It’s bike to work day. I volunteered with the SF Bike Coalition this morning at an “energizer station” on Valencia. Saw a lot of friends and made some new ones. Many people turned out. Even more will be out there this afternoon to celebrate the ride home and to cruise around with other cyclists.

I know I don’t bike commute. I’ll bike to band rehearsal tonight, ok?

Otherwise I’d be joining one of the group cruises happening around the bay. East bay people should get with the Rock the Bike cruise starting at 7 Pm at Lanesplitters on Telegraph & 50th in Oakland.

If you’re in SF you might want to ride with the too hard bike posse that’s meeting tonight at 7 at Ritual Roasters on Valencia. According to one of the crew they’ll be cruising to “secret locations” so spread the word.

If you want to see pics from bike to work day in SF I’m told they’ll be tagged BTWD on Flickr

[tags]bike to work day, btwd, SFBC[/tags]

This tunnel story (via Ming) is pretty exciting.

Could trans pacific trains be more energy efficient than ocean liners? It would be conceivable to sum up the costs of hardware, manpower, ports, rail maintenance, and so on…

More importantly, will the tunnel designers make space for bike/ped access?

I’d pay good money to bike the 68 mile long tunnel. Tunnels aren’t exactly scenic. But think how fun it would be to know you’re riding 180 feet below the surface of the Bering Strait. Think how amazing it will be to bike from the eastern edge of St. John’s, Newfoundland to the western tip of Land’s End, England. That’s a concept, huh?

The 2007 Tour de France includes a time trial through the “middle access tunnel” of the Chunnel. In other words, it’s possible to bike from France to England. Making the arrangements might be tricky. We’ve got some time to sort it out. The Russian tunnel won’t be online anytime soon.
[tags]Bering Strait, tunnel[/tags]

Julia Moskin has conducted a brilliant and much needed study about the merits of cooking with cheap versus expensive wines (NYT). It’s a funny article and very well written:

“Next I braised duck legs in a nonvintage $5.99 tawny port that reminded me of long-abandoned Halloween candy, with hints of Skittles and off-brand caramels.”

Moskin is correct with her conclusions. It’s not necessary to cook with expensive drinking wines. Cheap table wines are fine for cooking.

We cooked with boxed Franzia wines at one of the fine kitchens where I spent my chef’s apprenticeship. These cheap wines were great for stocks, merinades, sauces, and deglazing. Often the taste of the wine is only sensible as a subtle acidic balance in flavor. With something so subtle, it turns out you can easily substitute a $6.00 bottle for a $36.00 bottle, and no one will notice the difference.

One other trick: leave the Franzia box in the walk-in and refill high class show bottles for use on the line. They’re easier to handle. Plus you never know when a customer will visit the back of the house.
[tags]Julia Moskin, cooking with wine[/tags]

This picture is from the great Detroitblog.

Today the Financial Times reports that head executives of Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Toyota (North America), and General Motors have pledged to “cooperate with an ambitious legislative plan to tackle global warming.”

I’ll take the lead in California and personally thank each and every resident of the community of Detroit for making this congressional deal possible. I’ve always felt that Huffington was wrong about you. I knew you’d come through. Thanks.

What you say, who’s Huffington?

In 2003 things were looking rather bleak for the automotive industry. For a short time it was even fashionable to bash the residents of Detroit – you may recall (just kidding) Arianna Huffington’s “Detroit Project”. Well, I recall it.

I recall calling the Detroit Project’s LA based publicist to inquire exactly how many times Huffington had actually been in Detroit before she decided to pick a fight with the whole city.

Once, the publicist said, Ms. Huffington had been there once.

Ms. Detroit Project Huffington had been to Detroit once. We should cut her some slack then I guess.

Eventually she stopped blaming the Iraq war on the people of Detroit, and her Detroit Project website quit posting in May 2003. Wonder how long they’ll squat that URL? It’s a nice one, someone cool could use of it.

For those who think we should thank Huffington too, why not? You should take a collection for a three week spa and retreat package at the Bali-Hi Motel on East Jefferson, (313)822-3500. Detroit spring air might do her some good.

For other innovative automotive news visit the Wired blog “Autopia” for a conversation with Larry Burns, GM’s Vice President of R&D.

[tags]thank you Detroit, thank you Huffington, thank you Bali-Hi[/tags]

MyTCorp Food Services will continue our role of providing innovative solutions with the successful implementation of a banana intelligence initiative. We’ll have all necessary hardware in place by the end of Q1 and kickoff a mandatory training workshop series soon thereafter. Remember to check the ProduceDashboard for RealTimeData and kindly refer all questions and comments to:

http://239486123.us.mytcorp.com/blogs/bananasinbrief/

[tags]banana hoarding, management consulting, problem solving[/tags]

It’s easy to view collaboration skills as part of an individual’s capabilities; we all know people who’re plain easy to work with. While individual skills are important, and we can all work to develop better collaboration skills, there are other major factors to consider. Successful collaboration often has less to do with individual skills, and more to do with the dynamics of the system in which the collaboration is taking place.

Systems language and analysis can be an immediate turn off. I sometimes tune out when consultants drift into the stratosphere of nebulous day dreamy org fluff. Other times though it’s worth paying attention – understanding basic systems thinking can improve your ability to make good business decisions.

Here’s a useful tip from Eugene Eric Kim that can help you to apply systems thinking skills to improve workplace collaboration. Consider:

“To be good at collaboration, you have to treat it as a system. That system includes things like communication, community, KnowledgeManagement, learning, and leadership.”

“Most CollaborativeTools companies are either in the communication or the KnowledgeManagement business. They’re usually selling pipes, PIMs, or document management tools. All of those things have something to do with collaboration, but they are not in and of themselves collaboration. Then again, no tools are. A hammer is a tool for hammering, but it is not itself hammering.”

Pipes = process integration technology, PIMs = personal information management systems. Also, I’d add “context” to the list of key system variables.

[tags]collaboration, applied systems thinking[/tags]

It’s been an entire month that I’ve ignored the blog. It was a great month.

I’ve been to Detroit, Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Paris, and Palo Alto. The traveling was pretty good. New Years eve in Madrid was special. The Fundacio Joan Miro was great. Had memorable feeds at Salero and Inopia.

Completed some interesting work recently too. More on that later.

[tags]you don’t write, you don’t call, I was worried sick[/tags]

My neighbors are seeking product testers for web 6.0.

Their pre-alpha release offers substantially fewer dyads and a tremendous increase in quad-core dodecahyads (QCD’s). Investors is wicked bonkers for QCD’s.

Features include: nonstop community interractivity, seamless internal and external process migration, shabby chic user interface, fantastic natural lighting, comfortable seating and free drinks.

Ohhh, you’ve stepped on a nail. Ouch. Sorry. Would you like to send an error report?

See also.

[tags]web 6.0, transparency, collaboration, out there[/tags]

Someone tipped me on Bikely.com earlier this year, and I’ve finally taken the time to create my first route. It was fun and easier than I had expected. A couple people in particular inspired this ride. First, Tricky Coyote at Pleasant Revolution. Second, my former neighbor George Khouri. TC posted a route on Bikely not long ago; and the first half of the route I posted was a recommendation from George. Thanks George!

The new improved route is Garfield Square – Twin Peaks Loop.

[tags]Bikely, San Francisco bike route, Garfield Square Park, Twin Peaks[/tags]

Couple months back I posted an idea related to data center cogeneration. It was part of the IBM innovation jam. Some people have come here looking for more information. I’m not an expert. If you are searching for that type of info, here are a few resources that might help you along.

First is an interesting forum thread about managing themodynamics in computers. I liked the suggestion that product designers might consider using the vertical plane of a laptop screen for heat dissapation. This seems like a likely future scenario, especially if designers could develop an approach that incorporated the CPU into the area behind the screen. There are pro’s and con’s to this approach, and computer designers ought to comment on the thread I linked to.

The simplicity of this design change is that using the vertical surface makes it easier for heat to rise and enter the surrounding airstream. It suggests that perhaps data center racks would benefit from physical reconfiguration to allow for better thermal management. Have they been designed this way already? Are they being designed to channel the heat to a specific location, or only “away from hot spots”? It seems like designers could aid the process by thinking about the next steps in the thermodynamic management chain.

I had the chance to explore this option recently as it relates to a power supply in a PV solar manufacturing site. The design of the system called for a power supply system to be located in a basement room, and the unanticipated amount of waste heat was causing problems for the designers. The concept now being considered is how components in the power supply can be designed to (A) reduce waste heat, (B) enable better heat dissipation, and (C) provide design features that facilitate waste heat management. The management concept is the part I’m most interested in now.

I’m beginning to understand now how a power supply transformer can be designed to channel and thereby better manage waste heat. It starts at the selection of raw materials, and extends beyond the transformer itself. I’d like to understand if similar thinking can be applied to server racks. Ideally there could be a system to manage waste heat at the processor level, server level, server rack level, room level, until it arrives at the heat exchanger or generator.

SearchDataCenter.com compiles information related to “The New Data Center: Strategies for Today and Tomorrow”. A search of their site for “cogeneration” yielded this 2005 article about cooling technologies by Luke Meredith. They suggest cogeneration as an option to reduce net energy expense by selling any excess power back to the local utility.

Quote from IT consultant Bob McFarlane:

“Overdone air conditioning in an attempt to cool isolated hot spots, by throwing air into a room, is an extremely inefficient and costly way of not accomplishing your goal, because in most cases it simply doesn’t work.”

The article goes on to discuss liquid cooling, fan boosting, and other technologies to mitigate server hot spots. These technologies tend to be optimized to move heat from one area (CPU) to another (heat exchanger). How would the design of these technologies change if the goal was not to dissapate the heat into the air, but to harness the heat energy into some type of power generator? Read the rest of this entry »