Stewart’s Images :: AWEA 2006 – pictures from the floor of the American Wind Energy Association trade show and conference, Pittsburgh, PA – June 4-7, 2006
Blog
-
zeiss it ain’t
For no good reason, I bought a very cheap ($20) mini digital camera at the airport. Its limitations make it quite fun to use:
- has the astonishingly high resolution of 352 x 288
- fixed-focus lens chock-full of chromatic and spherical aberration
- no display, except for a cryptic 2-digit LCD
- takes 20 images, then it has to be downloaded
- grossly inaccurate viewfinder, which shifts when you press the shutter button
- images have pronounced scan lines
- refuses to take images in low light
- weird non-standard USB connector
It is very small, and can also work as a webcam. It also works as well as it could under OS X (use macam to download the pictures, or enable the webcam). Using the webcam does seem to delete the pictures, so make sure you download ’em first.
I’ve made a minicam gallery, which I’ll add to until the novelty wears off.
-
AWEA06: by the river (or in it, nearly)
We’re not getting the best weather for the conference, but I hear that the coincidentally-running Three Rivers Arts Festival has had rain 18 out of the 20 years it has run, so noone’s surprised.
Conference hasn’t quite started yet, but the preliminary swag is quite promising; yoyos and balsa aircraft.
I spent the day in workshop run by KidWind, who have a school science kit for teaching the basics of wind turbine effectiveness. We got to build wind turbines, and test them. Here’s mine, big wean that I am:
I guess I got some losses near the hub there, but at least it worked. I was the only developer type there (there was a DoE person, and lots and lots of Pennsylvania teachers). I came away impressed, and hope I can work with Michael Arquin of KidWind to bring the project to Ontario.
(This post has the worst GPS location ever; could only get a fix to within 100m, so that’s why the map location appears to be in the river.)
-
Pittsburgh: I’m only hea for AWEA
In town for the AWEA 2006 Conference. Pittsburgh looks like it has some interesting topography, and has some huge buildings downtown. Trying to get a GPS signal for the map (amid a bemused high-school prom crowd) was hard.
-
I’ll be your terrorist for the evening…
I’m at YYZ, and despite the Canadian passport, I’m still Mr Designated Searched Guy. Thought that the passport might’ve changed things, but no. Sigh…
It does mean I no longer have to do those dumb visa waiver things, yay!
And it didn’t help that part of one of the lighting panels started to fall off inside the cabin before takeoff, so we had to taxi back, get it fixed, and head back out an hour later. Gotta love Air Canada.
-
Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes ♫ Managing Track Info – CD Text to CD Info
Doug’s AppleScripts for iTunes ♫ Managing Track Info fixes iTunes’ annoying lack of support for CD-Text.
-
what the tortoise taught us
Just finished Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile, the fictional thoughts of Gilbert White‘s pet tortoise. Verlyn Klinkenborg has really captured the pace of the tortoise’s life.
The tortoise/taught us rhyme doesn’t work if you’re Scottish; we pronounce it tor-toys, not taw-TUSS. Lewis Carroll didn’t think beyond the RP.
In memory of Timothy, I’ve geotagged this post with the location of a bridge in a nearby ravine, near which a little turtle used to snooze in the sun.
-
Your source for “Atomkraft? Nej Tak” badges
You can still buy these here: WISE – Nuclear issues information service. I just ordered a bunch.
(The above image belongs to OOA and is used without their express permission.)Find out more at the smiling sun, nuclear power no thanks site.
-
Souvenir of Canada
We saw Douglas Coupland’s Souvenir of Canada movie last night. We liked it a lot.
-
Ã…rhus, in the middle of our street
And so our Danish Wind Odyssey draws to a close, after visiting Rinkøbing, Lem and Randers today. We’re up at an unsensible hour tomorrow to fly to Copenhagen. It was a great trip. Will post photies.
-
Happy Danish Sockets
Am I losing it, or do Danish power sockets look like smileys?
Two happy people:
Happy person with a chef’s hat (isometric view):
Do these remind you of anything?
-
But I’m not singing “At A Time Like This”, I’m singing …
The Hut Sut Song, perhaps the most infectious earworm you’ll ever hear.
… or if you want it a bit more accessible, here is an mp3 of The Hut Sut Song, converted from the same source.
-
A chilly evening in Søndervig
The concrete lump is a WW2 gun emplacement.
-
Danish Modern in Ringkøbing
I’m currently checked into a hotel which reeks of 70s Danish modern — blonde wood, bare brick, smoked glass surfaces — and, like many places in Denmark, cigarette smoke. Being in the presence of an authentic Beocom phone makes up for it though:
Also, there’s a cute little wind farm outside; a few Vestas V27s (or smaller) on lattice towers at 56° 7′ 22.11″ N, 8° 13′ 48.94″ E:
-
Herning: not just a gerund
Morning in rainy Herning. Not much to say except we’re zooming off to see the wind turbine nacelle factory in Brande this morning.
-
from on high near Bøvlingbjerg
(above thumbnail links to 2048×768 panoramic image.)
It’s nice here at the Risø test centre, with a view of over 70 wind turbines across Jutland. I’m on top of a Siemens 2.3 MW turbine. There’s an elevator, before you ask how I got up an 80m tower.
-
big big blades
Visiting Siemens’ factory in Aalborg, we saw the blade fabrication process. I was pleasantly surprised to discovered that a major component of their blades is balsa wood, which, when combined with clear glass fibre and epoxy, makes a lovely organic-looking surface. It’s a shame that they have to be painted, but environmental degradation will always get ya in the end.
These blades are big:
The above is a 45m blade being loaded onto a truck.
Here is a bunch of 45m blades waiting to be finished and painted. You’ll note that there’s still some mould flash on the edge of the blade; that gets ground off. The submarine-like thing on the right is the truly colossal Siemens B52 blade (as a lifelong fan of Kate, Cindy, Ricky, Keith and Fred, the name alone made me happy, even if I knew it denoted a 52m blade). It was so large our entire party managed to stand inside the blade root, with no stooping required.
-
in Aalborg
I like Aalborg. I think we’re staying in exactly the same hotel (the Scandic) as I stayed in 10 years ago with RES. We’re going to see some really big wind turbines tomorrow.
Oh, and the Google Maps locations I picked off for this hotel are pretty darn accurate; the one I double-clicked on for this hotel is less than 50m from my room. I like.
