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People who have seen me in full-on rant mode down t' pub may recognize this as one of my favorite topics, and one on which I completely agree with Rob Knight in that London is perhaps the stupidest place in the UK to do it, bar none. Don't get me wrong: there are definitely technology firms doing quite interesting work in London, and there are a lot of people that I admire working for technology pure-plays here in London. And that's great. But you're never going to have anything near Silicon Valley style concentration of technology startups or firms here.
Micro-Cluster or Macro-Cluster
Your first question is whether you want a micro-cluster or a macro-cluster. I think the current plans for a Tech Hub are on the micro-cluster form: it's a building or two nearby each other where you can put lots of tech startups in one area. And what does Mike think you need for this?
- Great transport links
- Nearby cheap hotel
- Super-Fast broadband
- Hot-desk facilities
And when everybody wants them, the cost of them goes up. And that means that startups get priced out of being able to move straight into them. My startup started in the cheapest office space we could get, which was a serviced office in an industrial park in San Mateo, with shared T1 access and no static IP and no public transport and right at the intersection of two freeways which were always massively crowded so you had to commute at odd hours. Because it's what we could afford. And we even had a 7-figure seed round under our belts!
Providing prestige office accomodation for startups doesn't make any sense because they'll be priced right out of moving into them.
So where do startups end up clustering by their very nature? Places which have some of the above, but are not Grade A office space for a variety of reasons. Places like Old Street and Hoxton and Shoreditch and Bermondsey. Oh, and look, those places already have quite a few startups naturally gravitating towards them.
Places like the TechHub already exist, in every way you can imagine, it's just that you can't afford them if you're a tech startup.
The Valley Is Bigger Than London
Okay, so let's reconsider as a macro-hub, where we're trying to figure out how to replicate Silicon Valley rather than Palo Alto. That requires scale. Lots of it.
When you talk about The Valley (and not the San Fernando Valley from whence comes pr0n) [my best recollection was that The Valley essentially spread from San Mateo down to southern San Jose and across to include parts of Fremont; if you include San Francisco and Berkeley you're talking about a huge area] you're talking about an area that that's about 35 miles across. That's pretty much the entire size of Greater London from Heathrow to Upminster.
One of the advantages for many people there is that you can largely pick where you live relatively independently of where you're going to work. When I was there I worked in San Francisco, San Mateo, Burlingame, Menlo Park, and Cupertino. I lived that entire time within a 1 square mile area. You can easily settle down in Cupertino or Sunnyvale or Mountain View and have the entire Silicon Valley employment system available to you. Admittedly, this is part of the whole car/freeway culture, which sucks royally, but can you say the same for London? No.
London is completely impossible to navigate in over any moderate distance whatsoever in a car. So let's stop that route right now.
Let's look at the public transport map then. In fact, the public transportation system of London is irredemably designed to do exactly one thing: get people to and from their jobs in the City, and to and from their playgrounds in the West End. And it can't even do that. You want to go from Non-City-Location-A to Non-City-Location-B via public transportation? Oh, it is to laugh. If you can do it at all, it's going to take you an eternity each way. I had a 45-mile door-to-door commute from San Francisco to Cupertino once. Took me 45 minutes each way. My current commute (from Fulham to Bank) takes me longer than that. For what, 5 miles? And I'm following the direction of the transportation system. For me to go play Table Tennis on Sunday, to go about 2.5 miles, takes me 45 minutes each way in a bus. For 2.5 miles.
In this respect, the outer/inner London system acts as a fully centralized Silicon Valley: you can settle down anywhere with a train into central London and just stay there, as you move from City-job to City-job. More on that next.
Staff Up, Yo.
So let's say that you did want to create a macro-cluster of tech firms. I would say that the #1 hurdle you have to face is this: How do you make it relatively easy to get about 20 A-list software engineers in a startup quickly. Let's look at each of those in turn:
Relatively Easy. By this I mean that your hit rate on qualified candidates isn't less than 1% (which is roughly what my hit rate on CVs to interviews was just after the Dot Com Boom ended as everybody who was pretty marginal in the valley all went looking for jobs at the same time).
20. I pick this because I think if you're looking for a team smaller than this, you could probably do that almost anywhere. And I know that modern programming languages and techniques are making it easier to do more with less, but you've still got a requirement for about 20 technical people overall, whether it's hosting, configuration, testing, the works. To get something that's really good in a commercial context still requires a fair number of people.
A-list. Startups aren't amateur hour. Well, they are in Web 2.0 (oh, snap!), but not in the real world. Bring your A game, yo.
In a startup. This point is critical because you have to get people who are willing and able to work for a startup and in a startup environment.
Quickly. Is it going to take you 12-18 months to ramp a team that quickly? Fail.
What's going to block you in every single one of those criteria? The financial industry.
Follow The Money
Where are all those people that you want working in London? The financial services industry. Why? The money. Why are we such money-grubbing whores? Because London's expensive.
When I moved to London (and it had to be London; I wasn't willing to consider anywhere else in the UK) for personal reasons about 5 years ago, I initially thought I'd go work in a startup or in the tech industry, and I met with quite a few VC-backed firms, and had several meetings with a very prominent London-based VC (who works for a very prominent Sand Hill Road firm's outpost in St. James). His advice stuck with me, and it's never more true. On average, you're always going to earn more in the financial industry with lower variance.
If you play the startup game, over a 10 year period, figure you're going to have one minor pop (acquisition for small money) and one medium pop (acquisition for major money). Assume that you will never be part of a successful IPO (because the chances are so slim that it's laughable). During that period you average £X in annual pay, with those minor and medium pops paying you £Y in total one-off payments.
During that same period in financial services, you'll be earning £A in annual payments, and £B in bonuses every year. In order to make the maths work out, you would have to assume that 10X + Y is more than 10(A + B). It's not. If you're the type of person who's going to be in at the first round of a startup (and thus makes Y meaningful), Y is going to work out at roughly the same as (or even a little more than) 10B. But A is astronomically higher than X.
And the financial industry knows that their competition for top software talent in the UK is the rest of the financial industry, and the technology sector. And they know that by their very nature, most super-strong software engineers would prefer to work in a pure-tech environment where they're not a support structure, but the central pillar of the firm. Therefore, they know that they have to pay them more, and with much lower variance, than they would get in their preferred industry. And they do.
And let's be honest: if someone told you "I'm going to pay you more every year, in fact, I'm even going to pay you enough to own property in Zone 2 in London" versus "I'm going to pay you so little you're going to be renting somewhere 30 minutes from a tube line in Zone 6, but maybe just maybe in 6 years you might do pretty well," it's a pretty easy decision for a lot of people to make.
Which is precisely why Paul Graham likes his serfs to be so young: so that they haven't yet built up any tradition of eating anything other than ramen. When you've been able to afford Nobu, you don't want to go back to nothing better than McDonalds (unless it's on the way home after the pub and you need all the fat and protein you can shove in your face if you're to be functional the next day). You'll do it if you have to, but most people aren't going to choose it.
I guess that's why the vast majority of the people I know here who are of the calibre I worked with in the valley work in finance here in London. And they wouldn't do an early stage startup, because they physically couldn't slash their monthly expenditure to a point that would make the startup pay effective. You might be able to get a few, but 20?
And even if you could get 20, do you think that you could get 400 (20 startups each with 20)? I've been at parties in San Francisco with 400 tech-company software engineers for particular social niches. Do you think you could get 400 A-list software engineers to give up their cushy financial industry salaries and stay living in London on a pittance to work for your startups? Because you'd need at least that to kickstart it.
And this isn't just a London problem. New York isn't a tech industry epicentre for the same reasons. Chicago's interesting in that it has enough financial firms to have spillover effects, but not so big that its gravitational well can't support pure-play technology firms.
Could you just pay startup employees more? Well, how many European VCs do you know who like having their founding team earning into 6 figures sterling before they have a dime of revenue? I didn't think so.
Oh, Noes! The Credit Tsunami!
Oh, wait, the Credit Crisis/Crunch/Quake/Tsunami is going to fix all this by eliminating all the financial industry jobs! My ass.
Bonuses for many are going to temporarily suck. People will be laid off. But I don't know of any strong technologists who have yet been laid off by a financial firm in London (I'm sure there are, but in the transitive closure of people that I know, I don't directly know of any). They're so difficult to hire at the best of times, you want to hold onto them. Don't count on there being such a flood of programming superstars who are given massive severances so they can all start companies at the same time that you can turn back time.
You'll probably see what happened when the Dot-Com bubble burst. You saw all the people who came into the industry (Tech then, Finance now) who really weren't good enough, but who got hired because people needed warm bodies who could do the grunt work (then web coding, now WinForms programming), they'll all go. And a few people who really shouldn't go, but get caught up in a round for some reason or another. And those people will find jobs almost instantly (great Silicon Valley anecdote: I had to delay the CEO of my firm laying me off once because I was on the phone getting a job offer from another firm).
So even if the Credit Implosion results in a different technology employee market in London, you'll just face the problem of identifying the little wheat from the piles of chaff. And that sucks very valuable resources.
If Not Here, Where?
Here's where I (somewhat) agree with Mike and disagree with Rob: Manchester isn't close enough to London. VCs aren't going to want to live in Manchester, and neither are your other financiers and lawyers and all that. They want you to be within a 1 hour drive of their offices on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley, which essentially defines where you can have your offices there. And they aren't going to want to get on a plane.
I think you've got an hour-and-a-half to two-hour train journey from central london (which puts you unfortunately in outer-commuter-belt). Places that are interesting:
- Brighton. Has a similar vibe to it as San Francisco, and similar numbers of "creative types." But it's so hemmed in by geography it might not be easy to grow it. And it's horrid in the summer as all the day-trippers come down and invade it (disclaimer: I used to have a weekend place there).
- Bristol. Already has a massive HP lab outside of it, good university town, decent weather, fast trains.
- Oxford/Cambridge. Universities (remember, Palo Alto has Stanford and Berkeley has Berkeley, largely defining why Silicon Valley is where it is) bring young talent who haven't been seduced by London yet.
- Reading/Bracknell. The area was starting to get that way (with all the outposts of US tech firms out there), except that it's really soul destroying and foul so nobody young and talented would want to live there (remember: you can work in Silicon Valley [similarly soul destroying and horrible], but live in San Francisco quite easily. I had a friend working in Reading and living in London and it almost killed him). Maybe if Crossrail had gone there, but otherwise too grim.
Where does this leave us? Well, I think essentially the following:
- London has a geography and transportation system that limits you to locating in central London to draw on enough talent;
- The desirability of London for so many reasons makes any office space suitable to drawing on a lot of talent ridiculously expensive; and
- The financial industry will collectively act to ensure that the type of people you need to do a pure-tech startup simply aren't available at the prices that a startup can afford.


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Cardinal; b. at Mantua, 11 November, 1542; d. at San Martino, 11 January, 1593. He belonged to the family of the Dukes of Sabbioneta, passed his youth under the care of Cardinal Ercole (Hercules) Gonzaga, and made rapid progress in Greek and Latin studies. At Bologna, and later at Padua, he studied mathematics and philosophy, and, in the latter city, founded the Accademia degli Eterei, or Academy of the Ethereals. Throughout his life he patronized literature and men of letters, among the latter being Tasso, who sought his advice concerning his "Gerusalemme Liberata", and Guarino, who dedicated to him his "Pastor Fido". Having finished his theological studies he went to Rome, became cameriere segreto to Pius IV, and was ordained priest. In the early years of the reign of Gregory XIII Gonzaga had a serious lawsuit with Duke of Mantua over some property, but they were soon reconciled. Through the Guise party, whose cause he had aided, he became Bishop of Mende in France, but, Charles, Duke of Guise, pleaded unsuccessfully with Gregory XIII to have him made cardinal. Sixtus V, immediately on his elevation, appointed him Patriarch of Jerusalem, and in 1587, at the request of the Duke of Mantua, raised him to the cardinalate. Sixtus also made constant use of his services in the execution of his policies, domestic and foreign. Cardinal Gonzaga was a friend of Saint Charles Borromeo and Saint Philip Neri, and his cousin Saint Aloysius Gonzaga owed him eventual consent of his father to his entering the Society of Jesus. For a time Cardinal Gonzaga was governor of the Marquessate of Monferrato in the name of the Marquess Vincenzo. The three books of his "Commentarii", written in polished Latin, are an important source of information for the history of his cardinalate. He was buried in the church of St. Sebastian at Rome. His "Commentarii" were edited at Rome in 1791 by Marotti.
APA citation. (1909). Scipione Gonzaga. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06635b.htm
MLA citation. "Scipione Gonzaga." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06635b.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

subset: commoncrawl


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Jun 17, 2013 | |
Lowering the cost of solar with robotic installation and cleaning |
(Nanowerk News) Alion Energy, an innovative installation and maintenance service company that uses automated technologies to optimize utility scale solar plants, today unveils ROVER and SPOT, a pair of patented robotic installation and cleaning technologies. Together, they enable the fastest construction and lowest EPC costs for utility scale solar while producing more energy than standard fixed-tilt projects. | |
ROVER, Alion Energy's automated installation vehicle, and SPOT, their robotic cleaning solution, are part of Alion Energy's groundbreaking service to build utility scale plants 2x faster than the conventional installation with 50% less labor required. | |
"Alion Energy has brought the speed, precision and efficiency of robotics to solar," said Mark Kingsley, CEO of Alion Energy. "Through using robotic installation and cleaning technologies, we've eliminated flaws that plague the installation process. Now, we can build plants that are not only the most cost-effective solution within the solar mix, but have a roadmap to deliver solar electricity at costs that can compete with any generation source." | |
Rather than continue the solar industry approach to incrementally fix installation inefficiencies that perpetuate long construction schedules, tied-up capital and power loss, the company incorporates established construction industry practices to redesign the entire balance of system, enabling new levels of automation and cost improvement for utility scale solar. | |
Alion Energy uses extruded concrete rails to replace metal posts, racks and cable trenches. Powerful adhesives replace all bolts and clips. ROVER, Alion Energy's robotic installation vehicle, then works with the concrete rail system to carry and mount panels, using a fraction of the labor while increasing speed and installation quality. | |
This new installation process eliminates low-skilled tasks including bolt-tightening, ditch-digging and hauling heavy glass over uneven ground. High-skill tasks including electrical work, concrete production, machine and robotics operations are maintained or newly created. Local concrete suppliers are used instead of shipping metal poles and racks from remote sources. Overall, Alion Energy's construction process elevates the nature of local, solar installation work. | |
Once installed, SPOT, Alion Energy's robotic cleaning technology, offers simple and automated cleaning solutions to prevent double digit performance loss due to soiling. SPOT is programmable to wash panels at any interval and can be activated from a computer, tablet or smart phone. SPOT can also manage overgrown vegetation by equipping SPOT with customized shears. | |
Alion Energy' robotic technologies and construction practices can work with most photovoltaic and thin film panels to improve LCOE for utility scale projects. The non-penetrating, concrete rail system and powerful adhesives are ideal for brownfields and landfills where soil can't be penetrated, damp environments that can corrode metal and high-wind environments. | |
To learn how utilities can cost-effectively diversify their generation portfolio, how independent power producers can offer projects with lower LCOEs and how developers can increase margins with reduced labor costs, visit www.alionenergy.com |
Source: Alion Energy |


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Applying the interrupt features of a MEMS accelerometer
Most of the latest 3-axis digital-MEMS accelerometers on the market can generate interrupts for a number of applications. Some of the applications—such as screen rotation, wakeup, freefall, single click and double click recognition—have been very popular and implemented in various devices.
A digital MEMS accelerometer usually has one or two interrupt-output pins available that can be interfaced with the I/O pins of an external host processor. The accelerometer can be configured to monitor acceleration or motion in the background while the host processor could perform other tasks or simply stay in low power sleep mode. When an interrupt is detected by the accelerometer, the host processor can then wake up to check whether the interrupt needs to be served or not.
This article describes some of the popular interrupt-based applications including data ready, freefall, wakeup, single and double click interrupts.
Data-ready interrupt
A digital MEMS accelerometer can be configured to generate a signal to indicate when a new set of measurement data is available to be read. This signal is usually represented by the data-ready bit in the status register of the accelerometer which is accessible to the user. The signal can be routed to an interrupt pin by enabling the data-ready-interrupt bit in one of the control registers, and its polarity can be set to active-low or active-high through the edge-level bit in another control register. By default, when the accelerometer is powered up, the interrupt pin is active-high.
The data-ready interrupt signal goes high when a new set of acceleration data has been generated in the data registers of the accelerometer. The interrupt goes low when the high bytes of the data registers of all enabled axes have been read. If the high bytes haven't been read during 1/ODR (Output Data Rate) time period, then the data ready interrupt will stay high and the overrun bit in the status register becomes "1", which means that data overrun has occurred and the previous data samples have been overwritten.
The data ready interrupt feature can be used to synchronize the continuous data acquisition to prevent data loss. By default, the interrupt pin is a push-pull topology which can be tied directly to an I/O port of the host processor that has interrupt function. When new data is not ready, the host processor can perform other tasks or simply stay in low-power sleep mode.
Once the data ready interrupt occurs, the host processor can wake up at the rising edge of the I/O port to enter the interrupt service subroutine and then read and process the acceleration data. This can help reduce the overall system power consumption as the host processor is not required to keep polling the data-ready bit in the status register.
During the evaluation of the accelerometer, the data ready interrupt feature can be used to check the frequency of the interrupt signal wave form at different ODRs by using an oscilloscope.
Freefall interrupt
The freefall interrupt feature of the accelerometer has been widely used in hard disk protection. When, for example, a laptop computer is falling, the accelerometer embedded in the laptop can generate an interrupt so that the hard disk can park the magnetic head of the disk in a safe place, to prevent the mechanical damage of the disk.
In medical applications, the accelerometer freefall interrupt can be integrated with the altitude detection by a MEMS pressure sensor to detect if a patient has fallen onto the floor. If the fall event is confirmed, then the host processor inside the medical device will send an alarm to the hospital personnel through a wireless link. The latest accelerometers and pressure sensors with small size and ultra-low-power consumption have enabled such an application (known as man-down application), as these medical devices are battery operated and therefore power sensitive.
By definition, the freefall stands for the state where there is no external force to be applied to the accelerometer, except for Earth gravity. Theoretically, therefore, a 3-axis accelerometer simultaneously outputs zero-g measurements about all it sensing axes during freefall. This is the specific characteristic of the freefal,l meaning that other motions will not be able to fake the freefall event.
When an object is thrown upwards, the object will be in the condition of freefall from the moment the action has occurred. If an accelerometer is installed at a point away from the rotation center of the object, the centrifugal force will cause the accelerometer to output non-zero-g during the free fall. Therefore, it is recommended to install the accelerometer at the rotation center of the device for free-fall application.
Each accelerometer is usually factory calibrated and tested. This means that users don't need to perform any further calibration after it is mounted on the board for freefall detection. However, the zero-g offset of the accelerometer may be within ±40mg to ±100mg because the accelerometer might have not been mounted horizontally after PCB assembly. Due to this offset, the threshold and duration-time parameters may need to be configured in order for the accelerometer to avoid false freefall detection and missing the real freefall event.
The following example shows how to configure an accelerometer for freefall detection. For this example, the evaluation board of a 3-axis digital accelerometer from ST was used. Figure 1 shows the captured raw data and the interrupt signal from an accelerometer evaluation board and its Windows demo software (Reference 1). Figure 2 shows the zoomed-in freefall signal for further analysis.
The accelerometer was configured to operate at 50Hz ODR (Output Data Rate), ±2g Full Scale (FS) range. The interrupt registers were configured as "AND" logic for X-low, Y-low and Z-low detection simultaneously, ±343mg threshold and 40ms duration time.
Figure 1: Freefall interrupt from Windows demo software
(click here to enlarge image).
At the beginning, the accelerometer-evaluation board was held at a random orientation. It was then dropped onto the floor. Figure 1 shows that the freefall interrupt was successfully detected. The accelerometer freefall interrupt configurations are also shown in Figure 1. The positive and negative peaks indicate the time when the board hit the floor.
Figure 2: Freefall interrupt, zoomed in
(click here to enlarge image).
Figure 2 shows that when the accelerometer raw data on the X, Y and Z axis entered the threshold zone for at least 40ms duration time (or 2 samples), the freefall interrupt was generated and the freefall event lasted total 14 samples, or 280ms.
In Figure 2, after the interrupt signal became low, the raw data on the X, Y and Z axes fell into the threshold zone again. However, it did not last for the duration time of 40ms and the freefall interrupt was not generated. The threshold and duration time need to be determined by the user based on their requirements for freefall detection application.
Wakeup interrupt
For battery-operated devices, minimizing power consumption for each component is crucial. When the magnitude of the raw data of the X, Y and Z axes of the accelerometer is equal to approximately 1g for a certain amount of time (Reference 2), it means that the device is stationary or inactive. This can be used, for example, to switch off the LCD screen of a smart phone to save power. In contrast, when the motion is applied to the smart phone, the accelerometer can generate a wakeup interrupt to switch on the LCD screen.
Compared to freefall interrupt, the wakeup interrupt is based on "OR" logic, which means that at least one of the acceleration data points on X, Y or Z axis is beyond the preset threshold. The built-in high-pass filter in the accelerometer can be used to filter out the constant component of the acceleration.
An example of the wake-up interrupt is to set the acceleration threshold to 250mg. This corresponds to about ±14.5° (sin-1 0.25) of tilt angle. If the device is tilted more than this angle or the acceleration applied to the device is larger than the threshold for at least the duration time period, the interrupt will then be generated for 1/ODR time period. The interrupt latch bit in a dedicated control register can be enabled to make the interrupt signal stay high all the time. Once the interrupt status register has been read, the interrupt signal will go low.
Single-click and double-click interrupt
Some of the digital MEMS accelerometers can generate single-click and double-click interrupts and indicate the direction of the click motion. This feature has become increasingly attractive in portable devices such as smart phones, tablet PCs, watches, E-book readers, and simialr. Once the interrupt has been generated by the accelerometer, the host processor can trigger different functions in those devices.
The click-motion detection depends on the device shape and material and the accelerometer location in the device. Also, waving or shaking of the device can fake the click motion. Therefore, the accelerometer settings for the click-interrupt generation need to be fine-tuned to reliably detect the actual click motions and reject the fake ones.
This section focuses on single-click interrupt implementation from a digital accelerometer. Double click is simply defined as two successive, single-click events within a certain time period defined by the host-processor timer. If the second single-click interrupt happens within this time period, then the host processor knows it is a double-click event. Otherwise, it is still considered a single click.
In order to get a reliable single-click interrupt, the user needs to configure the click threshold and the time limit. When the acceleration is beyond the threshold, the accelerometer starts counting the number of samples or time elapsed. Only when the acceleration falls below the threshold within the preset time limit, then will the interrupt be generated. The single-click interrupt can be latched by enabling a certain bit in a dedicated click-interrupt register. Once the click-status register has been read, the interrupt signal will be cleared and the direction of the click motion will be obtained.
Figure 3 shows the zoomed-in waveform which was captured by a Windows demo software and the accelerometer evaluation board. The accelerometer was set to ±4g full scale (FS) and 1250Hz ODR. The click threshold and time limit were set to 2.25g and 1.6ms (or 2 samples at that ODR), respectively. At ±4g FS, the sensitivity of the accelerometer raw data is 2mg/LSB (least significant bit).
The higher the ODR, the more reliable the rejection to fake motions will be. However, the power consumption will be higher. This is a trade-off between the single- and double-click feature implementations.
Figure 3: Single-click interrupt, zoomed in
(click here to enlarge image).
Figure 3 shows that when the sample #14 is beyond the threshold, the accelerometer starts counting. Sample #15 is still beyond the threshold, while the acceleration falls below the threshold before sample #16 which is the time limit. So, the interrupt is generated at sample #16. It can also be seen that the acceleration on the X axis crosses the negative threshold and the value in the click-status register shows that the single click motion thus corresponds to the X-axis direction.
Accelerometers can be configured to monitor the acceleration on its three axes in the background, while the host processor can perform other tasks or simply stay in low-power sleep mode. The acceleration data can be used to implement accelerometer interrupt features such as data-ready, freefall, wakeup, single click and double click.
The MEMS accelerometer measures the linear acceleration. However, it cannot distinguish between different types of motion. To implement reliable and robust interrupt-based applications including screen rotation, position orientation and single/double click detection the host processor needs to read and process the accelerometer raw data based on the requirements of each application.
The future MEMS accelerometers will have more built-in advanced features and computing capabilities to reliably generate these interrupts and offload the data processing from the external host processor into the accelerometer.
- STMicroelectronics, Inc., STEVAL-MKI022V1: MEMS 3-axis ±2g /±4g /±8g smart digital output evaluation board, based on nano accelerometer LIS331DLH, https://www.st.com/internet/evalboard/product/219419.jsp
- STMicroelectronics, Inc., AN3182: Tilt measurement using a low-g 3-axis accelerometer, https://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHNICAL_RESOURCES/TECHNICAL_LITERATURE/APPLICATION_NOTE/CD00268887.pdf
About the authors
Jay Esfandyari is MEMS Product Marketing Engineer at STMicroelectronics. He has authored many papers and articles on MEMS technologies, products and applications. He holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria. Email: email@example.com
Paolo Bendiscioli is an Application Manager for Motion MEMS Division, and has more than 10 years experience in the applications of MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. He is responsible for the application development and customer technical support team. Paolo received a degree in Electronics Engineering from the University of Pavia in 1997.
Gang Xu, Senior Application Engineer at STMicroelectronics, has more than 10 years experience in the applications of MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers. He received a doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1996.


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Full mounts are our most popular wall mount. These fiberglass replicas are dimensional on both sides, but are only painted on the "show" side. There is a metal bracket on the back side for hanging.
To learn the difference between half mounts, full mounts, and suspension mounts check out this video.
Pricing depends on species, size, paintjob, and shipping zip code. Feel free to contact us for a quote.
The images below are samples of paintjobs that I have done in the past. Feel free to contact me through the order page with any custom requests.
35 inch Tuna
35 inch Tuna
37 inch Tuna
48 inch Tuna
67 inch Tuna
All sizes are labeled as the taxidermist provides them to us to avoid confusion. Measurements may be off by a few inches due to the fact that all of the fiberglass bodies are individually hand crafted. Each mount is individually hand airbrushed by myself...no two paintjobs are exactly the same insuring a truly unique custom piece of art!
©2001 James Kunzinger, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED...violators will be sleepin' with the fishez!


text: Ash, Misty, and Brock are traveling along when they notice a strange shape falling from the sky. They run in to investigate, but soon realized that they were not the only witnesses of this event. Two representatives of an organization devoted to uncovering secrets of the Pokémon world arrive just as our heroes discover that the mysterious falling object was a Cleffa. Though these two Pokémon buffs seem a bit eccentric, Ash and friends share their interest in discovering from whence this Pokémon had come, and so they join forces in investigating a mystery that may shed light even on the very origins of Pokémon life on their planet.


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General Aviation Market Recovery and Impact Analysis Report – Embraer SA, Bombardier Inc., Gulfstream – Corporate Ethos
The General Aviation market research report provides all the insights related to the industry. It gives the market insights by giving its client the authentic data that helps them to make essential decisions. It provides an overview of the market which includes its definition, applications and developments, and manufacturing technology. This General Aviation Market research report tracks all the recent developments and innovations in the market. It gives the data regarding the hurdles while establishing the business and guides to overcome the upcoming challenges and hurdles.
Get the sample PDF copy (including full TOC, charts and tables) of this report @: https://www.a2zmarketresearch.com/sample-request/315823
Competitive Landscape:
This General Aviation research report sheds light on the major market players thriving in the market; it tracks their business strategies, financial status, and upcoming products.
Some of the top companies influencing this market include: Embraer SA, Bombardier Inc., Gulfstream, Pilatus Aircraft, ATR Aircraft, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Textron Aviation Inc., One Aviation Corporation, Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Cirrus Aircraft.
Market scenario:
Firstly, this General Aviation research report introduces the market by providing an overview which includes definition, applications, product launches, developments, challenges and regions. The market is expected to show strong development thanks to stimulated consumption in various markets. An analysis of current market designs and other basic characteristics is provided in the general aviation report
Regional coverage:
The regional coverage of the market is mentioned in the report, mainly focusing on the regions:
- North America
- South America
- Asia and Pacific Region
- Middle East and Africa
- Europe
Market segmentation analysis
The market is segmented on the basis of type, product, end users, raw materials, etc. segmentation helps provide an accurate explanation of the market
Market Segmentation: By Type
Airplanes, Gliders, Gyrocopters, Others
Market Segmentation: By Application
Industry, Agriculture, Forestry, Others
Get up to 30% off the first purchase of this report @: https://www.a2zmarketresearch.com/discount/315823
An assessment of the attractiveness of the market with regard to the competition that new players and products are likely to present to older ones has been provided in the publication. The research report also mentions the innovations, new developments, marketing strategies, branding techniques, and products of key players present in the global General Aviation market. To present a clear view of the market, the competitive landscape has been thoroughly analyzed using value chain analysis. The opportunities and threats present in the future for the major market players have also been highlighted in the publication.
This report aims to provide:
- A qualitative and quantitative analysis of current trends, dynamics and estimates from 2022 to 2029.
- Analytical tools such as SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces analysis are used, which explains the ability of buyers and suppliers to make profit-oriented decisions and strengthen their business.
- The in-depth market segmentation analysis helps to identify existing market opportunities.
- Ultimately, this General Aviation report helps you save time and money by providing unbiased information under one roof.
Global General Aviation Market Research Report 2022-2029
Chapter 1 General Aviation Market Overview
Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry
Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers
Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region
Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions
Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type
Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application
Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis
Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers
Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders
Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis
Chapter 12 Global General Aviation Market Forecast
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The company helps its clients to develop business policies and grow in this market. A2Z Market Research is interested not only in industry reports dealing with telecommunications, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, energy, technology, real estate, logistics, F&B , media, etc., but also your company data, country profiles, trends, information. and analysis on the sector that interests you.
Contact us:
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+1 775 237 4147


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Chris Bell on ImmigrationFormer Democratic Representative (TX-25, 2001-2005) | |
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a national, non-profit, public interest membership organization of concerned citizens united by their belief in the need for immigration reform. Founded in 1979, FAIR believes that the U.S. can and must have an immigration policy that is non-discriminatory and designed to serve the environmental, economic, and social needs of our country.
FAIR seeks to improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest�more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year.
With more than 70,000 members nationwide, FAIR is a non-partisan group whose membership runs the gamut from liberal to conservative.
The ratings are based on the votes the organization considered most important; the numbers reflect the percentage of time the representative voted the organization's preferred position.


text: The 2018 Sanitary Supply Distributor Sales Report outlines key market trends and data on jansan distributor sales in the United States and Canada. The report provides an overview of sales by market segment (e.g., education, industrial, building service contractors, et al.), a breakdown of product sales in four primary categories (chemicals, paper/plastic products, power equipment, and supplies/accessories), and benchmarks for gross margin, sales order types, and sales personnel for the typical jansan distributor firm. This report is the result of a research study designed, prepared, and conducted by the research department of Trade Press Media Group, Inc., publisher of Sanitary Maintenance magazine, in conjunction with ISSA. This edition is the latest in the ongoing series of biennial Sanitary Supply Distributor Sales Reports. The PDF will be fulfilled via email within one business day of order placement.


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Rewrapping a battery
The above battery cannot be used anymore, it will short and might explode.
The wrapping will sometimes break, luckily it is a fairly simple operation to fix it.
Tools and parts needed
I am using shrink wrap to repair the battery, due to the heat gun I uses, I have selected a low temperature type.
When flat it is 29.5 mm wide, the inner diameter is 18.5 mm, it will shrink at 80 Deg. C.
I bought a roll with 25 feet (7.6 meter) on ebay for $11 (Sellers name is atop_authentic_auction). This roll will last for more than 80 batteries. Fasttech has heat shrink in 1 meter pieces for less than $1.
This heatshrink is also fairly thin, this is an advantage for some lights.
Often heat shrink is specified in width of the flat tube, the table below shows the minimum sizes for different battery sizes.
As a heat gun I uses a hair dryer, it is not the perfect tool for the job, but it can be used.
I do also need something to measure with, my digital caliper is fine for that (A ordinary ruler could also be used).
With a caliper, remember to cover the jaws or it will short the battery.
To cut the heat shrink I uses scissors.
I want the heat shrink tube to be about 3 mm longer than the battery at both ends, with a 68 mm battery this means 74 mm tube.
The new tube for the battery has been cut of the roll.
I uses the fingers to removing the old heat shrink, using a knife or scissors is unsafe.
If there is two layers of heat shrink, only remove the outer layer.
The "naked" battery, do not try to bend the protection pcb out to get a look.
Putting the new heat shrink onto the battery.
There will be about 3 mm extra at each end.
Applying heat, rotate the battery and swipe the heat gun back and forth. If using a real heat gun, be careful with the fingers holding the battery!
It is possible to increase the temperature by covering part of the air intake on the heat gun (This might also melt the gun if overdone).
The battery must not be heated much (As long as it is possible to hold it, the temperature is fine). This is usual not a problem, the heat shrink will shrink long time before the battery is heated.
Final result
With a new covering, the capacity information is gone, to fix that I have added a label with capacity. I also included the date I got the battery.


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Ben's been working on this one forever. This new version 2 Atari 800 laptop features a CF drive, a RS lcd, original Atari hardware and lots and lots of friggin soldering. That keyboard is hand wired, along with the CF adapter. Unlike the xbox 360 laptop, this one's got Ni-MH batteries that are good for about an hour of play.
7 thoughts on "Ben Heck's Atari 800 Laptop"
the url link could do with a 'www.' it doesn't work without it.
besides that.
i think it's a very cool hack. -
I don't get why ben would use those crappy batteries from the protable LCD tv. He could have gotten a lot more play time if you used R/C batteries.There are R/C betteries that have mah's as large as 4300, you'll get a lot more play time with that much mah.
The url worked for me without the www. (firefox 184.108.40.206)
Yea, both IE6 and FF 1.0 seemed to like the url just fine. Anyway the work from benheck is always quite amazing. Even if we can all find room for improvement it is still quite a feat to begin with.
yea the battery was probably not one of his main goals… a decent li-ion or li-poly pack would be small and lightweight yet last for hours of use. but still, this is pretty cool.
Aww… I hated the 800xl since i had the (cheaper/older/crappier) 600xl :(
Never had a chance to explore the power of that friggin' thing… Glad I got myself a C64 back then :) -
Another item I'd love to buy.
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Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)


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Gail: It Was Difficult to Let Go of Shirley
Gail shares her feelings about this week's double elimination.
Bravotv.com: Why don't we start by talking about Last Chance Kitchen? Were you surprised about who made it through?
Gail Simmons: I wasn't surprised, because through the eight challenges before the finale while we were in New Orleans, Tom had been telling me about how incredible Louis' food had been. He had been really talking about how impressed he was with him as a chef, and how great all his food was.
In fact after winning so many challenges, I would have been surprised if Carlos had been able to beat him at that point. He deserved to get back in, he really earned it. Tom said he cooked some of the best food Tom had eaten in or out of actual episodes.
Bravotv.com: And then immediately he was thrown into the Spam Quickfire. What did you think of how the chefs fared with Spam?
GS: I was amazed that Nick said he hadn't thought of Spam, because Hawaii is the home of Spam!
But, I thought it was a really funny Quickfire. It loosened everybody up. They shot it really early in the morning, and I had arrived the night before. Because of the time change I passed out at like 4 am or 5 am that morning and I sat on my balcony and watched the whole thing from my balcony. I could see the hula dancer arriving, and I thought it was really funny. I thought it looked great. The chefs were able to create really interesting and innovative things from cans of Spam, so I was impressed.Bravotv.com: How was it being in this completely different environment, coming out of New Orleans?
GS: It was a great change, I mean several months have passed clearly -- I was very pregnant all of a sudden. Almost four months, three-and-a-half months had passed since we had been in New Orleans, so I was suddenly seven months pregnant.
It was great to be in Hawaii, for all of us. Such a beautiful location we shot at. All of the locations we shot at for those two episodes were breathtaking and the weather was perfect and every one was just so happy to be there and really excited to make it the best finale we could.
I'd love to be there right now. It's 12 degrees outside!
Bravotv.com: Now on to the elimination challenge, they are cooking with canoe crops. . .
GS: The canoe crops are basically all of the different crops and meat, protein, pork, etc., and fish that were brought to the island originally by the first settlers. They included things like all of these amazing sweet potatoes and fruits and vegetables that are really now what people consider the distinct bounty of Hawaii. They're really unique to that part of the world.
It was a really smart Elimination, because it forced them to understand in a deeper way the local bounty and the local foods that the people there eat every day. They were really beautiful quality, and it was kind of fun to see what they did.
There were a lot of similarities between the dishes, because a lot of them overlapped ingredients like sweet potato and coconut, and the opah obviously, but ultimately they were still pretty solid dishes.Bravotv.com: So let's go over their dishes.
GS: We liked all of the dishes. There were slightly larger flaws with Louis and Shirley, obviously, which is why they were sent home. That was a really difficult decision. We know that all four of them are incredible, incredible cooks. They all did an incredible job. They all really pushed themselves, and they were not easy circumstances. Clearly, it started raining in the middle of their cook time. They were cooking outdoors. They were cooking in unknown, temporary kitchen environments. But ultimately I think they were all really successful.
Louis' opah, there were just really large inconsistences between the way the pieces of fish were cooked. Some were undercooked, some were over, partially because of the circumstances and the rain. But we couldn't overlook that size and the portions, they just were not consistent.
And then Shirley's dish was definitely unique. I loved the way that she handled her pork, it was cooked beautifully. The honey-glazed pork with sweet potato was very, very sweet and a little bit off-balance. It needed some sort of counterpoint, because those two pieces had so much sugar, so much natural sweetness, and so we all kind of felt that it was lacking in contrast, lacking in balance.
So that was how we chose who was going to go home that day.Nick and Nina made pretty perfect dishes, all things considered. Nick's dish was the strongest dish I'd really seen from him all season. And clearly he won the Quickfire and the Elimination for this episode. I didn't get to taste his food in the Quickfire, but I really loved his spicy crispy chicken skin that he served on top of the opakapaka with jalapeno. It was cooked beautifully.
It was just a lovely piece of fish; it was plated so nicely. This was Nick finally finding his rhythm I think and finally understanding that you don't need to make it so precious. It can be a little simpler, it doesn't need to be so fussy to be good.
Nina's opah: Because Louis made opah and Nina made opah, we had a direct comparison. Nina cooked her opah so well. She grilled it with taro root and coconut; it tasted like the island. It tasted like her food, but also like the food of Hawaii. It was so concise and such a tight dish, such a thoughtful dish. It looked and tasted like the kind of dish you would think she'd been making for years.
It felt completely organic to come from her, that dish. She definitely had a little bit of advantage in being so familiar with the ingredients, because they are so similar to the ingredients in the Caribbean in a lot of ways. She pulled off such a refined dish using those ingredients, and we were all really impressed with it.Bravotv.com: How did it feel at this point losing the final two?
GS: It was really difficult, especially to let go of Shirley, because I got to know her so well. She's such a fighter, such a strong contender, and such an extraordinary cook.
I love both Louis and Shirley, but certainly knew Shirley better through spending time with her and watching her grow so much. When I think back to so many other dishes she made I have such strong, fond memories. I want to eat her food again and again. The way that she seasoned her food. The way she made these incredibly rich sauces, and broths, and soups. The way that she seasoned her food was always so creative and always had her voice and point of view. And that's something that's really difficult to do as a young chef. She certainly grew into herself along the way. We love Shirley, we really do, and I have no doubt that whatever she does next will be extraordinary.
Bravotv.com: Anything else you want to spill before the finale?
GS: Besides I love Hawaii and I wish I was there right now -- I think it is actually fitting Nick versus Nina. They have such different styles, but they both have been really strong throughout the competition in very different ways. We were excited. We knew that when it came down to those two, we would have a really incredible finale. And we do -- and you're going to have to stick around and watch it!


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A List Apart Returns
Published 18 years, 5 months pastA List Apart is back in business and sporting a radically new design. Check it out! Four columns on the main page? Yes indeed!
I'm proud to say I had a hand in the redesign process, taking the visual goodness of Jason Santa Maria and turning it into living, breathing XHTML and CSS. Keeping the pages from going completely crazy in broken browsers was an interesting challenge at times, but overall I think things came together rather nicely. There may be a few glitches here and there, though we did our best to test widely and often, but if so we'll handle them as they arise.
It was good fun working with the talented team members in this process, and I especially enjoyed being able to concentrate on what I know—building XHTML and CSS around existing designs—and leave the rest to other people who knew their stuff as well as I know mine. Due to the strategic partnership between Complex Spiral Consulting and Happy Cog Studios, I look forward to assuming that role more often, and on ever more interesting projects.
Addendum: it seems the DNS change to point to ALA's new Textdrive home hasn't made it as far as I'd thought, so I'll point you to the numeric IP address; that way, you can see it even if your local DNS hasn't caught up yet. Sorry for any confusion!
Addendum 2: it's been long enough that the DNS change should have made it to all the far-flung corners of the net, so I've removed the numeric IP addresses.


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Related links:
Galileo Discovers Origin of Jupiter's Rings
News story originally written on September 21, 1998
Scientists discovered how Jupiter's rings were made. Jupiter's rings are made up of dust and other small particles. This dust and other space junk was thrown off of the small moons surrounding Jupiter when these moons were struck by comets or asteroids.You can look at the picture to the left to see what Jupiter's rings look like. Can you redraw the picture at home?


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Guantanamo operating manual posted on Internet (Washington Post)
From WikiLeaks
Washington Post: Guantanamo operating manual posted on Internet
- Link
- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/14/AR2007111402039.html
- Country
- United States
- Date
- November 14, 2007
- Source
- Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedure
- By
- Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - The U.S. military's operating manual for the Guantanamo prison camp has been posted on the Internet, providing a glimpse of the broad rules and tiniest minutia for detaining suspected terrorists.
The 238-page manual, "Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta," is dated March 27, 2003, and signed by Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, who was then the commander of the prison that still holds about 300 al Qaeda and Taliban suspects.
It appears to be an authentic copy of the rules as they existed at the time at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, a spokesman for the Guantanamo detention operation, Lt. Col. Ed Bush, said on Wednesday.
It says incoming prisoners are to be held in near-isolation for the first two weeks to foster dependence on interrogators and "enhance and exploit the disorientation and disorganization felt by a newly arrived detainee in the interrogation process."
Styrofoam cups must be confiscated if prisoners have written on them, apparently because prisoners have used cups to pass notes to other captives. "If the cup is damaged or destroyed, the detainee will be disciplined for destruction of government property," the rules say.
The manual was posted last week on the Wikileaks.org Web site, which invites whistle-blowers around the world to anonymously publish state documents containing evidence of government corruption and injustice.
The Guantanamo manual is stamped "unclassified," and "for official use only," meaning it was not secret but was never intended for mass distribution either.
The manual also indicates some prisoners were designated as off limits to visitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross, something the military has repeatedly denied.
Some rules seem obvious. One advises troops: "In the event that dumpsters become full before scheduled pick up, utilize another dumpster within the camp."
Another notes that "Detainees are not allowed to color their hair."
Allegations of abuse at Guantanamo have been lodged for years by prisoners, their lawyers, human rights monitors and a few military or government employees who worked at Guantanamo.
The manual clearly mandates humane treatment and advises that "Abuse, or any form of corporal punishment is prohibited."
It contains instructions as only the military can write them, such as how to use pepper spray on unruly prisoners. "Aim at the eyes, nose and mouth when possible. Use a 1/2 to 1 second burst from a distance of 36 to 72 inches away."
When prisoners are forcibly removed from their cells, the role of each member of the five-member "Immediate Reaction Force team" is clearly defined -- "The number three man is responsible for securing the detainee's left arm..."
The manual spells out in minute detail how captives should be shackled, searched and moved and how the chains should be collected afterward.
Four pages are devoted to describing how new arrivals should be taken off the plane and ferried across Guantanamo Bay to the prison camp on the main portion of the base -- with one sniper and two spotters atop the ferry.
Prisoners are to be checked for scars, markings and tattoos, which are to be photographed for FBI records, and a linguist should be present to explain what is happening when body cavity searches are conducted, the rule book says.
Bush, the Guantanamo spokesman, said there have been three changes in command since 2003 and the rules "have evolved significantly." He said the camp holds dangerous terrorists and would not comment on specific rules for security reasons.
- Visit the JTF Guantanamo homepage: http://www.jtfgtmo.southcom.mil


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ICONS takes Waste management to its next generation.
Waste management is normally known as the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. We are referring to materials normally produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics.
At ICONS we integrate Waste management practices with resource recovery which focuses on delaying the rate of consumption of natural resources by segregating and recovering materials such as metals, glass, paper, etc.
Our Waste management practices are perfectly aligned with the currently evolving worldwide trend towards sustainable development, diversion from landfills and 4R's:
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recycle
- Recover
We feel that we are now located at that point in time where nature is in our hands. It's called a "Tipping point". It is up to us, and only us, to decide on the future of our planet. It is up to us to create an environment that we would feel good about passing to our children.
The standard waste management process treats all materials as a single class, whether solid, liquid, gaseous or radiocative substances. At ICONS we endeavour to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of each through different methods.
Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural, and for residential and industrial producers.
We assist local Government Authorities in the management of non-hazardous "residential waste and institutional waste in metropolitan areas" by consulting and providing turn key solutions that take into account prospected growth and trends for permanent fixes.
We also assist the generators of non-hazardous "commercial and industrial" waste in thier management and disposal with the same approach.
As an alternative to known standard practices we privilege an integrated waste management system with a minimal environmental impact, that from the fraction of non segregated waste, recovers recyclable waste, reducing therefore also the overall volumes of waste to be disposed of with the objective of reducing waste generation to ZERO!
We avail of cutting edge and most modern technologies for:
- reducing the total of non segregated waste (that would normally be disposed of in a landfill);
- reducing the quota of treated waste to be normally disposed of by an incinerator;
- reducing the quantity of "compost" of inferior quality, and finally;
- maximizing the quantity of recyclable materials.
The above technological solutions can all be seen in operation in working installations engaged in resolving the waste disposal problems of the communities that have chosen an envronmentally friendly approach.


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An Egyptian Gives America a History Lesson
Susan North, Author
Stanley Zir, Political Consultant&Author-Co Author
Last Thursday, July 3rd, Egyptian opposition activist Ahmed El Hawary spoke out on CNN about the Egyptian military's removal of president Mohamed Morsy.
One Voice One Demand . Six Million Voices Must be Heard!!!
The Nazis forced the Jewish people to wear the Star of David "Judif" on their clothes, so the Jewish people would become a visible target for hatred and daily beatings Then they were rounded up, herded like cattle to the slaughter, then shipped in box cars to the concentration camps where they met a worse fate. and the world stood silent
Not Now, Not Ever Again
Stanley Zir Author
Being an American and a descendant from one of the twelve tribes of Israel, I still consider Israel the refuge of every Jewish person in the world, because only she will extend her hand to us when the rest of the world has turned its back on the Jews.
Obama's Solution: Amputation and More Amputation to the Body of Israel
StanleyZir (author), Susan North (editor), Buddy Macy (editor)
Defending the line which must not be crossed... a line which serves as a hedge of protection around the nation of Israel.
America's Obligation Towards Israel
Stanley Zir, Author
I wrote this essay to end any doubt about the purpose of our nation's existence, whiich clarifies the actions we now need to take in order to protect, honor, and establish our sacred covenant of freedom from those determined to bring darkness to our world
Obamas No Fear Zone: Signature PieceI
Stanley Zir Author
It is obvious that our nation has reached a crossroad -- not only is our Constitution being threatened to be usurped from within, but we are under an imminent threat from Iran.
The GOP is Going to Need a Bigger Boat
Stanley Zir Author
Susan North Editor
Over the last three years I have received endless emails saying that we can\\\\\\\'t stop Obama, I\'m wasting my time, that I am fool, he will never take military action against Iran: the American people are to weak to stop him.
Iran's Threat to America is Imminent !
Stanley Zir Author
Ending the Iranian Threat Without a Ground Invasion
Restoring America's Honor - Reclaiming Her Just Purpose and Noble Cause
Sanley Zir, author
If the course that the leader of the Free World charts to guide us towards our future is one degree off now, then in another four years, how far will we have strayed when we find ourselves encased in the winds of tyranny and oppression?


text: On 13/02, james hopper wrote: | Both os x and linux. what i was doing was passing real time radar | images from our sim code on the server to the display app on another | computer. the difference was quite dramatic. i could get 60 hz with | AdaSockets, but only about 10hz with gnat sockets. i was in a bit of | a rush and never really went into what was causing the difference. I compared transferring 1024 bytes in a round-trip using UDP over a quiet 100BT switched LAN between two PowerPC cards running VxWorks. The stack was out of the box, no tuning. GNAT (3.15a1) Sockets: 1050 us C: 1008 us Not surprising really, no buffering in this case and the GNAT code is a pretty thin skin over the OS. What was fun was working out why the C compiler wouldn't accept the asm() statement to read the timebase register; I didn't spot the -ansi in the Tornado command line that means you have to say __asm__(). Foo. Much less grief with GNAT.


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A version of this story first published in 2013.
Story highlights
Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no odor, color or taste
Gas stoves and leaking chimneys can result in carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide is a gas that has no odor, color or taste. You wouldn't be able to see or smell it, but it can be very dangerous to your health and even fatal.
What are common sources of carbon monoxide?
Sources of carbon monoxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, include:
• Unvented kerosene and gas space heaters
• Leaking chimneys and furnaces
• Back-drafting from furnaces
• Gas water heaters, wood stoves and fireplaces
• Gas stoves
• Generators and other gasoline powered equipment
• Automobile exhaust from attached garages
• Tobacco smoke
How does carbon monoxide poisoning happen?
Dangerous situations occur when carbon monoxide is trapped in poorly ventilated, contained spaces where people are, according to the Mayo Clinic. Carbon monoxide poisonings are sometimes seen when people attempt to use generators indoors after a power outage.
If there is too much carbon monoxide in the air you are breathing, your ability to absorb oxygen can be diminished, resulting in serious tissue damage.
More than 400 Americans die every year from unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it is responsible for more than 20,000 people visiting the emergency room annually.
What are the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning?
The initial symptoms are flu-like, but without a fever. They may include dull headache, weakness, dizziness and nausea. High-level poisoning can result in vomiting, shortness of breath, confusion, blurred vision and loss of consciousness.
In residential circumstances where carbon monoxide problems slowly develop, victims may mistake their symptoms for the flu. When carbon monoxide levels are higher and develop more rapidly – for example, from generators in residential spaces – mental confusion can set in rapidly. Victims may lose muscle control without being aware of the flu-like symptoms and will probably succumb to poisoning if they are not rescued.
Follow CNN Health on Facebook and Twitter
Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide levels of about 1 to 70 parts per million usually doesn't result in symptoms, although some heart patients may feel increased chest pain, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Headache, fatigue and nausea may occur when carbon monoxide levels increase and stay above 70 parts per million. Greater danger occurs above 150 to 200 parts per million.
Go outside and get fresh air immediately if you believe you are experiencing any of these symptoms, and call the fire department. Contact a doctor immediately so that he or she can confirm carbon monoxide poisoning.
How can I prevent carbon monoxide poisoning?
You can take several precautions to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
• Install a carbon monoxide alarm in the hallway near every area of your home that is used for sleeping. Make sure furniture or draperies do not cover the alarm. Travel carbon monoxide alarms are also available for use elsewhere.
However, in your home, an alarm is not a substitute for making sure that appliances that can produce carbon monoxide are in good repair and safe.
• Check to see that your appliances are installed and comply with building codes and manufacturer's instructions. Qualified professionals should install most appliances.
• Get your heating system professionally inspected and serviced every year, as well as chimneys and flues.
• Do not use charcoal inside your house or your garage, vehicle or tent.
• In an attached garage, even if the door is open, do not leave a car running.
• Do not operate unvented fuel-burning appliances in a room where people are sleeping
• Do not operate a portable generator or any other gasoline engine-powered tool in or near any house, garage or other enclosed space.
• If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, go outside and call 911 immediately. Do not return to the building until emergency services personnel gives you the all-clear.
You can learn more about carbon monoxide from the EPA and the CDC.


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Hi Archinect!
I'm in Stubbins (a smaller room) tonight for a lecture by GSD Professor in Residence Iñaki Ábalos, widely rumored among students to be our next chair of Architecture. The lecture, entitled "Thermodynamics of mixed use high rise prototypes: theory and practice" will be introduced by professor Kiel Moe who will also present the recently formed Sustainable Design LAB.
6:37: Pre-introductions by student Carlos Cerezo, who is part of either the LatinGSD club and/or the GreenDesignGSD group, which are co-sponsoring the lecture.
6:38: Prof. Kiel Moe is introducing IA, who he describes as representing strengths in both theory and practice. If we follow IA's work--his technical and programmatic concerns, etc.--it becomes clear why he's interested in thermodynamics in buildings. IA and the options studios he's been teaching, represent an emerging research agenda within the school, with which KM will at times overlap. Evidence: the new book Thermodynamics applied to highrise and mixed use prototypes. This is a lecture tonight, but we're also being exposed to a research agenda.
6:43: IA thanks us for coming out on Halloween. The lecture will be a bit of a 'mixed salad.' These books represent the theoretical aspects of his work, over 25 years. Books develop even slower than buildings. Interest in time and space: time is the main preoccupation of philosophy, and space of architecture (but we're interested in both). Increasing interest in architecture in blending ideas from landscape and architecture, and in investigating the roots of the attraction to blend these categories.
Daniel Ibañez, the assistant for IA's options studio, helped prepare the book Thermodynamics applied to highrise and mixed use prototypes, based on that studio's work. "I love the...Swiss pharmacy look" of the book.
6:48: "I've brought some works that are very different, or similar, depending on the way we look at them." This project is in a suburb of Madrid; the history of this building is curious. It's an industrial city, where they store the products that come from the east, and it's very flat. The development has been "multiplied by 3" in the 25 years since then.
"The situation has changed drastically." The population here is 55% without jobs--a record in Spain.
"I became aware of these beautiful drawings of the 'heroic' period of modernism." I made this comparison--which is a joke--but it's not a joke. It's a serious thing. In the image from the left, from the communist Russian period, note the layers of industrial, residential, green program types alongside the river. On the right, a similar organization for the siting of IA's project. The center is a place to give people a sense that they belong to the city, that they have a role, and...obviously that they can re-educate themselves.
Then the authorities say to the architect --'we don't have money, it has to be really cheap, but it also needs to be monumental.' It's always this way. They wanted to produce an extension of the interior space, and an interior that literally mimics a factory. But the idea of how to use the space is completely different. "We had a problem that was not very well developed--they didn't know exactly what the needs of their people were." It didn't have any relationship with a medical center, or centers for the aged, etc. The organization is from south to north, with some patios in between, to cross ventilate the whole thing and have heat gains in the winter. Programs that generate more heat--like gyms--are oriented towards the north, and those that need more heat are to the south. And trees.
6:56: With this prototype or typology, it comes from typical Arab construction in south Spain--strips of roofs with some of the rooms having open patios. So there aren't corridors; it's a kind of labyrinth. The use of the rooms depends on activities, organized on a gradient of privacy, or depending on whether it's summer or winter. Another factor is the hearth; using a higher height and better insulation than normal in the roof. Efficiency, but also dignity for the space.
"I don't want to be deterministic; we don't have a religion called sustainability or thermodynamics. We believe in history, in memory." The community center project started with an earlier project that couldn't be realized, a house for a gallerist--a lady who lives alone with many paintings. "The construction is minimalist, in the economical sense of minimalism, not just the figurative sense."
The glass facade is a collector of sun in the winter, whereas the activities take place outside during the summer, covered by the shades. Mention of use of photovoltaic panels and vertical ventilation shafts. It's completely industrial--we use cheap finishings--"wood..well, today we call it wood, it's an incredibly thin (veneer)."
The strucutral tubes (above) also hold the glazing.
Space for watching soccer and dancing. "They're around 50 or 60 years old and they have a lot of parties. Every day." All the elements are repetitive to make the construction as cheap as possible, but with dignity. The roof--the only way to organize the garden with some kind of pattern was to lay out these lanes.
7:05: Tàpies Foundation, Barcelona. "In this case...the building was functioning before we arrived, but had a lot of problems...fire escapes, etc." They needed a stair (seen below), and wanted to transform and give visibility to the building.
The building had housed a famous printer, and was the first industrial building in this particular urban fabric. A loft. There was a well-known intervention from the mid-80s, with a "plethora of postmodernism." "I was visiting this building; I thought it was interesting in those days. Culture evolves." We have to understand how and why it evolves. When he came back, colors and materials--everything was hidden: the changes in the years since the beautiful work in the 80s had no sense.
By destroying the intervention of the 80s, IA realized that he could fulfill 4 of the 5 pages of requirements. The original building was very good.
Original concept sketch--programmatic concerns, natural light. It was a historical building but also a statement about how a museum should be nowadays. You could see--or at least have glimpses--of all the functions and departments of the museum, from the galleries to offices, and archives.
1980s state (inset image, above)--fake bronzed painted columns, with air conditioning ducts making Greek references.
Beautiful cloud intervention on the roof. Intervention on the facade was minimal--cleaning, etc.
Columns were made minimal according to their shape. Hypostyle type space. Left the skylight.
Little patio--the columns mimic the original structure, not because he wanted to so much as for structural reasons. In terms of economy, it's the most simple construction system you can have, but with a strong relationship with the existing fabric.
At the top of the pavilion, access to a roof garden. Tàpies wanted to use this sculpture which had been a scandal when it was original made several years before. "The patios are something I love more about Barcelona...they are full of real life," surrounded by facades of other buildings.
7:16: Osmose RATP, Metro Paris: They had commissions in Paris, London, and Madrid. "It was a very interesting exercise, mainly because in Paris the infrastructure is not just...belonging to the engineers. Historically all the interesting architects made interventions in the metro, and it's part of the patrimony of Paris."
The company wanted some return on their investment, and to give a new idea of what a metro station should be. The only thing that changed technically is that they're planning to protect the tube with another tube so that nobody can fall down. "This increases the efficiency of the metro incredibly, because a lot of people fall down." In Paris...they are drunk. And the environmental situation changes.
The idea was to establish a new relationship between the tube and the exterior atmosphere. They had the idea of wrapping a building around the tube--thinking of the metro as a big geothermal infrastructure. Use it to establish a prototype that...helps us to begin thinking about zero emissions--a fantasy of politicians in Europe. They worked with Jasper Morrison. The project aims to retain qualities of traditional metro stations while evoking something of the atmosphere, and air movement.
The tube wraps inside a mixed-use building--residential and office.
It has some photovoltaic brise-soleils, "and all these gadgets." They used very simple technologies--heliostats that are programmed to bring down the sun when the metro is very crowded. And a way of dealing with heat gains off the facades of the towers.
7:24: THM, Thermodynamic mixer. (GSD studio projects).
Nowadays in high-density cities, especially in Asian countries...this prototype can suggest a new organization of space. The difficulty of being an architect is that you go from project to project. ...But we (as a profession, I think he means) are unable to use simple ways to have certainty that we're (doing things right). The model allows a kind of visualization of heat gains; who needs grasshopper when you can understand these things visually, directly?
Aggregations of units.
Many pages of thermodynamic studies by GSD students.
Converting everything into watts, to understand proportions of program and the energy it takes to heat or cool those spaces. "What began completely random became a way to criticize the absurd simplicities we have attached to the type of mixed use." It produces spatial transformations. These are prototypes developed exclusively through thermodynamic principles. "We forced students to renounce gravity, and tectonics. Thermodynamics was the only paradigm they had to be attached to." They called the projects "monsters."
"I (usually) hate these books, especially these books where there's student work and you can't understand anything on the page. If you have the time, I promise you can understand everything on these pages." Psychrometric charts--primitive, practical, and nobody understands them in architecture schools.
7:34: A building created without a site or client. Just an idea to morph two kinds of towers. Then a project in Valencia. Lots of politics about protecting farms, blending housing and farms. The project is compositional; they didn't want to make poor-looking towers; the top needs to be ornamental, evoking the fantasy of living in a wonderful world of terraces. Losing the Protestant image that social housing has to be sad and boring. "This, applied to social housing, increases the degree of difficulty enormously."
80% homogeneous and 20% compositional games.
Nobody pays for terraces--"a crime" given the climate in Valencia. If you make stepped buildings, the terraces are for free. Tricky things to gain a thermal balance. Towers also increase ventilation, which is the only way to escape the humidity. Note the long unit on the top left for cross-ventilation, and the one to the below-right of that, with its scalloped edge creating different views.
The loneliness of the building, surrounded by nothingness.
"And we are using this corrugated aluminum," because it's the only material that allows us to make bright, curved surfaces without economic penalty. Modest interiors, "but I think they have a dignity."
"I wanted to bring this social housing project after the thermodynamic prototypes," because it shows the pragmatic limits of projects.
7:40: Another project. River and train station, which unifies the city and creates a new center. Created a hill instead of an object for the station. "Around we just made a kind of correct organization of residential typologies--north, south, etc." Just "A, B, Cs."
This is the image from the competition--the idea that the ambience of the city could change through these infrastructures. Simplest modeling tools for the geometry.
The whole idea was to create a configuration that was similar below and above the roof--so the two programs, the public park and the station, could become a single system, that the citizens could use. We wanted to maintain the complexity of the structure and at the same time wrap it. So we used a system of lamellas that articulate as you move around.Mirrored lanterns that create patterns with light. A kind of constant ornament.
The geometry "isn't casual"--the columns are located where they can be, because the tracks are complex in their arrangement. "Goes without saying" that it works without air-conditioning 99% of the days.
The station was the only one of the three projects commissioned to star architects that was on time and on budget. One of the others went 10x over budget. Referring to his project, IA says "it looks stupid, but" these things are not so easy.
End. Applause. "I don't know if this is a lecture on thermodynamics or on the limits of ideas."
7:48: Question about the columns--balance between performance and expression. IA: Doesn't see these as separate. "One thing you learn in practice is that you have to be really opportunistic." You have to study the conditions and find the opportunities. Sometimes all you can do is have your building "look like" they perform, which is useless. There are buildings that perform well and look normal, and they "don't change your life."
When we work metaphorically with the air in motion, we're very close to working technically in the correct way. "This is why I was insisting with the students that we ignore tectonics" within the studio projects.
In the Valencia project, "you can't imagine" how many constraints there were. The project hasn't paid a single Euro to receive any green certifications, but has received the highest commendation. It doesn't have any facades "painted in green" but it performs. So technical efficiency and expression need to be understood as an authentic dialectic in contemporary architecture.
7:53: Question about the metal wrap in the Valencia project. Looks nice but expensive; would like the project without it as well.
IA: You cannot leave the structure unprotected; it's sprayed with fire-resistant stuff and it's obliged by law. The screen is an extruded aluminum, and it gives a quality and homogeneity to the system. "Honestly, I thought they were not going to use it, but thanks to the crisis, it became exactly the same price as the cheapest aluminum system that you can destroy with your hands. This is what construction is about--finding opportunities."
Question: Between the performance of the building--the grotto and the lightwell; or in the Paris metro, the air movement and the lanterns. But in the studio projects, the idea of "pure knowledge" in architecture, lack some of the things that are most interesting in architecture.
IA: I would say no. I like a lot the way you present the discussion and the observation you have made. But for example--I think there is a similarity in how these projects are showing the interactions and optimizations with wind. And the science is "metaphors" more often than something like engineering. And the projects are "monsters," not architecture, because they're so literal and direct in their use of the metaphors.
Comments from Kiel: "Thesis in general--from the Dean on down," we want the thesis projects to become part of a larger research platform in the school, not just individual projects that go away after. So we want the thesis prep work and so on to lead to publications. Starting to construct a more specifically architectural agenda for these things. We've been borrowing the agendas of sustainability (from more technical fields) but this kind of work is building an architectural agenda.
There are going to be thesis groups, but also Energy, Environments, and Design Labs, and various funded research projects...from the scale of molecules to global Neo-Liberalism.
Thanks for reading!
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This blog was most active from 2009-2013. Writing about my experiences and life at Harvard GSD started out as a way for me to process my experiences as an M.Arch.I student, and evolved into a record of the intellectual and cultural life of the Cambridge architecture (and to a lesser extent, design/technology) community, through live-blogs. These days, I work as a data storyteller (and blogger at Littldata.com) in San Francisco, and still post here once in a while.


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I am preparing a course on profinite groups, to be delievered to early graduate students. The first part of the course will discuss the equivalent characterizations of profinite groups. I will first define a profinite group as a Hausdorff, compact topological group such that the open subgroups form a base for the neighbourhoods of the identity.
I would like to give my students a few 'natural' examples. I am looking for examples of profinite groups that give the students something they can wrap their heads around without knowing about products of finite groups and inverse limits. Ideally, I am looking for examples which have more of a topological emphasis.
As an example of what I am looking for: The $p$-adic integers $\mathbb{Z}_p$ can be constructed as the completion of $\mathbb{Z}$ with the metric space structure induced from the $p$-adic absolute value.
I would particularly like to see an example of a group acting on some object which induces some topology on the group. I would like to exclude Galois groups: these will be covered in another part of the course. I would also like to exclude the fundamental groups encountered in algebraic geometry: I do not expect my students be familiar with this material.


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Mayor To Honor Residents Who Helped Apartment Residents Escape Fire
February 17, 2011 – (RealEstateRama) — Mayor Chris Beutler will present the Mayor's medallion tomorrow to Karen Jordan-Anderson and Criz Sanchez who helped residents of an apartment complex escape a December fire. The presentation will take place at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, February 17 at UPS, 3133 N. 33rd Street. Sanchez is a UPS driver, and Jordan-Anderson is a family program manager for the Nebraska Air National Guard.
Sanchez was on his way home from work the evening of December 22nd when he saw flames coming from a second-story balcony at 1510 S. Folsom Street. He called 911 and then ran to the building. Jordan-Anderson was visiting a friend at a nearby building when she saw Sanchez running and heard him yell, "Fire!" The two ran to the building to alert residents and help them evacuate.
After pounding on first-floor doors, Jordan-Anderson went to the second floor, and entered the apartment with the balcony was on fire, where she convinced a woman with developmental disabilities to evacuate. City Fire Inspector Ken Hilger said if Jordan-Anderson had not persuaded the woman to leave, the apartment would soon have filled with fire and smoke and evacuation would have been very difficult. The apartment was a total loss.
Sanchez pulled himself up to a second-story balcony and pounded on the sliding glass doors before heading to the back of the building to escort residents outside. He then ran to the third floor and helped a family including an elderly woman and a child escape.
No one was injured in the fire, which fire investigators say was caused by an improperly discarded cigarette. Damage was estimated at about $150,000.
Diane Gonzolas, Citizen Information Center, 402-441-7831


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Early Verdict
This phone is almost certainly not for you, but it could be the life-changing device you give your elderly relative for Christmas this year.
- +
Good touch interface
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Caters for older people
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Ice Cream Sandwich
Why you can trust TechRadar
This phone is almost certainly not for you, but it could be the life-changing device you give your elderly relative for Christmas this year.
It's an Android device designed from the ground up to give older people the opportunity to use a smartphone without being bamboozled by complex operating systems and fiddly features. It's way more than a re-skin of Android though, as we'll see.
First, the basics. This is a 4-inch handset running Ice Cream Sandwich with a 800 x 480 display, 8MP camera, 1.4GHz single-core CPU, 4GB expandable storage and it's waterproof and dust-proof too. So if you drop it in the toilet, you've got three hours to fish it out before it drowns. (Do remember to wash it though, yeah?)
The body has been designed to be easy to hold and hard to drop - the edges have a grippy feel to them.
Android has been completely redesigned, with a far more basic user interface on one scrollable vertical pane. The idea is to make it impossible to get lost in the menu structure, and to make everything easy to find. Every sub-screen has a green question mark which gives guidance on how to use that page.
This addresses the main problem that older people may encounter when buying a phone – featurephones are totally last decade but even budget Android handsets are tough to get to know if you're not technically inclined. They also tend to be small and fiddly, a nightmare for older people.
This is a great way of making a touchscreen phone easier to use, and you can still install all the same apps that you could on any other ICS smartphone.
To that end, the way the capacitive touchscreen responds to input has been completely changed. Instead of designing the phone to be as responsive as possible, Fujitsu has taken onboard the fact that older users are likely to go a bit slower. So instead of responding to the slightest touch, the capacitive screen behaves more akin to a resistive display, in that you need to actually push it to get a response.
This does not apply when scrolling through menus, which is smooth as silk like any other decent smartphone. But when making screen selections and typing phone numbers etc, you have to actually push a bit harder, and the screen gives haptic feedback to let you know you've made a selection. If you're just gliding your finger across the screen, you're given a visual cue to show you which button will be activated when you press.
Age concern
When you set the phone up, you tell it how old you are and it customizes certain features accordingly. One of these funky customisations is to change the frequency range of the call so that it's easier to hear what's being said on the other end (as we age, we lose the ability to hear higher frequencies). The phone can even slow down the speech of the caller if you're talking to someone who speaks particularly quickly.
The phone also has a personal alarm built into it, which when activated can sound an audio alert as well as automatically contact up to three people to let them know you're in trouble.
In our brief test at MWC, we were really impressed. It's a great device and we can really see it having an impact on the lives of older people who need smartphone features without all the hassle of finding them. What's more, it's a good size - not too fiddly-small - and everything zips about quickly, without any lag.
Early verdict
This phone is going on sale through Orange in France in the summer and should be launching in the UK soon after. It's unlikely to be a huge seller, but it's definitely a device we can see being used and loved by older people who want a fully featured phone that's made specifically for them. We certainly can't wait to give one to our grandaddy and see how he gets on with it.
James was part of the TechRadar editorial team for eight years up until 2015 and now works in a senior position for TR's parent company Future. An experienced Content Director with a demonstrated history of working in the media production industry. Skilled in Search Engine Optimization (SEO), E-commerce Optimization, Journalism, Digital Marketing, and Social Media. James can do it all.
What is a hands on review?
Hands on reviews' are a journalist's first impressions of a piece of kit based on spending some time with it. It may be just a few moments, or a few hours. The important thing is we have been able to play with it ourselves and can give you some sense of what it's like to use, even if it's only an embryonic view. For more information, see TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee.


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Portland Ranked Top 10 Best Cities for Urban Forests
Feb 5, 2013 at 11:51 AM 1 Comment
On the heels of last month's case study report, American Forests announced Portland as one of the Top 10 Best Cities for Urban Forests in the U.S.
From the American Forests website:
"Goals for the city's canopy are actually built into multiple management plans, and the improvements the city is seeing are related to the work of a dedicated government, nonprofits and community groups. Meanwhile, the city is using green infrastructure as a cost-effective alternative to gray infrastructure and is protecting its trees through public and private ordinances and a diversification strategy. Portland estimates that its street trees alone have added more than $13 million in property resale value, and its entire urban forest provides more than $38 million in environmental benefits."
American Forests also provides a fact sheet with Portland statistics and their selection criteria.
Trees intercept rain and reduce stormwater runoff, and they're incorporated into the strategies set forth in the 2005 Portland Watershed Management Plan. Together with Friends of Trees, Verde, and many other partners, Environmental Services has supported the planting of over 25,000 new street and yard trees since 2008. (Since Friends of Trees started in 1989 they've planted over 450,000!)
1 Comment
Brighton West
Awesome! Way to go Portland!
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Chalet Amethyste 2 Reviews
No reviews yet
150 m
Town Center
500 m
Chalets Amethyste 1 & 2: Contained within one larger chalet, Amethyste 1 and 2 share the same entrance and ski deposit but are otherwise quite separate chalets. However there is the flexibility to use both chalets to accommodate a larger ski group of up to 20 guests wanting a catered ski chalet holiday in La Tania. The two separate lounges allow for differing requirements within the group: some may wish to have a quieter time or to watch a DVD whilst others chat over their day around the fire.
Chalet Amethyste 2 is a comfortable pinewood chalet on the first and second floors of the building. It has a spacious lounge with a classic wood finish and seating for everybody around a centrally positioned fireplace, creating a warm and welcoming place to relax and unwind. The lounge leads through to the open plan dining room and beyond to the South and West facing sun terrace – a great outdoor space for guests to enjoy. . The chalet is equipped with electric boot warmers for your comfort, a DVD player and free wi-fi for your convenience and enjoyment.
Chalet Amethyste is situated in an excellent position for piste and village access. It is located away from the road up two flights of steps from the lane that winds around the La Tania chalets. The pedestrianised village and its amenities are just over 5 minutes away by foot and you can ski from just 150m away from the chalet.
Upon arrival, you will find a luxury gift pack in every bedroom. Bring your iPod and enjoy the exceptional quality of our hand-crafted Audio systems. Each chalet also features a selection of games.
The traditional pine-finished bedrooms all have full en-suite facilities - bright, fully tiled bathrooms with heated towel rails - and some rooms open onto private balconies.
The Chalet Amethyste hosts live out. All rooms can take a cot (some may be a tight fit).
Appetising Canapés & Apéritifs.
On arrival in your chalet, handmade pre-dinner canapés and apéritifs will be served to you in the lounge while your experienced chalet host welcomes you to your chalet introduces you to the resort.
Delicious Cooked Breakfasts.
Start your day with a delicious cooked breakfast that includes bacon, eggs, Heinz beans or hash browns and mushrooms or tomatoes plus a selection of cereals, porridge, yogurts and fresh bread.
Homemade Cakes & Afternoon Tea.
Scrumptious homemade cakes and a choice of teas are provided every day, best enjoyed while you relax in the lounge area in front of the log fire.
Hearty Three Course Dinner.
Home cooked evening meal served at 8pm with unlimited carefully selected red or white wine (6 days), with an additional 4th course of local cheese board with port on your final evening.
All Rooms En Suite
DVD Player
Fire Place
Wi-Fi (Free)
Level | Rating | Runs |
Beginners | 101 | |
Intermediates | 146 | |
Advanced | 28 | |
Snowboarders | ||
Total Runs | 275 |
Resort Altitude | 1350m |
Highest Lift | 3200m |
Total Piste | 600km |
Longest Run | 5km |
Direction of Slopes | N/W, E, S/E |
Uphill Capacity | 243259 |
Total Lifts | 198 |
Gondolas/Cable cars | 43 |
Chairlifts | 68 |
Drag Lifts | 87 |
Snow Parks | 2 |