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Fossil fuels

Alan Liefting

14 May 2015

Here at Ecotech Services we pride ourselves in limiting the use of non-renewable resources. The big one of course is fossil fuels, particularly petroleum, so when I got a spam email inviting me to invest in a petroleum project I had to laugh.

Attn: Dear Friend,

My name is Nour El Deen Nabil a staff in the National petroleum 
agency of Sao Tome and Principe but originally from Arab Republic 
of Egypt; I secured a crude oil lifting license from the National 
Petroleum Agency (STP-NPA) where I work.

Nour, I don’t know you from a bar of soap and if I did, and if you are an actual person, you would not be my friend. I don’t befriend spammers and scammers.

Due to my position in the Petroleum Agency, I cannot handle this 
project alone; you have all the qualities needed for this project.

Flattery will get you nowhere with me. And so how do you know that I have all of the qualities that you need? What about money? Do you think I have a few hundred million to throw at this project?

All we need do to are these:

1. We have to officially register a company with the Sao Tome and 
Principe Petroleum Agency, which shall serve as our lifting company 
as to enable us make use of this lifting license.

2. I will ensure that all lifting procedures are in place and buyers
 readily available.

3. You stand in as the license operator for all the lifting and 
sales transactions,

If accepted we can start working on this project, I know oil 
business may not be your line of business but I will handle and 
manage this project and also make sure that I guide you on what to 
do at any given time.

Oh, that is all we need to do? That makes it all ok then. And yes , you are right. The oil business is not my line of business so I will need your help.

Don't forget to furnish me with your private phone and fax numbers 
for easier communication amongst us.

Ok. I will get that off immediately.

Thank you my Dear Friend.

humour, scams

Lost in translation

Alan Liefting

7 May 2015

I came across this sticker on a no name piece of rubbish masquerading as weigh scales.

“Tearing up the void”

I am pretty sure that the sticker is supposed to say “Warranty void if removed”. Not only is the English complete nonsense but there is not even a screw in the hole under the sticker!

Ok, they may not have a grasp of the English language but are the manufacturers able to produce a reliable and accurate set of scales? There are a few issues with it. The power adapter socket is not labelled with the required input voltage (it needs a specific voltage to charge the internal four volt lead acid battery). The light indicating that it is connected to a power source is called “ACC” instead of AC. The internal wiring is a bit messy. I am unsure of the accuracy. It has a strain gauge on a cantilevered bar. Is that a good way of doing it given that it goes up to 25 kg?

It is a real shame that everyone buys on price (even I do so sometimes) at the expense of quality. In the case of weigh scales the technology has not really changed significantly over the past couple of decades so we may as well keep the older, better quality ones in service rather than buying new rubbish.

humour, odd
Screws

Alan Liefting

6 May 2015

Don’t you hate it when no matter how many screwdriver bit sets you have you will still come across a screw for which you don’t have a bit?
And don’t you hate it that the sets come with tri-point but not tri-wing driver bits?

Another great cartoon from xkcd.com

humour, screws, tools
Check out this circuit

Alan Liefting

1 April 2015

I am having trouble doing fault finding on this circuit.
Thanks to fotophil for alerting me to this rather interesting problem.

My knowledge of circuit theory is failing me. I don’t recognise some of those circuit symbols. And do Kirchhoff’s Laws, and Norton’s and Thévenin’s Theorems work on this circuit?
Image credit: http://xkcd.com/730/

cartoons, electronics, humour
Appliances and energy consumption

Alan Liefting

18 March 2015

Here is one of Alex Hallett’s Arctic Circle cartoons about appliances and energy consumption:

It probably is the case that the eco setting does not do a lot when you look at the Big Picture. Also, how often does it actually get used?

New power stations and fossil fuel emissions are the two big environmental effects of electricity generation. Here in New Zealand something like 70% of electricity is from renewable energy sources which means carbon emissions per kilowatt/hour is not as bad as other countries. In recent years plans for at least three major hydroelectric power stations were scrapped for an assortment of reasons, and this may well be the trend in the future.

Another consideration is the environmental effect of discarding older models without an eco option versus buying a brand new one with it.

cartoons, energy, humour
If software developers were hardware designers

Alan Liefting

1 June 2014

I seem to spend most of my working life and my personal life clicking on update requests on my computers. Well ok maybe not most of my life but it is definitely over half! But anyway, imagine if electronic and computer hardware designers treated products in the same way as software developers do. Customers would be bringing gear in for upgrades every few days! Hey, maybe that is a good idea. Ecotech Services would get some of that work!
But seriously, I have to thank all of the software developers out there that have managed to turn computers into the wonderfully productive devices that they have become. Ooo… Looks like another update is needed.
Narghh, just kidding! Everything is just tickety boo here.

humour
Zero waste – yes or no?

Alan Liefting

22 May 2014

So what is happening here?

Does the Mackenzie District Council have a zero waste strategy or not? And is Transit New Zealand supporting it or not?

I took this photo earlier this year at the Mount Cook information centre on the main highway by Lake Pukaki. Here at Ecotech Services we are quite clear on our zero waste policy. We aim towards zero e-waste to landfill and do our best with keeping all other waste generated out of the landfill.

humour, waste
To state the obvious…

Alan Liefting

3 May 2014

I had to laugh when I came across this bit of Korean made gear:
Check out the handle. It has got the word “handle” embossed into it! I don’t know why they felt that they had to do that. It is even more odd when you consider that the rest of the gear is covered in Korean language rather than English.
Now I can’t read Korean but a circuit is a circuit in any language. After pulling it apart I could see that it was just an autotransformer with a number of switched taps coming off it. There was also a voltage meter, front panel plug (Asian style), current overload switch, and back panel output terminals. It is obviously used in an application where the mains voltage needs to be varied for some reason. The company website is at http://hanilsys.co.kr but without trying a Google translation I could not read it.
The electrical inspectors would have a field day with it. Firstly, autotransformers are a bit dodgy because if the common connection of the winding goes open circuit the full voltage is applied to the output regardless of its control setting. I don’t really know how the regulations pertaining to autotransformers would read for a bit of gear like this. Secondly, the metal case was not earthed, which is a complete no-no here in New Zealand. Also, the screw terminals on the back carrying the controlled mains voltage are not completely enclosed, and that will not pass muster.
Needless to say the thing is now in the scrap pile waiting to be recycled.

humour, odd

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