One interesting thing about my job is that I frequently know where I will be in the coming weeks. This also gets tiresome, and becomes frustrating. Just over a week ago, I found myself in Glasgow, spending some time with my boss, doing some meeting preparation, and visiting a couple of potential clients. It was in his home office that we first got wind of the latest opportunity.This opportunity was in the U.A.E, and a partner of ours had already submitted an initial request to bid. They had been short-listed, were bringing us in, and wanted us down there in a matter of days. The project is for the first phase of what will be a sustainable city, specifically for the beginnings of the university campus for this city. Imagine a place with zero emissions, zero waste. These are VERY steep conservation goals. In order to do so, the consumption of energies and of waste needs to be closely tracked and managed. Also, many renewable energy sources do not have controllable supply in relation to overall demand. If there is wind and sun, that is a start, but what do you do when it’s nighttime, and there is no wind? Things need to be closely managed. Without getting into detail, we will need to manage every piece of data possibly imaginable. From there, it will be used to better understand human behavior, usage patterns, etc., all in an effort to best streamline the operations of the university/city. It is an extremely interesting project, although somewhat overwhelming in other senses, and I am excited and grateful to have the chance to work on it.
Here is a link for more information. I suggest checking out the video, on the page with videos. It is a valuable 6 minute overview. I will warn you about the site and the video however. The project is extremely visionary, with a goal of doing something that has never been done before. The computer generated stuff and vision that has been put together gives you an overview of “the plan”, however getting more into the practical reality, it is a different story.
I must say that it is extremely unfortunate that I have recently installed (trialling) Windows Vista, and have already written this post. It contained details of what it was like there. In short, it is SERIOUSLY HOT. It also mentioned details of meeting up with an old colleague, Omair. Sadly, the third BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) of the day has meant that the entry is lost. I do not have the time to re-write it.. and am thusly ending here. Thanks to Microsoft for maintaining consistency throughout the years, and regards to all of you out there reading this!