Connecting Manure, Water, and EPA - Amish face regulation

June 13, 2010 Dave Ohara

HP made news with its Manure powered data center.

NYTimes has an article on how the EPA is looking at the manure from Amish farmers and water pollution.

But farmers like Mr. Stoltzfus are facing growing scrutiny for agricultural practices that the federal government sees as environmentally destructive. Their cows generate heaps of manure that easily washes into streams and flows onward into the Chesapeake Bay.

And the Environmental Protection Agency, charged by President Obama with restoring the bay to health, is determined to crack down. The farmers have a choice: change the way they farm or face stiff penalties.

“There’s much, much work that needs to be done, and I don’t think the full community understands,” said David McGuigan, the E.P.A. official leading an effort by the agency to change farming practices here in Lancaster County.

There is an extremely low chance that HP could talk to the Amish to solve their manure problems with a data center.

Water supply is what has the EPA looking at the Amish.

Last September, Mr. McGuigan and his colleagues visited 24 farms in a pocket of Lancaster County known as Watson’s Run to assess their practices. Twenty-three of the farms were plain sect; 17 were found to be managing their manure inadequately. The abundance of manure was also affecting water quality. Six of the 19 wells sampled contained E. coli bacteria, and 16 had nitrate levels exceeding those allowed by the E.P.A.

Water is one of the most under appreciated earth resources, and thankfully the momentum continues to build to protect it.

If you don't think about how water use and how water waste affects your data center, get ready for a potential visit from a regulatory agency.

Are you acting like an Amish farmer who is stuck in the past?

Less is More Gains Momentum, including data centers

June 13, 2010 Dave Ohara

The Economist discusses the popularity of less is better in technology, and how it is growing in spite of technologies typical more is better.

But now there are signs that technologists are waking up to the benefits of minimalism, thanks to two things: feature fatigue among consumers who simply want things to work, and strong demand from less affluent consumers in the developing world. It is telling that the market value of Apple, the company most closely associated with simple, elegant high-tech products, recently overtook that of Microsoft, the company with the most notorious case of new-featuritis. True, Apple’s products contain lots of features under the hood, but the company has a knack for concealing such complexity using elegant design. Other companies have also prospered by providing easy-to-use products: think of the Nintendo Wii video-games console or the Flip video camera. Gadgets are no longer just for geeks, and if technology is to appeal to a broad audience, simplicity trumps fancy specifications.

One of the classic differences between Windows and Mac is you ask how to do something on the Mac, and there is one way. You ask the same question on Windows and there will many times be three or more. Which way do you think is better the one way or give people multiple ways. When you have the market share with the diversity of users then you collect the user data, develop the alternatives and test the usability. If you are Apple you figure out the one way to do it, hope Steve Jobs doesn't think your way is ridiculed, and the feature ships.

With the growth of Apple's iPod, iPhone, and iPad, figuring out the simple user interface is being accepted more.

Frugality is the mother of invention

And then there is the phenomenon of “frugal” innovation—the new ideas that emerge when trying to reduce the cost of something in order to make it affordable to consumers in places like China, India and Brazil. The resulting products often turn out to have huge appeal in the rich world too, especially in an era of belt-tightening. The netbook, or low-cost laptop, was inspired by a scheme to produce cheap laptops for children in poor countries, but has since proved popular with consumers around the world. Tata devised the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, with India’s emerging middle classes in mind; it is now planning to launch it in Europe, too, where there is growing demand for cheap, simple vehicles.

Apple and Google are fighting for the Mobile space, and as they point out, the fight can be about control.

The mobile space also offers something that Jobs craves: control. Unlike being able to buy pretty much any software program you want for the personal computer, with the iPad you’re locked in. There’s only one place to buy apps: Apple’s online App Store. And Jobs keeps a 30 percent cut of the revenue. As for ads, Jobs will sell those, too, and he’ll keep 40 percent. Of course, Jobs also sells music, movies, and books via his iTunes Store, keeping 30 percent. So instead of a one-time sale of a Mac, each iPhone and iPad becomes an ongoing revenue stream. No wonder Jobs is going all-in for mobile.

KC Mares discusses another thing that is better if less, Vibration.

The Data Center Vibration Penalty to Storage Performance

Every now and then a really great way to reduce energy use comes along that is so simple we all whack our head wondering, “why didn’t I think of that!” My principles of achieving ultra-efficient data centers (PUEs between 1.03-1.08; I call anything less than 1.10 ultra-efficient) are based upon simplicity and a holistic approach while meeting the need not the want or convention. Generally the simpler the better, as simple is always lower cost up front and ongoing, as well as easier to maintain, more reliable and more efficient.

As KC mentions, think about all the equipment causing vibration.

If the vibration from yelling into a rack causes performance degradation, think about the vibration affects from HVAC systems, thousands of server fans, and even walking thru your data center.

Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to yell in data centers as vibration and noise was reduced. Kind of make sense that the less noise there is the less energy is expended. If you aren't listening to the noise your hard disks aren't hard of hearing the bits and they have to try again and again.

There are actually many reasons that less is better as I have listed a bunch of ideas above.

But, the common approach in technology is more is better.

Can you shift your thinking to less is better?

It is kind of a Zen thing. Your life is not happier with more, but in understanding what you have in your life and why it is important. Meditating, reflecting, questioning.

Maybe people need to spend more time in Data Center Meditation, but it is almost impossible with all the noise and vibration.

We finally have some sunny weather here, and as you can see we have very high water as the docks are under water on June 13, 2010. It is very cool though to walk on the dock in 6 inches of water and think.

I am going to change one of my M's for memetics to meditation. So, now Monitoring, Modeling, and Meditating the green data center.

Near miss science accounts for Human Factors, when will Data Centers do the same?

June 13, 2010 Dave Ohara

WSJ reports on the science of studying near misses and human factors that contribute to system failures.

Near Misses Are a Hit in Disaster Science

By CARL BIALIK

While there never has been an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico quite as large as the current disaster, there have been other terrible mishaps and, as in every industry, near misses.

These close calls are what Scott Shappell, professor of industrial engineering at Clemson University, looks for when he works with airlines on quantifying their risk from human errors.

"All you hear about are crashes, but it's the near misses that are telling," Prof. Shappell says. "If you only knew how many near misses there are in aviation, you would never fly again."

Near misses can be studied by statisticians to estimate the probability of an event that hasn't occurred before. Estimating the probability of unlikely disasters has become standard practice for nuclear and space regulators. Such an exercise, experts say, could help companies involved in deep-sea drilling evaluate risks and possibly prevent catastrophes like the Gulf oil spill.

Human Factors science is a common practice in Nuclear Power Plants, Aviation and complex programs like the Space Shuttle.

The following can just as be easy be stated about the data center industry.

There also is some danger in producing risk assessments that are too precise. "Most laypeople want a single number," says Todd Paulos, chief technology officer for Alejo Engineering Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif., but "we can't predict anything to that accuracy."

The wild card in all these estimates is human error. Nuclear-power companies for years have sought to calculate and reduce risk by evaluating how people respond to simulations of potentially dangerous situations.

One of these days we'll see a data center consulting company offer Human Factors analysis. Here is the company that has a bunch of Human Factors people who specialize in the.

Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates (WSA) are an Internationally recognized team of experts in system safety and human performance. As the authors of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) and the Human Factors Intervention matrix (HFIX), WSA provides a variety of services to help incorporate these tools in to your organization to improve safety, quality and efficiency.

We're confident you'll find that Wiegmann, Shappell and Associates is not your typical safety consulting company. Renowned scientists with real world experience in the field, WSA bridges the gap between theory and practice to effectively integrate human performance and system safety principles and tools into your organization.

Oops, Biomass may not be Carbon Neutral

June 13, 2010 Dave Ohara

CNET reports on a Massachusetts study that Wood Biomass may not be carbon neutral.

Study finds biomass power not carbon neutral

by Martin LaMonica

Forested regions around the world are pursuing biomass as a renewable energy source but a study finds that the carbon footprint from burning biomass can be worse for global warming than coal.

The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences on Thursday published the findings of a six-month study to measure the greenhouse gas impacts of using biomass, which, in many cases, does not meet claims of being "carbon neutral" over short periods of time.

The report was commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, which said it will revise its regulations in response. "We can begin the process of refining our renewable energy regulations to provide incentives only for biomass energy that truly reduces our greenhouse gas emissions and protects our forests," said Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Commissioner Phil Giudice, in a statement.

Note the study didn't focus on wood waste used for fuel generation.

In response, biomass industry people said that the study does not paint a completely accurate picture of biomass-to-power facilities because it assumes that they don't use residue wood products, such as branches and trees left from logging. "The study is not representative on how we plan to operate," Matt Wolfe of Madera Energy, which is proposing a wood-burning plant in western Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe.

The original study is here.

Manomet Study of Woody Biomass Energy Released

Manomet and its partners have released the results of a six-month study to better understand the implications of using wood for energy in Massachusetts, titled “Biomass Sustainability and Carbon Policy Study.” The study was conducted for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources. The full report, or its component chapters, can be downloaded below.

Going to visit my #10 traffic country, Italy

June 11, 2010 Dave Ohara

In one week I am going to take a two week break from blogging June 18 - July 2. I am going on vacation to visit my #10 traffic country, Italy.

Here is my current traffic for last 5 months with about 62,000 visits.

Of that Italy is #10.

United States (US)
31,486

United Kingdom (GB)
3,516

India (IN)
2,679

Canada (CA)
2,489

France (FR)
1,695

Germany (DE)
1,256

Australia (AU)
1,202

Japan (JP)
829

Netherlands (NL)
811

Italy (IT)
665

Did I pick Italy because it was #10? Of course not, but it is a bit of trivia that Italy is #10 in my traffic.

I am going to spend a week in cooking school, Tuscan Women Cook run by Texans.

Morning classes include both hands-on cooking and demonstrations at local country homes, plus visits to food artisans, olive oil producers, local food markets, and food festivals. We will stop and buy the day’s ricotta and Pecorino cheeses from local farmers. The classes are taught in Italian and are translated into English. Tuscan Women Cook is an insider’s view of true Tuscan seasonal cuisine.

I am the main cook in the family, and getting ready for my new cooking toy a WoodStone Oven.