Why we should recycle instead of Desalinating!

So previously I discussed the links between energy and water in modern society, in particular the costs of desalination.

Today I just wanted to give a short comparison between recycling water (and yes recycling sewage) and desalination. Basically the only reason that Australia's major cities have desalination plants is because people are a little squeamish. Or to put it another way because people are stupid. If you tell someone that the resulting output is cleaner and less contaminated than regular water they still won't touch it, the problem is that it is psychologically dirty. People think that it is dirty and can't drink it.

The problem is people don't think further than that. The reality is that if you live in a country town (or Adelaide for that matter) then you'll probably be drinking 'recycled' water and not really think about it. The difference here is that somewhere further upstream some towns "output" has been cleaned etc and then squirted into the river, then the downstream town pumps this out of the river, processes it etc and pumps it around town as its water supply.

The difference with places like Sydney and the Gold Coast is that that process would be short circuit the "psychological cleansing" that shoving the water into a river and pumping it out again is removed. What people don't understand is that it makes no difference. What is equally silly if you think about it is that this is what is happening in Sydney anyway, they pump the shit out the "deep water outlet" and then suck in sea water for the desalination plant....

I'd love to think that if people knew a few things about it they would want to chose recycling water over desalination anyway. One it is a heap more efficient to recycle water than to desalinate it and two the recycled water is actually a lot cleaner.

To take the first point the efficiency of recycling lets consider Singapore, arguably the most advanced country in terms of both desalination and water recycling technology. Their most efficient desalination plant uses 3 MWh/ML where as their most efficient recycling plant uses 0.7MWh/ML to produce drinking water.

To the second point, again using Singapore as an example, several Silicon processing companies have relocated operations to Singapore because of the reduced costs that surround using the recycled water output. Silicon processing, specifically the production of wafers for semiconductors, requires very pure water. Singapore supplies this companies with output direct from their recycled water plants that is so clean they can vastly cut down on the amount of processing that they do on the water before it is used in their processes.

Finally, and this applies to both Sydney and South East Queensland the power requirements of desalination place such an additional burden on the power systems that we will not be able to meet it without considerable investment in power supply and generation infrastructure. When you factor in the increased water bill to subsidize the construction and then operating costs of the new water plant and the increased power costs for the infrastructure and new generation capacity there will be a serious impact of the desalinized water on the consumer.

Perhaps this hip pocket impact will make people rethink the "Desalination is King" mantra and reconsider both recycled water and storm water capture technologies.


SOURCE: IEEE Spectrum 6.10

Blogger Sharing Buttons and Custom Templates

So when I read this post on the Blogger Buzz Blog that said sharing buttons where now supported natively on blogger I was pretty stoked. Up until now I had been using a set of custom buttons from one of the sites dedicated solely to adding sharing buttons to pages and blogs. However, I didn't really like how they crammed you through their web page or blasted crappy advertising all over the shop.

Anyway, I excitedly enabled the feature straight away on my blog to no avail. I could see that it was working on other peoples blogs just not mine. The blogger help was anything but.... I searched a few times and couldn't find what I was looking for, I'd give up for a couple of days and then when I saw them on another blog I'd get annoyed and look again.

Finally this morning I finally found my way to this post on BloggerPlugins.org  it seems that the problem was that I had manually customized my template and it couldn't figure out what to do. (Annoyaronically* I had only customized it to add the other sharing buttons in the first place!)


Anyway if you're having problems with adding the sharing buttons check out the post lined above!

*My latest attempt at making up a word. Annoyaronically should be used when something is annoyingly ironic.

Maybe the Apple Product Managers shouldn't "Just say no!"

Alright, so some of you may have seen my earlier post Apple Product Manager? Just say No! but I am starting to think that perhaps, they need to listen to their engineers occasionally. It hasn't come out yet but there has got to be an RF engineer somewhere around Cupertino that is sitting there at the moment thinking

"I told you so!"

In case you've missed it, I am referring to the "debacle" surrounding the funky antenna design on the new iPhone (I am guessing that the "funky" new design hasn't been used with any other phones because, well as we can see, holding the antenna directly causes attenuation issues.)


It would appear that the culture of saying no has spread to the customer service and PR ranks of the company, now it isn't just the Product Managers saying no, the PR flacks are now saying

 "There are no reception issues with the iPhone4"

 And in the latest blow to the companies image the Boy Genius Report has managed to get some leaked documents for how Apple Care representatives are to deal with calls regarding the antenna issues. The full text is:

1. Keep all of the positioning statements in the BN handy – your tone when delivering this information is important.

a. The iPhone 4’s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. Our testing shows that iPhone 4’s overall antenna performance is better than iPhone 3GS.

b. Gripping almost any mobile phone in certain places will reduce its reception. This is true of the iPhone 4, the iPhone 3GS, and many other phones we have tested. It is a fact of life in the wireless world.

c. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 3GS, avoid covering the bottom-right side with your hand.

d. If you are experiencing this on your iPhone 4, avoid covering the black strip in the lower-left corner of the metal band.

e. The use of a case or Bumper that is made out of rubber or plastic may improve wireless performance by keeping your hand from directly covering these areas.

2. Do not perform warranty service. Use the positioning above for any customer questions or concerns.

3. Don’t forget YOU STILL NEED to probe and troubleshoot. If a customer calls about their reception while the phone is sitting on a table (not being held) it is not the metal band.

4. ONLY escalate if the issue exists when the phone is not held AND you cannot resolve it.

5. We ARE NOT appeasing customers with free bumpers – DON’T promise a free bumper to customers.

Which certainly does seem bad, but really that is pretty much how I would expect them to react. Two things surprise me the most about this issue, one is the fact that Steve Jobs doesn't give a shit and the second is the vehemence that people have reacted to the problem. I am not surprised that that there are issues with the new phone, its a new hardware platform, the only thing mature about the iPhone is the OS. The Evo has a 12 second battery life but we haven't seen the same level of vitriol surrounding the issue. I guess the main difference is that they have at least made a noise about attempting to fix it in the next revision.

I can't help but think if Steve had said something more along the lines of we'll investigate the problem instead of hold the phone like you're a contortionist on a lunch break then we wouldn't see this level of reaction.

At the end of the day, the new iPhone has much better reception than the 3GS and most people will probably shove the phone in a case anyway, rendering the whole issue moot. Of course, if AT&T's network didn't suck balls then this whole issue may not even have been noticed.