Deep Green Crystals

September 3, 2008

You probably saw this ad during the conventions or olympics

join WeCanSolveIt.com. This was just a drop in the bucket against the $427M that the oil and coal industries spend in the first half of 2008.

Posted by Martin at 11:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I support McCain's "all the above" energy policy... with one exception

don't drill in Alaska until you have drilled everywhere else. We have huge undrilled fields that are permitted in the gulf. The drilling won't make a difference before 10 years anywhere. Do all the above that can have an effect in the next 2-3 years.

John McCain: "Offshore drilling, we've got to drill now and got to drill here and we've got to be And I know that there's some here in California that disagree -- that disagree with that position. Could I also mention very seriously about this issue. My friends, you know that this is a national security issue. We're sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much, that some of that money is ending up in the hands of terrorist organizations. We cannot allow this greatest transfer of wealth in history and our national security continuing to be threatened.
"And Rick, I know we've got a lot of issues to cover but let me say it. At the town hall meetings that I have every day, that's the issue on people's mind is energy. If I could take one, 30 seconds. One, we've got to do everything. We've got to do wind, tide, solar, natural gas, hydrogen cars, hybrid cars, electric cars. And we have to have nuclear power in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save on our energy costs.
"By the way, in case you hadn't noticed it, the French, 80 percent. We love to imitate the French. 80 percent of their electricity is generated by nuclear power. If they can do it and reprocess, we can, too, my friends. And by the way, if you hadn't noticed, we now have a pro-American president of France, which shows if you live long enough, anything can happen in America."
Watch It Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXCVLmwXIag

Posted by Martin at 11:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Totally hillarious Nancy Pelosi video

she is such a chicken

Nancy Pelosi Techno Chicken from wreckandsalvage on Vimeo.

Posted by Martin at 10:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

September 2, 2008

some things are better done in person

just spent half an hour trying to use USAA deposit at home to scan and deposit a check for $7.39 (my 1.1% of the securites fraud class action against 360 Networks). It failed numerous times with driver conflicts with the Dell scanner and color problems. three checks deposited fine about 3 minutes each. Some things are better done in person at the bank.
oh well.

Posted by Martin at 9:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Bad free searching experience

Ok, i need a couple new white boards for my office. Thoughts drift back to the couple dozen at Imperium where there are now no employees. White boards just hanging in empty offices. So I go to Craig's list free listings. Search for "white board" lots of results, but nothing that is actually a "white board". Lots of things with the words "white" and "Board" separate, but no white boards and no way to search for the two words together. So I go to SharingisGiving.org. Seattle site. Last post of something was from July 31, 2008. No traffic. Ugh. Same problem, nothing. But at least there I have the Yahoo Group targeted adds where I get three very specific white board ads. WhiteboardDepot.com, Murerase.com, billyboardsmfg.com. All highly relevant if I wanted to buy. This is actually more helpful to me than Craigs list who just left me with nothing. That is good, but I still want it for free. So I go to Freecycle.org. Lots more traffic and postings. Since they are on Yahoo, I get the same three sponsored ads. Good. No "offered" white boards but a coupel Wanted. So I take that way. I post a "Wanted". Notice this "Wanted" is only there for other "givers" to notice and maybe take pity on me by giving me what I "want". "Wanted" postings are discouraged in the guidelines. What I would really like is to save my search for white board and be notified when one comes available. If I don't get an offer by tomorrow, I will unfortunately be forced to go buy some whiteboards from china. Another consumption needlessly enabled by an inefficient reuse market.

Posted by Martin at 8:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

saw on craigslist

the reverse guilt trip on a free stuff listing:

"Remember, if you don't come and pick up all of this crap that I don't want to haul around or take responsibility for any more, it will wind up in the dump and on your soul come judgement day, and somehow it will all be your fault, and not mine, so come and save it (and your soul) now!"

Posted by Martin at 8:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

recycling by making new product

Making something new out of something old is another way to reuse a thing. Thanks Rob for sending over Recycled Waders. they take old fly fishing waders and make wallets, messenger bags and other things out of them. I love this idea, not sure it is a big business. This is one step beyond just making a messenger bag out of fabric spun from recycled PET bottles like the Fleurville bag. My favorite recycled messenger bag is the one from Alchemy Goods made from old bike innertubes.

Posted by Martin at 4:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

New Area of interest for me

I have been thinking over the last couple of months about what problem to focus my brain cycles on now. I still worry about renewable energy and biodiesel quite a bit and will continue to post on that, but am looking for something a bit more actionable. My thoughts have drifted back toward technology a bit and to that intersection of technology and energy. I am also much more interested in flanking maneuvers versus full frontal attacks. Imperium Renewables was a full frontal attack on diesel. Frontal attacks are very costly and the defender has the advantage of being dug in with heavy fortifications. While I love the thrill of the frontal attack, I don't have the stomach for another one of those just yet.

While casting around for a flanking move against big oil, I got to thinking about the overall consumerism culture which has been enabled by cheap oil and how that may change with sustainably higher price oil. When labor and transportation from China are both cheap, outsourcing makes sense. But what about when transportaion (fueled by oil) becomes expensive? And the labor starts to want the modern conviences requiring oil? I watched the video over at the Story of Stuff and wondered how that cycle will be affected by long term expensive distribution cycles and higher commodity prices across the board. Then I hear that EBay listings from individuals are up significantly as the economic downturn causes people to try to monitize their extra stuff. After tripping over an old work out bench of mine in the garage one to many times, I decided to get rid of it. It was basically new three years ago and hardly used. Not land fill material yet. It cost $399 new. I listed it on Craig's list for $50. Taking the picture and posting was kind painful for such a small priced item. No takers. Two weeks later I listed for $25. Two takers, five phone calls and three missed pick-ups later both buyers flaked. My time spent was now more than the revenue I would garner. So I decided to give it away for free. I posted on both Craigslist and Freecycle.org. Got about 10 calls/emails. Another 30 emails later and multiple phone calls, all five people I offered it to flaked. It still sits in my garage. I am now have about 20 hours invested in giving something away for free and have multiple failed transactions.

Yesterday a friend sent me an e-mail with a recommendation of a book to read. One cut and paste and two clicks on Amazon and the book is wizzing my way. Less than 30 seconds of work. Wow, something is really wrong in the low end of transactions. Especially person to person transactions.

So my new area of interst I am calling "Recommerce". Recycling, reuse, sharing, bartering, loaning of stuff. Keep it out of the landfill. Prevent purchasing. Share with your neighbors. Extend the life of goods beyond 6 months. I have created a "Recommerce" category on the blog and will be posting to that category.

Some of my favorite/inspirational sites in this area include:

Craigslist free listings
Freecycle.org
Freesharing.org
Paperbackswap.com
Sharething.com
RecycleBank

this is going to be fun

Posted by Martin at 1:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

September 1, 2008

thinking about mileage tools

Thinking about mileage these days. I drive a VW Touareg V10 diesel. Now it gets about 20mpg which is pretty good for a big fast truck. And i run 100% biodiesel, so I don't need to feel like getting 100mpg because I am not burning any dinosaurs. But lately I have seen a rash of press on services that will track your mileage and help you improve it. I like these sites. I personally use Propel Fuel's Cleandrive program, since that is where I buy all my biodiesel. But that is only for their customers. I recently joined Fuelclinic which is a web site for everyone. Unfortunately you have to enter all your fuel purchases and mileage yourself. Over at Propel, they have my credit card on file and I when I fill up the site is automagically updated to show me mileage, CO2 reduction, everything. I hope the people at FuelClinic get some integration to the credit card companies or something soon. That would make it WAY more useful. For now I am going to stick with Propel and you should as well if you drive a diesel in seattle. But if not, join FuelClinic....

Posted by Martin at 9:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

GE org chart

I always wanted to know what it was....
2159664_1217006578_ge_organization_chart.pdf

Posted by Martin at 7:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

just installed drag and drop.io

As frequent readers know I love drop.io. Just installed their firefox plugin and it rules. Can't be any easier to share files... the screen capture with developer voice over is a nice feature as well. Quick and simple.

Posted by Martin at 7:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

world wide map of solar, wind and hydro resources

found 3tiergroup who have a cool web product that maps all solar, wind and hydro resources with google maps integration. type in your address and see what your average wind speed is, or check the solar data. the company hopes to make money selling this data to commercial project developers, but it is a fun thing to do for your house. They add in things like incentives to give you a "score" which is pretty unique.

Posted by Martin at 7:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 30, 2008

Martin Tobias: parking lot slayer

Some people have no sense of irony or humor. I hope you do, the Stranger does: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=648118

Martin Tobias, the developer seeking to destroy Madrona’s beloved parking lot, dismisses the neighborhood concerns. “An asphalt parking lot is not worth saving,” argues Tobias. “There’s nothing to save. Nothing.”

It’s thanks to attitudes like Tobias’s that photographs are all that remain of most of Ballard’s beloved parking lots and Belltown’s historic parking lots; they may be all that remain of the parking lots in your neighborhood one day, too.

Posted by Martin at 4:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

removing software

Vista running slow again. Time to ditch stuff

ditching the following apps:

Ask.com toolbar (never use, don 't know how it got installed)
apple mobile device support (don't have an iphone)
apple software update (never use apple software)
Auction Lizard 3.2 (never used)
Analytics reporting suite beat 3.1 from Boulevart (what? no idea what this is)
bonjour apple. What is this?
Deduper 1.2 from Topalt. Crap application, doesn't work.
Doomi, never used
Ecto for Windows (still using w.bloggar for free thank you.)
Google toolbar for IE. I never use IE. I use the google sidebar.
go to meeting, go to webinar. will install again if i use service
Symantec live update (moved to AVG)
Norton security scan (moved to AVG)
quicklist (never used)
Speed Meter Pro (didn't activate, didn't provide enough value to pay for copy, it should be free)
Symantec Antivirus (moved to AVG)

reboot. Still slow, working on other problems.

Posted by Martin at 1:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 18, 2008

Price of Oil has been constant in gold terms

Humm, i don't think the fall of currency valuations is the ONLY thing causing oil to go up, but it certainly is a large one. this chart is a bit missleading in that all commodities have gone up gold, oil, etc. Showing a preference for physical commodities over currency by asset holders. This relationship can just as easilly change the other way. The part that puzzles me is that Oil is facing fundamental structural changes in supply/demand while most other commodities, inlcuding gold are not. Why are all commodities tied so closely? humm...

Posted by Martin at 12:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 17, 2008

wow, the spammers have found me on Skype

I had no idea I had a long lost missing relative with millions in the UAE.

FROM: NADEEM AHMED BUSHERI.
EMAIL: aBusheri@gmail.com

Hello Tobias,

Compliments of the day to you. I have tried to reach you on Skype phone, but your line was busy, so I decided to write you this message. I have been in search of someone with this last name "TOBIAS", so when I saw you online, I was pushed to contact you and see how best we can assist each other. I am Nadeem Ahmed Busheri, a Bank Officer here in U. A. E. I believe it is the wish of God for me to come across you now. I am having an important business discussion I wish to share with you which I believe will interest you, because it is in connection with your last name and you are going to benefit from it.

One Late Peter TOBIAS, a citizen of your country had a fixed deposit with my bank in 2004 for 36 calendar months, valued at US$18,400,000.00 (Eighteen Million, Four Hundred Thousand US Dollars) the due date for this deposit contract was last 16 of October 2007. Sadly Peter was among the death victims in the May 26 2006 Earthquake disaster in Jawa, Indonesia that killed over 5,000 people. He was in Indonesia on a business trip and that was how he met his end. My bank management is yet to know about his death, I knew about it because he was my friend and I am his account officer. Peter did not mention any Next of Kin/ Heir when the account was opened, and he was not married and no children. Last week my Bank Management requested that Peter should give instructions on what to do about his funds, if to renew the contract. I know this will happen and that is why I have been looking for a means to handle the situation, because if my Bank Directors happens to know that Peter is dead and do not have any Heir, they will take the funds for their personal use, so I don't want such to happen. That was why when I saw your last name I was happy and I am now seeking your co-operation to present you as Next of Kin/ Heir to the account, since you have the same last name with him and my bank head quarters will release the account to you. There is no risk involved; the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

It is better that we claim the money, than allowing the Bank Directors to take it, they are rich already. I am not a greedy person, so I am suggesting we share the funds equal, 50/50% to both parties, my share will assist me to start my own company which has been my dream. Let me know your mind on this and please do treat this information as TOP SECRET. We shall go over the details once I receive your urgent response strictly through my personal email address, aBusheri@gmail.com

We can as well discuss this on phone; let me know when you will be available to speak with me on Skype. Have a nice day and God bless. Anticipating your communication.

Nadeem Ahmed Busheri.
aBusheri@gmail.com

Posted by Martin at 11:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 12, 2008

Anne Korin on Oil dependency

Anne was just in seattle last week. She has a series of videos from CSpan on Utube. Watch them all

Posted by Martin at 6:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 7, 2008

Thoughts on Bike Racing

Raced the thursday night crit at Seward Park tonight. Got stamped into the dust. But had fun. Doran sent me a link to the best article I have ever read about the energy market dynamics in the Peloton. Read it here. I was at the back end of the Peloton with the lost causes. It is actually worse there. Next time I will stay in the middle. From now till then I will ride more.

Posted by Martin at 9:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

August 6, 2008

I have a rentacoder job

bid on it here download the NDA here

Posted by Martin at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Peak Caviar

Don't believe in peak oil? Well how about Peak Caviar? I was skeptical, but this artical is very well researched and based on actual factual data collected in the field. Peak Caviar was about 1980. Since then the catch has fallen off substantially to the point where last year Russia prohibited selling Sturgeon caviar to try to restock the fish. The price went crazy. It is the old question, what price would you charge for something if you knew it was the last XX in the world? As much as you could get. Because the party is over. The charts of peak Caviar look much like the charts of oil. Now I think we will have a bit longer than the fish to go before we run out, but 20 years is not that long and the decline was STEEP.
Believe it. Peak Oil is here.

Posted by Martin at 8:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

to be a pundit

Posted by Martin at 7:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Got a cure for nettles?

Ok, went to Japanese Gulch for a great mtb ride yesterday. But fell off a few times and found the Nettles. Got a bad case of nettle rash on my lower legs. The field guide says find a fern and rub the back of it on your legs. I kept riding. So the net says try antihistamines. I will try that and report. Just popped two sudafed and the stinging seems to be going down.

Posted by Martin at 5:56 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

August 5, 2008

Did Comcast just convince me they are not throttling my bandwidth?

Humm. I chatted with consumer concast and they said I need to talk to Business. I called business. They had a problem with the account, but finally got it. They said I am paying for 6Mb up and 1Mb down. Now that is MegaBits. There are 8 Bits in a Byte. This is where it gets interesting and where many people go wrong. I have been running Pure Networks performance monitor for the last two weeks. It says my average network performance is 443KB/sec down and 105KB/sec up. Now KB is KiloBYTES and Comcast is selling MegaBits so you have to multiply Bytes by 8 to get Bits. So Comcast is delivering me 443x8 = 3.544Mb/sec download and .84 Mb/sec up. Now I have two computers on this network and my SonicWall Firewall/router. Unless I configure it differently, it will basically split the available bandwidth in half between the two computers. So I SHOULD be getting about 3Mb/sec down and .5Mb/sec up on each computer. Comcast saw my actuals and said, I am getting more than average actually. And then they said if that wasn't enough I could upgrade to 16Mb/down and 2Mb/up. I may have to.

Can this be right? Do I actually believe I am getting the bandwith i am paying for from Comcast????

Posted by Martin at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Racing thursday night

After reading 10 points, I have to race my bicycle. A friend turned me onto the thursday night series right here in seattle. Racing this thursday. come out and push the pedals.

Posted by Martin at 9:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A story about "Magic City: A Novel (Thorn Mysteries)"

Posted by Martin at 9:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

McCain at Sturgis

Yes while Obama played to the Socialist in Berlin, McCain was actually getting support from real live Americans. He is the first candidate to visit Sturgis, an event near and dear to my personal heart. I also like the humor McCain is putting into the campaign with some new videos on UTube. What I see is an underdog surging. McCain was on death's door in fall of 2007. He was not supposed to win the Republican nomination. He was out of money, not conservative enough, etc. But he came back. I hope he does the same here. Can you believe the ego of that guy?

Posted by Martin at 9:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)