A View on View :: A Wake Up Call?

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the blog - examines the world of telecom and technology from a distinctly Canadian perspective.

the person - lives in Toronto, CA with his wife and three children, and works as director of community with PlanetEye Inc.

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A Wake Up Call?

by Mark Evans on Mon 24 Jul 2006 07:21 AM EDT | Permanent Link | Cosmos

The power outage in California that knocked MySpace off line is yet another sign of the whole supply-demand equation has gone terribly askew. With North Americans now believing their basic rights include central air-conditioning, it's no surprise the electricity system is under siege. And we're not even talking about simple power conservation practices such as turning off the lights when you leave a room and using energy-efficient lightbulbs. Maybe it's time for folks in Silicon Valley to focus a little less on Web 2.0, and a little more on the alternative and renewable energy sector. A good start would be reading Tyler Hamilton's Clean Break blog on a daily basis.

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Comments

Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Seann Gardiner on Mon 24 Jul 2006 10:10 AM EDT | Permanent Link

Thanks for the suggestion Mark. I've been enjoying your blog and Tyler's looks interesting as well.

Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Anonymous on Mon 24 Jul 2006 10:57 AM EDT | Permanent Link

One could read about renewable energy or one can do something about it in Ontario. www.bullfrogpower.com is an Ontario retailer that suppliers 100% clean power to both residential and business customers (do not know if there are others). Enrolling with Bullfrog means you are doing something about it.

p.s. I am not associated with Bullfrog.

Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Matt on Mon 24 Jul 2006 04:18 PM EDT | Permanent Link

I hate to state the obvious here -- but it seems silly for you to criticize people using air conditioners in Southern Calif. when your frame of reference is Canada. Thanks for the link to Clean Break. Looks cool.

Re: Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Mark Evans on Mon 24 Jul 2006 04:25 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

it's not a criticism of folks in southern california but our obsession in north america to be cool at all times.

Re: Re: Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Larry Borsato on Mon 24 Jul 2006 05:49 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link

Mark, I think that you are underestimating the heat down here in LA right now. Pools are at about 95 degrees, and the air on Saturday was 120 degrees.

In some situations, air conditioning is just making it bearable. Though I did spend the weekend by the pool. :)

Re: Re: Re: Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Guy McDowell on Mon 24 Jul 2006 06:20 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Hi Larry,

Yesterday in Red Deer, Alberta we hit 35 deg C or 95 F. From what I understand, that was cooler than some areas of Canada. We loves us some A/C in Canada too! Especially Toronto and area where you don't really want to breathe the air. I know it isn't quite as hot as 120F but we do get there sometimes too! Then we have to rebuild our igloos! LOL

Re: A Wake Up Call?

by Anonymous on Mon 24 Jul 2006 09:44 PM EDT | Permanent Link

Couldn't agree more! Maybe people will never consider their own actions until have had to sit without power for 3 days while watching those with power crank their ACs 24hrs a day even when no one's at home.... all the while Edison and the mayor and the city is asking people to conserve so other people can have power back on. You wouldn't wouldn't think that until you see it with your own eyes. The American Way. :)

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\n"; #File retrieval failed - exiting function pass back old values. return $this->GetParameters($AdFilePath); } #TODO - Replace with file retrieval $ad_params = $this->GetParameters($AdFilePath); $new_ad_params = $this->_newRowPosition($ad_params); #TODO - Add SlidingExpiration for REFRESH Dates that dont change # Example: REFRESH DATE permanently affixed to 2 days prior, every 30sec refresh will attempt a new page download # Temp Solution is to UPDATE FILE_DATE with AD_ROTATE_DATE $new_ad_params["AD_FILEDATE"] = $new_ad_params["AD_ROTATEDATE"]; #echo "Writing new ad
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\n"; return $new_ad_params; } } /** BEGIN Backwards Compatibility Routines */ if (! function_exists('array_combine')) { function array_combine($keys, $values) { foreach($keys as $key) $out[$key] = array_shift($values); return $out; } } if (!function_exists('fputcsv')) { function fputcsv($filePointer, $dataArray, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { // Write a line to a file // $filePointer = the file resource to write to // $dataArray = the data to write out // $delimeter = the field separator // Build the string $string = ""; // No leading delimiter $writeDelimiter = FALSE; foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) { // Replaces a double quote with two double quotes $dataElement=str_replace("\"", "\"\"", $dataElement); // Adds a delimiter before each field (except the first) if($writeDelimiter) $string .= $delimiter; // Encloses each field with $enclosure and adds it to the string $string .= $enclosure . $dataElement . $enclosure; // Delimiters are used every time except the first. $writeDelimiter = TRUE; } // end foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) // Append new line $string .= "\n"; // Write the string to the file return fwrite($filePointer,$string); } } if (!function_exists('fgetcsv')) { #TODO - Remove or ??? #Originally built to handle PHP4 style of fgetcsv $CSVstruct = array('Sep' => ','); function fgetcsv($handle, $length=1024, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { $rows = ParseCSVStream(fgets($handle),"\n",false); return $rows[0]; } } // append a CSV row containing data converted from source array $data. Actual conversion is done by ExCSVRowWalker() function AppendCSVRow($data) { global $CSVstruct; array_walk($data,'ExCSVRowWalker'.($CSVstruct['OutEOL']=="\n"?'N':'')); $CSVstruct['File'] .= implode($CSVstruct['Sep'],$data).$CSVstruct['OutEOL']; } // returns an array of rows (each row being an array of columns) with parsed data. Returns false when conversion fails. Auto-detects Win/Mac/*nix newline characters, which are converted all to the sequence specified (defaults to $CSVstruct['OutEOL']) for your convenience. function ParseCSVStream($data, $newline="\n", $associative=true) { global $CSVstruct; $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\r","\n",str_replace("\r\n","\n",$data)); if ($newline!="\n") $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\n",$newline,$CSVstruct['File']); $CSVstruct['OutEOL'] = $newline; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = 0; $CSVstruct['Error'] = false; $CSVstruct['EOF'] = false; $res = array(); if ($associative) { $titles = ParseCSVRow(); while (($row = ParseCSVRow())!==false) { $newa = array(); //possible optimization: might use array_combine() - requires PHP 5 for ($col = 0; $col0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',str_replace($CSVstruct['OutEOL'],"\n",$item)).'"'; } function ExCSVRowWalkerN(&$item) { if (!is_numeric($item)&&(strlen($item)>0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',$item).'"'; } // read next line from buffer. function RowInput() { global $CSVstruct; if ($CSVstruct['EOF']) { return ""; } else { $pos = strpos($CSVstruct['File'], $CSVstruct['OutEOL'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); if ($pos===false) { $CSVstruct['EOF'] = true; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); } else { $pos1 = $CSVstruct['Seek']; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = $pos+1; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$pos1,$pos-$pos1); }; }; } /** Initialize ad_network variable */ $ad_logic = new ad_logic($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); $ad_network = $ad_logic->ad_network($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); ?>