May 20 2009 William writes:
Cost per Kilowatt Hour
estimated car batteries $.30/kWhr -$.10/kWhr
http://www.thesolar.biz/Cost_Table_batteries.htm
Individual Consumer Prices
Li-I - $89 - 11.1 volts - 6600 mAhs = 73.26 Whr = $1.21 / Whr
http://www.laptopbatteries.com/prod/dell_Latitude_312-0279.asp
NiMh - $32.99 - 7.2V - 4100 mAhr = 30.24 Whr = $1.09 / Whr
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&P=SM&I=LXNCR1
Categories: Energy | No Comments »
May 16 2009 William writes:
A short urban adventure led us through a tributary of Ballona Creek. This is one of the many storm drains in the area.
Ballona Creek is the waterway that drains the Ballona Watershed. In the 1930s it was straighted, carved, lined with rocks from Catalina Island, and cemented by the Army Corps of Engineering to prevent flooding damage to the bordering cities (ballonacreek.org). Now there is a pleasant county maintained bike path running along side of the creek that crosses my daily bike to work.
One day after work 2 coworkers and I explored a tributary storm drain of Ballona Creek. We used bikes to stay above the 3″ deep water and had small headlamps to keep us away from the black widow invested walls. The graffiti on the walls led us to believe that we were not the first people to venture through the catacombs of Culver City. Below is a map of our approximate path.
View Ballona Creek Tributary in a larger map
Categories: California | 2 Comments »
May 15 2009 William writes:
This is the best management book I have read to date.
In the preface he articulately describes my ideal government foundation. “Allowing people the freedom to pursue their own interests, within the beneficial rules of just conduct, is the best and only sustainable way to promote societal progress.” Charles G. Koch, MBM p.ix
Charles Koch explains the principles of Market Based Management (MBM) and how they are implemented in Koch Industries. MBM is a management philosophy that uses the science of human action to avoid bureaucracy by creating markets within an organization to promote value creation through innovation. The successful use of MBM has allowed Koch Industries revenues to grow from $70 million in 1960 to $90 billion in 2006. It is now also the proud owner of Georgia Pacific.
When implementing the principles, “theoretical grounding is necessary, but by itself is not sufficient to obtain results.” (p41) One must have personal knowledge of MBM and also the skills to apply them.
This description of personal knowledge is what I have been feeling while studying for the Electrial PE exam. “Personal Knowledge is the key to making discoveries. As we study a particular field, we absorb increasing amounts of specific knowledge, including rules, facts, terminology and relationships. At some point, we know these details well enough that we can begin to focus on the whole. We can then begin to see patterns, the meaning of things and sense when something is wrong, even though we may not always be able to articulate our understanding.” (p43) At first the power lines look like a random knot of wires but after learning some of the common components and structures I can follow electricity from the source to the destination with little effort.
Bureaucracy is a trap avoided by taking systematic steps to ensure every participant understands and is committed to the MBM principles. Without this understanding, implementation by management tends to be with a rigid formula that undermines the market aspect of MBM to achieve superior results.
MBM Principle 2 is compliance. “Striving to comply with every law does not mean we agreeing with every law. But, even when faced with laws we think are counter productive, we must first comply. Only then, from a credible position, can we enter into a dialogue with regulatory agencies to demonstrate alternatives that are more beneficial” This stance is in direct contradiction to my childhood creed of “Forgiveness is easier than permission”.
“Progress, whether in business, an economy or science, comes through experimentation and failure.” (p17) Change is the seventh principle of MBM and is meant to drive creative destruction. Progress is messy and unless you embrace creative destruction you will be destroyed by creative destruction.
Principled Entrepreneurship is an MBM principle that encourages decisions that create change. To make decisions one must have the necessary authority however: “1) decisions rights are not granted or bestowed, the are earned, and 2) lack of authority is not considered an excuse for inaction in the face of a problem that needs to be corrected or an opportunity that should be pursued.” (p132) This sounds very similar to the Nuremberg Principle IV that states, “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.” I used this excuse of insufficient authority 3 days ago on a project within SolarCity. This is just one concrete example of how this book has helped me.
“Virtue without the required talent does not creat value.” MBM p83
“The rate of discovery is highest when everyone works together in sight of each other.” MBM p164
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