Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
There’s No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere
In a recent post here, we examined the reasons that people feel compelled to blog. From the post and the comments it received, it became clear that quite a few people are blogging to make money. The reality is that it is difficult to make money in the long tail. In this post we examine why that is and look at other aspects of long tail economics.
10 Hot Computer Driven Careers
While traditional IT careers will probably stay in-demand for the foreseeable future, don’t forget the alternatives. From climate modeling to revolutionizing the very fabric of life itself, there are plenty of enjoyable computer jobs to keep the computer professional creatively engaged.
Google preps online storage service
Offering would compete with recent products from rivals Microsoft, Amazon.com and Facebook.
The Mobile Web remains far off, and inevitable
“Within 10 years more people will be accessing the Internet from their mobile . . . than in the home from a PC,†said Geraldine Wilson, vice president of connected life at Yahoo! Europe. “In emerging markets most people’s first contact with the Internet will be with a mobile phone.â€
Google hopes to undercut coal with cheap, renewable energy
Google’s latest plan to put all that money to good use is to announce an initiative that will develop renewable energy that’s cheaper than coal.
Related posts
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
I am a little hot. I just finished bringing the remaining two tons of wood pellets downstairs to the basement. There were one hundred forty pound bags. I don’t even know how many trips I made with the wheelbarrow. I brought down six bags per trip. I am sure if I did a little math, I could figure it out. Nah, that’s asking too much.
So there we have it…three tons of wood pellets for the season. I am guessing that we already went through about fifteen bags, give or take.
Things with the pellet stove have been going pretty smoothly, except for that one small hiccup. It’s half way through November, so that’s not too bad. I say this every year and then it hits minus twenty in January. That’s when most of the pellets get used up.
Big props to you and your family.
Related posts
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Last night, I started a little fire in Harman P38 pellet stove. I usually fill the little area with pellets, squirt some gel on them, light it and start to eat dinner. It usually takes a few minutes for the gel to get the pellets to start burning.
Well, Laura and I got into a good conversation and I totally forgot about the pellet stove. The door was open and the pellets were kind of smoldering. I got up to close the pellet stove door. After I did that, the stove was burning fine. Here’s the problem…after a few minutes, I noticed that the auger wasn’t turning to feed more pellets so the stove would keep burning.
I got the flashlight and started poking around some things in the back of the stove, to no avail. I tried a few times to restart the fire, just to see if things would kick in normally. Nothing. The pellets just kept on burning normally, but they would eventually burn out, because there was no replenishment.
I looked up some things on Google and came across this site, with a page titled, “Harman Accentra Pellet Stove Problems.” There were some good posts there, but nothing that helped me. I decided to let the fire burn out and call the place I bought the stove from today. Also, just as a kicker, I lost the user manual. I think someone stole it…yeah, that’s it.
At this point, the fire was completely dead and all the fans on the stove stopped. I decided to go for it one more time. I filled the burning bowl with pellets and squirted the gel on. I lit it and quickly closed the door. This time, as soon as I closed the door, I heard the auger turning. After that, things were fine. The fire has been burning all night.
I am thinking that since I left the door open too long the first time, the switch that starts the auger never flipped. Something like that. After I let everything die, things were reset. Who knows.
So here is an update on how the pellet stove is working this year. I bought three tons of pellets at about $600 and change. This is more than enough for the season. The thing cranks out heat. It doesn’t make any dust or mess because I caulked the exhaust pipes (high temp). I heard someone, on the radio this morning, say that they already spent $3000 on heating fuel this year, and that is only going to last until December. Must be nice to live in a 60,000 square foot mansion. Anyway, you would think they would consider alternatives at this point, instead of calling radio stations to complain about how stupid they are. For $2000, they can have a brand new pellet stove…installed. Oh yeah, they also mentioned that they drive an hour each way to work every day and are spending $95 per week in gas. How do you spell H-Y-B-R-I-D? Ahhhhh. Why do we even bother?
Related posts
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Laura and I were talking last night about wind energy, the government and how people do not want to solve the energy problem.
Paul and I had a little back-and-forth over the weekend about wind turbines in residential areas. I was against it and he was for it. The reason I was against it is because of the first photo he displayed in his post. I thought that something like this was inappropriate for a residential area. Then, I did a little research and noticed that certain companies are making residential wind turbines much sleeker in their look and use. I am now on board. Apparently, with the right height and wind speed, one of these turbines can supply a whole house with electricity.
Here is our (well, my) reason why anyone with any amount of power simply doesn’t want to really make any changes when it comes to energy…If the government wanted to solve the problem, they would have “gently forced” every property owner in the country to erect a small wind turbine on their property. I know, I know, that sounds strange, but think about it. The government can even pay for it. They got the taxpayers to pay billions and billions of dollars to go over to Iraq and…well, you know. Think about if the American government used that same money to purchase and have installed one wind turbine (or solar system) per property owner. Can you even imagine how much oil and coal that would save from being burned? We wouldn’t have to go over and…well, you know…the Middle East anymore.
Why is it that the only thing being offered right now are tax breaks that no one knows about? I hear more about “Barney” than I do about renewable energy incentives, and I don’t even like Barney.
Related posts
