).

Zeroing your house

Once set up i had fun ‘zeroing’ the apartment, by this i mean trying to get the Wattson to show 0W on its display. I couldn’t for the life of me get the last 30 W even after i turned every unused charger/light off. Finally i realised that we have a remote control fan/light system in the master bedroom - there’s the usual mains switch which must be on but then the controller device (i assume in the fan) actually switches the light/fan on and off via the remote control.

After much Holmesian pontification and forensic thinking it hit me that this was the culprit .. and sure enough i switched the mains light off (it was day so the light wasn’t on) and my erstwhile assistant Wattson reported zero! Success! I had zeroed my apartment!

Its fun to do AND its kinda like being Sherlock Holmes at home (Sherlock Homes?) trying to find the devices sucking that last bit of energy.

I can track data over time and find out what the ‘ambient’ energy is when a few things are running and really see how a device affects the readings. (Kettles use thousands of Watts so best to fill them up only as much as you need for instance). I also discovered we have an electric hot water service as Wattson shows a few thouand Watts being used for 5-10 mins at seemingly random intervals, not great but we live in a rental so not too much i can do there im afraid.

Wattson will also help me to offset the exact electricity figure through Climate Friendly when its time to offset via Gold Standard European carbon credits (No good using Australian ones as it’s likely you’ll just be giving the big polluters your money)

More soon as i get my head around the data results for the week!

Australia Good News (via manuupoes)

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:01:22 +1100

Australia Good News (via manuupoes)

These three rapscalians are loving all this rain atleast

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:53:04 +1100

These three rapscalians are loving all this rain atleast

I may have posted this one before but a friend emailed me...

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 06:12:00 +1100

I may have posted this one before but a friend emailed me recently about how he wasnt sure he was being purposeful in his work life. Ive shown or drawn this diagram for many people over the years and so i thought it worth re-posting.

It’s the work of Mr Remo btw of Remo General Store fame.

Spin Doctorate | newmatilda.com

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:05:40 +1100

Spin Doctorate | newmatilda.com

Designer bikes [Monocle]

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:25:50 +1100

Designer bikes [Monocle]:

Interesting look at the Design world taking on the bicycle.

Maeklong outdoor market , Train goes through (via jettila) this...

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:14:44 +1100

Maeklong outdoor market , Train goes through (via jettila)

this is pretty incredible.

Tough Guy Challenge 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:55:06 +1100

Tough Guy Challenge 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com

TAYLOR SQUARE COULD BECOME CYCLE HUB

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:16:13 +1100

This from Clover Moore’s office .. very very cool .. Digital Eskimo will be getting behind this idea!

Taylor Square South in Darlinghurst could become a cycling hub
following the City’s purchase of the former T2 nightclub building on
Flinders and Bourke Street. The building’s refurbishment and reuse
will help the City restore Taylor Square as a people-friendly area.

Prior to its closure, T2 was a frequent source of complaints about
noise and anti-social behaviour. A local survey in June 2008 found
that residents wanted fewer nightclubs, pubs and clubs in the area,
with almost 50 percent saying they most disliked drunkenness and
disorderly behaviour in the area. Residents wanted to see increases in
cafes, restaurants and local services.

Located at the main intersection of three major bicycle routes,
including the new Bourke Street cycleway, Taylor Square is a
significant orientation point and important intersection for cycling
groups.

Community-based options for the building could include a bicycle
repair centre, a bike shop, cafés, and space for tour companies to
operate and cycle groups to meet. In the longer-term, a bicycle hire
facility supporting a city-wide bicycle hire scheme might also operate
from the site as we complete our safe and convenient bike network.

The City of Sydney has allocated $76 million over the next four years
to build a 200km cycling network, including 55km of separated
cycleways, as part of a strategy to increase the number of people
choosing cycling as a safe, sustainable and healthier transport
option.

The City is aiming for a target of 10 per cent of all trips being
made by bike by 2016.

Linux.Conf.Au 2010 | Proprietary Vs Open Source Software

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:08:36 +1100

Linux.Conf.Au 2010 | Proprietary Vs Open Source Software

CleanTechnica » Blog Archive » Wind Turbines based on...

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:23:36 +1100

CleanTechnica » Blog Archive » Wind Turbines based on Jet Engines 3-4 Times More Efficient & Coming to Market?

Looks damn fine to me and backed by Venture capitalists - time to dig the loose change from the sofa and invest perhaps!