Twist

So, along those lines, I have some relatively obvious misgivings about some mainstream eco-technologies. I'm wondering where's the "may not" opinions on technologies we've already accepted as good and if a professional climatologist could enlighten me.

1) Everyone loves to talk about wind power these days.  But, wind turbines (high altitude and low) deflect the wind or at least lessen its flow in the direction it travels. Do wind turbines ultimately affect weather patterns if they reach a certain saturation point in a localized area? Seems like they would to me.  Maybe that saturation point is not within any near term time horizon, but I've never heard anyone talk about weather pattern changes as a possible undesired effect.

2) Hydrogen cars seem problematic as well.  I often read articles singing the virtues of cars that "have water as their only emissions."  Huh?  It's not C02, but that sounds like a terrible idea. In a world where hydrogen cars are the standard,  I can't understand how releasing that much water vapor into the air, particularly in urban areas, is a good idea.  Dry climates would become more humid, and humid climates would get worse. Sounds like it's another climate catastrophe waiting to happen. 

But, I'm not a climatologist, so if there are some out there reading my blog, feel free to take shots :)

Google have done XYZ. (Correct grammar: Google has…)

ThoughtWorks are working on ABC. (Correct grammar: ThoughtWorks is…)

Companies are singular, not plural.  In the same way that the word “everyone” encompasses a reference to many people but is still singular, proper names for companies are singular.  Essentially, there is only one ThoughtWorks.  I admit that I make casual grammar mistakes all the time, but because I see this one growing I had to speak out… ;) Stop it my geek friends. Stop it.

Smog In Beijing, originally uploaded by Chad Dub.

A lot of friends have asked me about what the pollution is like in Beijing. This week was particularly bad vs. my previous trips. I love Beijing, but this week was like smoking a pack a day. What looks like fog, clouds, or smoke above is smog. It was rough.

Hopefully, by the big 08.08.08, the city will have this sorted. It would be ashame to have this ruin the Olympic party.

While I think Pike Place is a solid start, we're still stuck with the same burnt tasting espresso-based drinks.  I'm not sure why they introduced Pike Place only for brewed coffee, but it seems pretty lame to me.  So, I joined the social network to "share my idea," or more accurately complain.  So, if you drink coffee, please take a minute to vote for it:

Vote for more mellow espresso drinks at Starbucks 

I knew this network existed.  But what I didn't realize is that it's a salesforce.com application.  It's logical, in that this customer ideation is an extension of CRM, but I didn't know that salesforce hosted consumer facing apps.  When I did a little digging, I realized that IdeamStorm is a Dell version of the same app.  Mix seems to be the only custom CRM social network around.  Anyone know of any others?

Domain Specific Languages for Functional Testing 

Ten years later, the Digital Divide isn't' gone.  Ten years later, kids in the inter-city often have very little access to computers.  Although that problem is far from solved, there's a new Divide to worry about.

Green is in, and it's the new frontier of social separation in the United States.  In the last 2 years, green has gone from being the purview of a mainly environmentalist crowd to the upper and upper-middle class mainstream.  It's become trendy to be green, and companies are honing in on the new green market.  While this new consciousness is great for the environment, the beginnings of class separation are in its midst.  More pointedly, being green is expensive.

On it's face, it's pretty obvious.  There are no Toyota Priuses in the hood.  Some of that is a style thing, however, it's also cost related.  A Prius costs about $2,600 more at list than a Camry. A better comparison is the Toyota Camry Hybrid versus the regular Camry.  There's roughly a $6,600 premium for the hybrid versus the base Camry.  That cost difference is largely because the standard hybrid package has several items that would be options on the base model.  In terms of gas consumption, if you assume that a person fills up the Camry's 18.5 gallon gas tank once a week at $3.00 a gallon, that's about $3K in gas a year.  If you also assume that the Camry will reduce your gas costs by about a third given its MPG rating, that's $1K a year in gas savings.  So, altruistic motives and the complexity of rising gas costs, interest, and present value aside, it will take you 6.5 years to break even on your gas savings versus the premium on the car. If you're not economically well off, does 6 years make a lot of sense? More importantly, do all the options need to be linked to the hybrid?  Why can't Toyota make a base model hybrid?

There are similarities all over the map. Nau, a very cool eco-friendly clothing company, has a t-shirt for $55.  Granted that t-shirt is supposed to last you a lifetime, but is someone struggling to pay the bills going to buy it?  Or does it appeal only to well-paid hipsters? 

The worse part of the Eco Divide is not the inaccessibility of products -- that's normal.  It's the linking of a moral issue with one's ability to pay to be "good."  When it costs significantly more to do the right thing, isn't that problematic?  Some of the cost increase is based on the price of new technology, however, some is based in additional profit.

Being green is also starting to become a social and professional filter.  If your company is green, do you hire the guy who accidentally doesn't throw his cup in recycling during his interview, or does that subtly effect your opinion?  What if that guy doesn't recycle because it's a class issue?

Ultimately, green-ness is related to class in the US, and we can't ignore the link.  As green continues to be hip, corporations, environmentalists, and regular people need to do their part to close the gap.