This is a great story and whenever people have talked about sustainability, as a technician most of my life, hobby & experimental DIY type, I can't help but think that there is always a price. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
So when looking at anything in a sustainable way, there are always losses somewhere along the line. I think that's one of those theories I had a hard time with in Maui High Science class regarding sustainable power.
Mr. Yano , my science teacher, and I would go around and around over this point, luckily not a sustainable discussion either.
Being more into farming, especially aquaponics and looking at my power usage, water usage, food or any outside inputs, versus what I get out is a typical situation where there are as many ways to change things as there are thoughts.
It's usually the thought that's missed or ignored that really makes the losses apparent.
My water consumption is nearly 1/2 what it was trying to grow food in small garden plots. I have a 100+ fish working for handfuls of feed I bought, but could work around and munching Taro leaves, roots and algae as almost on-going treats. In exchange I made a pot of stew full of taro leaves, I have tomatoes in the refridgerator, celery and leaks ready to harvest because those fish kept the nutrients coming. If I want, which has become the hard part, I could be eating good sized tilapia and two types of catfish at least a few times a month.
Yet there are losses to evaporation, balances need to be maintained and an awareness level is part of that.
Now humans might try to find a way to cut down on the need for people to maintain a system like this through automation, remote monitoring, etc.. Since it's only me I am not likely to put myself out of work, although when I have good clothes on and ready to leave the house, only to discover there is an issue that I can't hand off to someone else or leave to later, automation giving me an alert maybe before I showered would be nice.
The point is really, this system could be bigger done better and with a few people to help, feed more families.
It may not be perfectly sustainable, but it could be darn close.
It's when that need for "stuff", as George Carlin did a great piece on, and the super sized, foods, toys and just some much of what we see in stores, is what drives the economy. We will see yet another example of the past.
Read this AP article and you'll understand more of what I am saying. History has a way of repeating itself.
Is technology a job killer? A few history lessons ---------->AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this story. You can reach Bernard Condon on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BernardFCondon
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Why Travel For Training?
The reasons for traving to education seminars and conferences are many. Some of them are the ability to focus on the training, away from the daily emergencies and work that can distract a person or pull them away. Another tangible benefit is the ability to network one-on-one with others within a person's field. This develops lasting relationships and in itself can be priceless.
The reality though is that companies are cutting back on expenses and the cost of travel and being paid for the time away was normally shouldered by the individuals in most cases and on a rare occasion by the company. So it's even less likely to have the opportunity to attend training seminars and conferences.
With technology advancements we no have the ability for less than $10.00 a month, to provide interactive live video, presentations, internet browser capability, text chat and many more features, and in rooms of as many as 50 people or more. The ability to have multiple languages being simultaneously translated is a reality.
So with the technology and low cost that someone like GVO can provide, there is no reason for any company, and even small businesses and individuals, not to have their own conference room.
An online conference room can be set-up and invitations with passwords sent out to guests and presenters for a pre-arranged meeting time. these meeting can be held on a regular scheduled basis, at the spur of the moment, or pre-recorded and set to play. The conferences themselves can all be recorded for later use.
The technology is amazing. the cost of less than $30.00 to set up and then lest than $10.00 per 50 person room, is just a fraction of any competitor in the online conference room business.
Everyone can try one out for a month to see if it works for them. Combined with other free programs that allow individuals and company to shoot professional video, there is no reason not to step into the future today.
Be one of the people that say "I'm glad I did and not I wish I had."
Take a look and leave me a comment. Tweet or share it on facebook with others. Let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
Mahalo,
Jim Hall
Twitter name EmpowerMaui
Facebook name EmpowerMaui
Youtube name EmpowerMaui
EmpowerMaui blog can be found at http://bit.ly/SoGood4Me
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Degrees Or No Degrees What Do They Mean To The Employer
I have an extensive background in Electronics and an Associate of Science Degree to go with it. Normally job postings have in the past been very stringent on whether you had a Bachelors Degree or Masters Degree in order to be hired.
It seems that that was relaxed to the point of adding in an equivalent number of years worth of work experience if you did not have a degree.
Now in these economic times we find that both people with degrees and without are in the same unemployment line because of the lack of jobs.
Recently I heard that companies like UPS or FEDEX were hiring people with Bachelors degrees to just deliver boxes. The company's reasoning was that those kinds of people had a lot at stake between student loans, mortgages and families and were more likely to do their best to work hard and keep their jobs. The companies also realize that if the job market changes, those are also the first workers that will leave for better jobs.
I look at the down turn in the job market and economy as a time when getting an education is not only important, but crucial. This is the time when financially it is hard to go out and earn a degree, but with the Government incentives and the Colleges looking for serious students that are willing to put their time in, a degree can be had in a shorter period of time.
Often Colleges give credit towards experience and so a shortened educational time is required and therefore it is less expensive to get a degree.
Whether a degree will matter as much later on remains to be seen, but I am also seeing where some jobs are requiring both the experience AND the degree.
So if you have time, even a few hours a week and access to a computer, talk to some of the Universities and you might be pleasantly surprised to find out that you can get that degree now and be ready if it is needed in the future.
I started requesting information on a Bachelors degree and have been deluged by Universities that are hungry to get serious students. It doesn't cost anything except your time to find out more. It could be time well spent.
It seems that that was relaxed to the point of adding in an equivalent number of years worth of work experience if you did not have a degree.
Now in these economic times we find that both people with degrees and without are in the same unemployment line because of the lack of jobs.
Recently I heard that companies like UPS or FEDEX were hiring people with Bachelors degrees to just deliver boxes. The company's reasoning was that those kinds of people had a lot at stake between student loans, mortgages and families and were more likely to do their best to work hard and keep their jobs. The companies also realize that if the job market changes, those are also the first workers that will leave for better jobs.
I look at the down turn in the job market and economy as a time when getting an education is not only important, but crucial. This is the time when financially it is hard to go out and earn a degree, but with the Government incentives and the Colleges looking for serious students that are willing to put their time in, a degree can be had in a shorter period of time.
Often Colleges give credit towards experience and so a shortened educational time is required and therefore it is less expensive to get a degree.
Whether a degree will matter as much later on remains to be seen, but I am also seeing where some jobs are requiring both the experience AND the degree.
So if you have time, even a few hours a week and access to a computer, talk to some of the Universities and you might be pleasantly surprised to find out that you can get that degree now and be ready if it is needed in the future.
I started requesting information on a Bachelors degree and have been deluged by Universities that are hungry to get serious students. It doesn't cost anything except your time to find out more. It could be time well spent.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Jobs Wanted- Workers Needed-Who Will Do The Jobs?
As a career Electronics Technician, although I would say Electronics Technologist is a better word for us now, I have been working in a utility and working within a section that is the closest to implementing SmartGrid technology and yet I have had to spend thousands of dollars, vacation and my own time to educate myself on the Smart Grid.
With the up-coming retirement of the work force in place and the new workers looking for more glamorous private employment other than utilities, the utilities will find themselves in serious trouble without training existing personnel, nor creating positions for people directly related to this very important field of the industry.
With the release of funding by the government specifically for training in the Smart Grid field field and so many IT savvy people in the colleges, having already graduated, they should be the people encouraged to be working with the existing workforce in order to obtain the practical knowledge and skills needed.
You don't just stick a computer IT person in a high voltage substation to work on the equipment running thousands of volts and controlling thousands of people's electric needs and hundreds of electrical workers lives.
I am doing what I can on my own to advance my education If some money was thrown behind mine and my fellow employees efforts, it would be very possible to move towards a SmartGrid system.
Our utility is ahead of the game, but only because we did it out of necessity. With only a few people in our section and three islands to work with, this was quite a feat.
I really hope that stimulus money is made available for the right purposes and not eaten away by studies or consultants on what should be done.
It seems fairly cut and dry as to what kind of information needs to be gathered to start moving in the right direction.
Just getting the speeches out of the way and allowing the real workers the space they need to accomplish this task would be the best approach.
Being a Union member, I would like to see the work stay within the Union and American people, but if resources are kept minimized and giant companies with big budgets come in with "demo" programs, the inevitable outcome is outsourcing the work to others and probably with no real plan or standards in place. The resulting outcome will just cost the consumers more in the end.
For more on this subject refer to these articles:
http://www.plantengineering.com/article/357358-Aging_workforce_How_will_companies_workers_cope_.php?rssid=20202&q=michael+V.+Brown
http://www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org/About-NBT.cfm
http://www.plantengineering.com/blog/Five_Fast_Things/11618-Getting_Linked_in_to_the_manufacturing_jobs_issue.php
http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/21st_Century_Workforce.pdf
http://my.epri.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&cached=true&parentname=ObjMgr&parentid=2&control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=221&PageIDqueryComId=0
With the up-coming retirement of the work force in place and the new workers looking for more glamorous private employment other than utilities, the utilities will find themselves in serious trouble without training existing personnel, nor creating positions for people directly related to this very important field of the industry.
With the release of funding by the government specifically for training in the Smart Grid field field and so many IT savvy people in the colleges, having already graduated, they should be the people encouraged to be working with the existing workforce in order to obtain the practical knowledge and skills needed.
You don't just stick a computer IT person in a high voltage substation to work on the equipment running thousands of volts and controlling thousands of people's electric needs and hundreds of electrical workers lives.
I am doing what I can on my own to advance my education If some money was thrown behind mine and my fellow employees efforts, it would be very possible to move towards a SmartGrid system.
Our utility is ahead of the game, but only because we did it out of necessity. With only a few people in our section and three islands to work with, this was quite a feat.
I really hope that stimulus money is made available for the right purposes and not eaten away by studies or consultants on what should be done.
It seems fairly cut and dry as to what kind of information needs to be gathered to start moving in the right direction.
Just getting the speeches out of the way and allowing the real workers the space they need to accomplish this task would be the best approach.
Being a Union member, I would like to see the work stay within the Union and American people, but if resources are kept minimized and giant companies with big budgets come in with "demo" programs, the inevitable outcome is outsourcing the work to others and probably with no real plan or standards in place. The resulting outcome will just cost the consumers more in the end.
For more on this subject refer to these articles:
http://www.plantengineering.com/article/357358-Aging_workforce_How_will_companies_workers_cope_.php?rssid=20202&q=michael+V.+Brown
http://www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org/About-NBT.cfm
http://www.plantengineering.com/blog/Five_Fast_Things/11618-Getting_Linked_in_to_the_manufacturing_jobs_issue.php
http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/21st_Century_Workforce.pdf
http://my.epri.com/portal/server.pt?space=CommunityPage&cached=true&parentname=ObjMgr&parentid=2&control=SetCommunity&CommunityID=221&PageIDqueryComId=0
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
In the Beginning, there were Technicians
This classic video shows some of the history of the Electronics Technician and their behind the scenes beginnings. It's pretty amazing how far we have come since the 1940's.
Monday, February 23, 2009
The Time is Now!
With the Stimulus package signed by President Obama, T. Boone pickens has brought together many of our leaders in an energy summit today (2-23-09).
The discussions around what is needed to create a whole new way of generating, delivering, using, as well as the management and control of energy was truly good to hear.
The time for stepping up our training, re-training and education of our entire workforce and population is now!
Let's lose all hope and instead replace it with action. Hope is for dreamers and in it's self is saying we might be able to do this. We all need to adopt a CAN DO approach to making the changes needed.
The day I transition from this world, I truly will be able to say to my kids, grandkids and even great-grandkids, that I did everything I could to leave this world a better place for them.
Everyone can take that attidude and it will happen!
The discussions around what is needed to create a whole new way of generating, delivering, using, as well as the management and control of energy was truly good to hear.
The time for stepping up our training, re-training and education of our entire workforce and population is now!
Let's lose all hope and instead replace it with action. Hope is for dreamers and in it's self is saying we might be able to do this. We all need to adopt a CAN DO approach to making the changes needed.
The day I transition from this world, I truly will be able to say to my kids, grandkids and even great-grandkids, that I did everything I could to leave this world a better place for them.
Everyone can take that attidude and it will happen!
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