We Saw a Chicken …

Blog

  • Debunking the 25% Myth

    My dad called yesterday, asking, “Wind turbines do run for more than 25% of the time, don’t they?”. Seems he read an opinion piece in his favourite fair ‘n’ balanced rag (The Telegraph) that said that wind turbines only run 25% of the time.

    I see this factoid popping up more and more from the anti-wind crowd. It’s a particularly difficult one to refute in the press, as by the time you’ve tried to explain the difference between capacity factor and operation time, you’ve lost them. Or gone over your allotted time/word count, at least.

    I’ve got a year’s production data from WindShare/Toronto Hydro‘s turbine in front of me. It’s on a marginal site, one that probably wouldn’t be developed by a commercial entity. So, does it run for more than 25% of the time?

    Yes; the turbine is generating 63% of the time. I’ve defined generating as providing a net export of power to the grid. Our turbine’s a bit more cranky than most, and I have a suspicion that our metering system is dropping some production, but even so, 63% is way more than the claimed 25%. So it gives me great pleasure to say:

    MYTH: Wind turbines only run for 25% of the time.
    BUSTED! Wind turbines run at the very least 60% of the time, usually more.

    (I can’t guarantee that Country Guardian won’t quote me out of context. I could make a cheap shot about not blaming them for their paymasters in the nuclear industry requiring value for money, but I won’t …)

  • timely quotation

    Anent George W. Bush’s “God Told Me To Do It …” revelation, was it purely coincidence that the week’s quotation in Catherine‘s Women Artists Datebook is:

    I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.

     — Susan B. Anthony
    ?

  • Software Paul didn’t think of …

    Can I just say that SimStapler is splendid?

  • Nasty Natto from The Sneeze

    Steve’s experience with natto — the fermented soy beans of doom — pretty much matches mine, though I suspect he liked it a bit more than I did.

  • Desktop Manager

    I have found my OS X virtual workspace manager: Desktop Manager. It does exactly what I want.

  • my last adbusters

    I used to be an avid reader of Adbusters, but now I’m letting my subscription slip. It used to be quite amusing, but it’s taken itself far too seriously for the last couple of years. When the stuff about subvertising went, so did my interest.

  • winter

    We’ve had our first frost at a measuring site out in Alberta. From now on, it’s data censoring for frozen anemometers until April next year …

  • the “do not clue” list

    Ever get one of those sales call-centre calls where you get some automated message before an operator picks up? We get a lot of those, and usually it’s fairly easy to tell they’re automated.

    The one I just got was somewhat lacking in clues of configuration: “This is the default message for the live person message.”

    I so hung up on them.

  • 3D Death Chase, courtesy Jasper

    3d death chase
    Perhaps the best game ever: 3D Death Chase. It helps if you play it at the full speed your computer allows 😉

  • geourl


    GeoURL

  • ex dexit, or trying to be

    Coo, was I really all fired up about Dexit, like I appear to have been in January 2004? ‘Cos, basically, Dexit sucks.

    The coffee place I get my morning fix got rid of its unreliable Dexit machine when it changed hands. So I’ve got nearly $70 sitting on the useless Dexit tag, doing nothing.

    Today I called for a refund, and discovered that Dexit won’t refund your balance. I wouldn’t have signed up for it if I’d known there’d be this in the ultra-sneaky Dexit user agreement (PDF):

    Only in the event of your death (and upon receipt of such documents as Dexit reasonably requires in such circumstances as to whom is entitled to your estate funds), or Dexit closing your Dexit Account without cause, will the remaining funds in your Dexit Account be repaid to you. “Cause” will include any violation of this Agreement, any fraud or attempted fraud, any other operation of the Dexit Account or use of a Dexit Tag in an unsatisfactory manner, or non-use of your Dexit Account for over three (3) years.

    So, do I hafta kill myself to get my money back?

    Oh, and Dexit’s phone support staff are untruthful. I needed to speak to a supervisor. They promised one would call before 8pm this evening. It’s 9:55 now, and I’ve heard nothing.

  • keepin’ it, since 3760 BCE

    Happy Rosh Hashanah!

  • onward and upward, etc

    Hmm, looks like I didn’t get put forward as the WindShare rep on the board of directors of OSEA after all …

  • thank you for the music

    Can I just say how much I enjoy music again with my new Etymotic Research ER-6i headphones? They sound great and they don’t fall out. Bonus all round, really.

    Shame they’re iPod White, but you can’t have everything.

  • i didn’t throw the pebble

    I walk through a Ford dealership every day to and from work. Last Thursday, going home, my eye was caught by a tiny round black pebble dropping onto the hood (= bonnet) of a nearby car.

    A salesman was near, and saw the pebble. He yelled at me, asking if I’d thrown it. I said that I didn’t. He didn’t seem mollified. I better watch out for him.

  • blog entry for dad

    My folks have been visiting for the last couple of weeks (we’re just about to leave for the airport), and Dad asked for some links we discussed. The following will probably make little or no sense to other readers:

  • [Don’t] Take the Tooker

    Oh dear, another bike lane project: Take the Tooker! – Bloor Danforth bike lane. I much prefer to go play in the traffic.

  • all around the lakes

    Had an impromptu visit to Port Burwell today to fix a cranky cell modem. It was also my first experience of driving a stick shift — and not just any stick shift, one with 400Kclicks on it — on the wrong side of the road. It was weird, but since I neither wrecked the car nor hit anything, I think I got the hang of it.

    Anyway, no trip to Burwell is complete without a visit to the Lighthouse Restaurant for fresh fried lake perch. While I was there, I got chatting to a couple from Chicago who were working on their plan to cycle round a Great lake each summer. By doing this, they were hoping to appreciate the scale of these huge bodies of water. Neat plan.

    One day, when I’m a Celebrity Windfarm Designer with my own television show, I’ll take a summer off to go round Lake Erie.

  • i think i’m supposed to have arrived now

    I have a wordpress.com blog now. Does this mean I’m something above a gamma-list blogger? Whatever shall I use it for?

  • knitters wanted, some travel required

    Knitters needed on remote Fair Isle.