Fixing everything, really slowly

I just watched “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” on TV and it moved me almost as much as when I saw it at the Cinema. If you’ve not seen it I highly recommend you try and see it, just make sure you are in a pretty good mood before you do see it!I’m sure his life is summarised elsewhere, so I shan’t repeat it hear, but the film raises so many issues about mental illness, faith, organised religion, parenting, love, music, the music industry, American society…

It’s just really, really good.

Hmm, maybe I should stear clear of film reviews

Happy new year all!

I’ve just offset all the carbon emmisions from my flights last year (London to Florida for work, London to Madrid for work and London to Croatia for holiday). You should consider doing the same. I used carbonneutral.com and it was easy and informative. They explain it far better than I can:

www.carbonneutral.com

One single shorthaul flight produces roughly the same amount of the global warming gas as 3 months worth of driving a 1.4 litre car. And we’re all flying more.

You can’t do much about the fuel efficiency of aircraft, but if you need a holiday or if you’re travelling on business, you can help reduce your personal contribution to global warming by making your flight CarbonNeutral. That means we organise for the CO2 associated with your flight to be ‘balanced out’ by forestry and climate friendly energy projects which save equivalent amounts of CO2.

Now if I could only find the courage to claim the offset costs for the work flights

As has been discussed in comments on my “light bulb action” posting devices such as TV’s, DVD players and set top boxes that are in standby mode rather than switched off waste power. This wasted power costs you money and generation of that power most likely released carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The simple solution to this problem is to turn devices off at the wall socket (if your countries power socket standard includes a switch). The problem is this is a pain, and being lazy I rarely bother to do this. So I was pleased to learn about the following products which save me the effort of turning devices off myself:

And this one:

These devices have one special socket and then two or five normal ones. The special socket can detect whether the connected device is switched on or off turns and the other sockets are controlled automatically. I’ve set this up in our living room to test it. I was annoyed that the Cable TV box was always left on when the TV was turned off. I plugged our TV into the special socket and the cable box into one of the others.

I found it to be really good. It doesn’t matter if I turn the TV off using the remote (putting the TV into standby mode) or using the actual power on/off switch on the TV the one click device detects that the TV is switched off and turns off the cable box.

One word of caution is that our cable box takes about 2 minutes to boot up from power off (because it is the cheap one the cable company gave us). This can be really annoying if you turn on the TV wanting to watch something specific. So clearly you need to think about how you will use this device before you get one, but I think its a very simple and useful product.
I bought mine from QuietPC because I was buying other things at the time, but you can also get them from Maplins and no doubt other places.

To find out more about how it works the website is here: http://www.oneclickpower.co.uk/. For international readers this UK only product probably isn’t much use to you. I’ve found a similar product for the US market, I’m sure there are others (please leave a comment with a link if you know of one).

I went to see Gomez at the Hammersmith Apollo last night. A friend had a spare ticket and I’m always up for going to a gig (as long as its not totally talentless crap R’n'B or Pop. I’ve not followed Gomez at all so I only recongnised a few of the songs, but I thought they put on a good show.

Two things annoyed me about the night.

1. Gigs are starting way too early. The band came on at 8:30! We’d only just left the pub by then! We missed the first few songs by the time we got in. The band played a full set, but we were out and back in the pub before last orders (11pm). The situation wasn’t quite as bad as Koko (where they use the venue as a club that starts at about 10:30, forcing the band on stupidly early), but it still sucks.
2. Crap beer. Please Carling just stop ruining live music venues. I don’t wan’t to pay £3.50 for a plastic bottle of 4% dishwater! (To non-UK readers Carling is the crap R’n'B of the beer world, think Budwiser but with slightly less gas). Why not offer a choice of drinks rather than beer or water!

Some readers may be supprised to learn that a company that makes beer is buying up large music venues, but its true. Its a sad state of affairs and they are ruining the atmosphere of the venues they run. If wish I could boycot Carling venues and still see great bands but the fact is most bands don’t play more than one venue when they come to town. I guess the only thing I can do is support independent venues and only go to the larger venues for bands I really like.

Here is a chance for us all to be heard!

Energy inefficient light bulb petition: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/lightbulbs/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to levy a tax on energy inefficient light bulbs so that their long term financial and environmental cost is visible in their retail price

(International readers this is a UK only petition but I think you’ll appreciate the sentiment. If there are similar efforts in your own country leave a comment and tell people about it. If there isn’t why not start one!)

My aim was to write about one good thing a week, I think that was a little ambitious to be starting with. Having got the hang of this blogging lark I’d say once a month would have been a better target, but I’m not going to fuss over it. Lets just say I’m behind, and I owe you 11, ok?

Good thing #2: Reduce your snail mail (and recycle the rest)

Simple really, less mail means less paper manufacturing and less physical transportation of mail and that has to be a good thing. There are a few ways I’ve done this, but I’m sure there are others:

• Switch to online billing. Most utility (Internet, mobile phone, water, electricity, gas etc.) companies have an online billing facility, go to their web site and set it up. If your provider doesn’t have online billing, call them and ask them when they will and if its not soon switch your provider.
• Cancel solicited mail you don’t need. If you’ve bought from catalogues or companies that keep sending you stuff email them or call them and ask them to stop. Tell them you use thier web page. Tell them you’ll stop recommending them to friends or stop using them yourself if the don’t stop sending you paper. Yes, its nice to recieve a nice glossy holiday brochure, but if you booked the first holiday online, do you really need a paper version for next year’s break?
• Try and cancel unsolicited mail. In the UK you can use the Mail preference service to try to stop unwanted mail. There are most likely equivilant sites in other countries (take a look and leave a comment if you find one). One cool thing about MPS is it lets you enter old addresses, so you can get rid of junk from your old homes! Also consider that you can cancel mail to previous ocupants who still get mail sent to your home.

It obviously takes a few weeks to come into effect, but I’ve noticed a difference since I did this a while back. Once you have done this, make sure you recycle the paper that does come through your door. For confidential stuff, use a shredder and either compost the waste or put it into the recycling too.

Another good article from Mike’s very informative and interesting blog, this one is about generating electriicity from geothermal energy.

Electricity from hot water

That’s right, geothermal resources (hot fluid and/or gas) can and is being used to generate electricity the world over. Geothermal literally means “heat from the earth.” The first successful geothermal electricity generation installation was in Larderello, Italy in 1904. The largest is the Geysers in Northern California where 21 plants generate around 3% of California’s electricity.

[…]

Perhaps the most interesting and useful of the conversion technologies is the binary plant which uses a series of heat exchangers to transfer the geothermal fluid’s heat energy to a working fluid in a closed system. Typically, the working fluid has a boiling point that is less than that of water (~75C) which is then converted to steam and run through the turbine system, cooled, and recirculated through the system. In this way, the geothermal resource is never in direct contact with the turbine which extends the lifetime and reduces the maintenance associated with the system.

[…]

Of all the renewable technologies, geothermal has the best chance to compete at scale with traditional fossil fuel plants on the basis of cost, predictability, and reliability.

If you are interested in renewable energy technology, check out Mike’s previous postings on energy. Of particular interest are:

• Biomass for the masses
• OPEC, cartel extraordinaire
• A mighty wind
• What is the environmental cost of a MWh?

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/12/1286/Hawley_Arms/Camden

It might be good, I’ve never been, but one things for sure they know their market!

Ok, so this is cheating somewhat as this is a re-post of something from my old web site, but what the heck at least its not stolen from elsewhere!

Instructions:

Up Jenkins! is a team game for six or more players. It is preferable to have an even number of players, though not essential. You will need a table that is wide enough to the two teams to sit opposite one another and a 2p coin.

Players split up into two teams. The two teams need to sit opposite one another with a large table between them. The two teams take it in turns to play. The object of the game is for the playing team to hide a 2p coin in a number of pre-determined ways, while the opposing team attempts to guess which person has it. There are three ways in which the playing team can hide the coin, “palms”, “fists” and “wibbley-wobbley”.

Palms:

All the players must place both hands in front of them on the table, palms down. The person who has the coin has to hide the coin under their hand. The hardest part of this call is that coin often makes a noise as hand meets table, so the whole team needs to try and get there hands down at the same time to disguise the noise. Of the calls available this is the one that depends most on teamwork.

Wibbley-wobbley:

The most physically challenging of the calls, “wibbley-wobebley” requires composure and stamina. Like “palms” the player with the coin must hold it in the palm of their hand. With “wibbley-wobbley” all the team must place both hands in front of them, palms down but above the table, and wiggle their fingers - rather like pretending to be a spider. Keeping the coin in the palm can be challenging and some players prefer to use a thumb tucked under their palm to hold it in place. While this is permissible it does look obvious to the opposition who has the coin. With “wibbley-wobbley” good bluffing from the other team members is essential.

Fists:

“Fists” is entirely psychological and is probably the least used of the calls. The player with the coin has to hide the coin in their fist, and all the players have to clench both their fists and place them on the table, again with palms facing down. “Fists” is best used as a surprise call, because it is hard to clench your fist if the coin is in the centre of the player’s palm - as is often the case when expecting a call of “palms” or “wibbley-wobbley”.

How to begin playing

Toss the coin to decide who goes first. The team to go first is the playing team. That team places all their hands under the table and gives the coin to one person. This has to be done secretively so that the opposing team can’t tell who has it.

When the playing team is ready the opposing team must call “Up Jenkins! . . .” and then one of the three methods of hiding. The playing team must then all act on this call. The opposing team then has to guess which member of the playing team has the coin.

Tactics

Bluffing, bluffing, bluffing - Bluffing is the essential to the success of the game and is encouraged. There are many ways of bluffing, some more subtle than others. Many players don’t like to discuss there bluffing tactics publicly through fear there opposition may hear of them and lessen their chances of winning.

There are however a few well known bluffs:

The Drink: The player (who may or may not have the coin) lifts one hand from the table and takes a drink. This suggests to the other team that the player doesn’t have the coin or that he is double-bluffing and in fact does have it in the other hand. In either case it can confuse the opposing team. This can be an effective distraction if one of your team mates has just given the game away, perhaps through lack of skill or concentration.

The Malformed: The player pretends to be extremely nervous, as if they have the coin, they also hold one of their hands differently so as to suggest they are struggling to conceal it. The malformed is most useful during “wibbley-wobbley” because of its challenging nature. Note that the opposing team does have the right to request that the players wibble their fingers fully so use with caution.

The Clinker: This bluff applies only to “palms”. When the call is made, any members of the team who have any rings on their fingers try to disguise the sound of coin hitting table by making the rings hit at the same time.

Enjoy playing Up Jenkins!

I went home on Saturday to visit my parents and had a truly remarkable experience. I should point out this is story is probably only remarkable, or interesting for that matter, if you are a geek, but what the heck, I’m going to tell it anyway …

When I arrived at my folks house I noticed a DVD player yanked out of their TV stand sat on the floor. “It’s Alice’s and its broken” I was told by my Mother who proceeded to tell how my Sister, Alice, had removed their DVD player the previous evening to watch a film with a friend in her bedroom. Being a the son of an electrical engineer I immediately thought to myself “yeah right it’s broken, I’ll give it a sharp tap later and see if I can’t get it working”.

The evening came and we were gathered in the living room as a family, something that rarely happens these days. We we sitting listening to music and having a chat when the subject of the DVD play strewn across the room came up. My mum explained it she’d had it a year and only used it once, only when she came to use it did it break. It was a cheap Panasonic one, I thought it looked quite decent, but it was essentially the standard budget DVD player chip set but a little better for having a reasonable casing which presumably is the only input from the company who’s brand adorns the front of the device.

“The sound it totally broken” said Alice …

What followed was your standard fault finding exercise to correct the muffled sound. Was it the scart lead? No, they’d tried that, well lets try the phono outputs and a different input to the telly, no? Hmm, well it really is broken. I issued a sharp tap on the top of the unit. “I’ve tried that” said Alice, “We really beat the crap out of it, it won’t work”. I picked it it, it felt alarming light, I commented as such and my mind began to wonder what was inside. I held it up and let go and it crashed to the floor. The disc which was playing (The Borne Identity) made a kind of scraping noise, then stopped and the film kept playing. We decided to put a rubbish disk in since we didn’t want to scratch the disk.

After that I sat on the thing. The top buckled a little and there was more scraping sounds, but the sound was still muffled and the film kept playing. It was definitely broken. I unplugged it and took the casing off. I immediately understood why it was so light, there was hardly anything inside! Even the power supply was integrated on the the single circuit board. We had a look for obvious signs of damage, prodded a few bits and decided we should plug it back in. At this point my mum became rather touchy, asking if this was a safe thing to do etc. We reassured it was, whilst knowing it wasn’t.

We powered it on, watched the disk spin up and started the film playing. It was kind of nice to watch this simple machine at work. All the functions pretty much were performed by the on board chip, but still it was nice. I unplugged the ribbon cables that connected the DVD drive to the circuit board. I was amazed how resilient the software was, it coped fine if I unplugged either the control or the data cables (I worked out their function from the nature of the failures), when I plugged them in again it all started working again. I can’t imagine a PC ever becoming so tolerant!

We started prodding components with a plastic screwdriver, being careful to avoid the areas where there was mains voltage running (this was clearly marked on the circuit board). I guess we were hoping to find a dry joint or loose connection. We hit, warped and wobbled every part of the machine, but nothing fixed the sound problem, the disk just carried on playing!

As that point my sister, my dad and I were crowded round the thing and all agreed it was dead (much like surgeons round an operating table perhaps?). Disappointed, I admitted defeat and we agreed we should throw it away. In reality this meant smashing it up, which is always fun. Then my dad had a brainwave, if we were going to destroy it, why not play “component roulette!”.

He suggested we could remove a component from the circuit board while a film was playing and see if it continued to work. We thought this sounded fun so we took it in turn to remove a component with a pair of pliers. There were a few ground rules, firstly to avoid the mains area, and secondly the objective is to keep the thing working on your turn (think Jenga or Buckaroo).

Dad took the first go and grabbed a small capacitor in the middle of the circuit board. He twisted, tugged and pulled, then … BOINK! it came clean off in his hand and the disk kept playing. We fell about laughing, and then it was my turn. I picked another capacitor, BOINK! it came out and the thing kept playing. Alice had a go, BOINK! Film still going!

We managed to have another two rounds each, removing a total of nine parts. By this point we were crying with laughter and were amazed the thing was still working.

Dad took the pliers and went to take his turn, he selected another capacitor, took a firm grip, pulled, tugged, wiggled, pulled some more then … BOINK! … at that same point the sound of the film blasted out of the telly, clear as day! We’d removed 10 components and fixed the fault!

We’d had the sound up loud in order to hear it when it was faulty and all of a sudden it was working fine! It was truly remarkable, we fell about laughing on the floor for several minutes in disbelief. Then I put the case back together, leaving the removed components to one side, tested it, then gave the DVD player back to Alice and said “There you go, we’ve fixed it!”