I have tried to find students from the Southampton area to write mobile apps. But find the good ones are busy already

For mobile apps, we mean:

“Abstract - Clothing with built in heat sources and thermal controls is becoming more popular. This study investigates possibilities for reducing the energy consumption of buildings through smart use of this novel . . . → Read More: Reducing home energy use through heated clothing]]> About 18 months ago, I worked up the attached paper entitled “Thermally Active Clothing for Building Carbon Footprint Reduction” by Nick Thorne and Simon Bramwell.

“Abstract - Clothing with built in heat sources and thermal controls is becoming more popular. This study investigates possibilities for reducing the energy consumption of buildings through smart use of this novel clothing. Crossover benefits in health and recreation are explored. Various technologies are reviewed and further actions suggested. Analysis has shown that energy consumption of buildings can be significantly reduced with associated reductions in carbon footprint. Further work is required into the effect on acceptable ambient temperatures of wearing actively heated clothing, along with opportunities for closer integration with building control systems.”

It was submitted to a journal, but requires some further work (and therefore further funding).

These products keep on cropping up, here’s the latest one, Omni-Heat from Columbia Sports.

Thermally Active Clothing Paper v1.0

It has to be stored locally because customers are not always in an area with 3G and or broadband.

Enter Apple’s iOS 5 upgrade, and the new caching behaviour that has put developers into a spin. It was . . . → Read More: iOS 5, iCloud and the great caching debate]]> I am currently working on an iPad app that when deployed will refer to a 2GByte product catalogue stored locally.

It has to be stored locally because customers are not always in an area with 3G and or broadband.

Enter Apple’s iOS 5 upgrade, and the new caching behaviour that has put developers into a spin. It was kicked off by Marco Arment, boss of Instapaper with a Blog post entitled Cleaning. Then others started to notice a problem too, iOS 5 Breaks Data Storage and Crushes my Soul. Also, the US Aviation authorities who recently allowed pilots to take their charts on board on iPads advise against upgrading to iOS 5.

The long and short of it is that with iOS5, you can no longer have GB of data reliably held on an iPad without it being backed up into the cloud. Which would be fine apart from the fact that most people’s broadband connections are still in the Mbits/s and capped.

So, people are asking to have the old iOS 4.x behaviour re-instated, whereby data stored in the /Library/Caches directory of your app is never cleaned up when the device gets too full, and is also never synched to the Cloud.

However, we could be looking at the wrong problem. The real issue is that the iCloud sync behaviour for the Documents directory isn’t advanced enough. Surely you can have 2GBytes of data in Documents if the synch tech is advanced enough, to only update the changes to the data. Not the whole thing.

Easier said than done I know, especially with a large encrypted database. But maybe Apple should change iOS 5 back to the iOS 4.x cache behaviour, then go back to the drawing board and develop some synch tech that really works before re-instating this problem feature.

Each module is made up of a 3 hour exam worth 75% to 85% of the marks, with the balance from a project.

The 8 modules I took are as follows:

Wind 1 [Wind Characteristics, Wind . . . → Read More: MSc Renewable Energy Topics]]> It has taken since 2008 to complete the 8 modules and project. So about time for a wrap up of the topics studied.

Each module is made up of a 3 hour exam worth 75% to 85% of the marks, with the balance from a project.

The 8 modules I took are as follows:

Wind 1 [Wind Characteristics, Wind Resource Assessment, Wind Turbine Aerodynamics, Wind Turbine Control, Wind Farm Development, Offshore Wind, Wind Turbine Design, Windfarm Design Coursework]

Biomass 1 [Carbon Cycle, The Status of Biomass, Combustion, Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Process Chemistry, AD Process Engineering, AD Operation & Control, AD Energy Generation, Biodiesel, AD Lab Coursework]

Biomass 2 [Incineration of Waste, Incinerator Emissions, Ethanol, Landfill Gas, Thermo-Chemical Conversion, Advanced AD, Techno-Economics of Liquid Biofuels, Techno-Economics of Biomass Energy Coursework]

Water [Hydro Energy Resource Assessment, Water Turbines, Control & Drivetrain, Electrical Systems,  Civil works, Planning & Environmental, Tidal Power, Wave Power, Hydro Analysis Coursework]

Solar 1 [The Solar Resource, Solar Thermal Systems, Passive Solar Design, Introduction to Photovoltaics (PV), PV Systems, PV Manufacture, PV Analysis Coursework]

Solar 2 [Advanced PV Devices, Thin Film Solar Cells, Solar Thermal Advanced Analysis, Passive Solar of Buildings, PV Modules & Arrays, PV Systems Engineering, PV Systems Design Coursework ]

Integration [ Load Generation & Power Balance, Transmission & Distribution, Power Electronics & Induction Machines, Renewable Energy Applications, Distributed Generation, Grid Planning & Analysis Coursework]

Sustainability [Electricity Trading, Economics of Energy Production, The Kyoto Protocol, Cost & Value, Integrating Renewables, Mechanisms,  Sustainability, Scenarios, Planning & Environmental Law, Coursework: Energy Security for Europe ]

Average mark: 70.4%

The MSc Project is to be marked by end November 2011. The title is “A Feasibility Study for Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Solid Waste for South Hampshire”.

That concludes the quick run through of 3 year’s worth of part time Renewable Energy MSc study.

I also took down Anchor Alarm Free. I have been very busy . . . → Read More: One app up one app down]]> Today, we finally got our iPad app into App Store. We were caught up in the In App Purchase rule changes. First we had to add it, then the rules relaxed half way through implementation, so we asked again and they accepted it as was.

I also took down Anchor Alarm Free. I have been very busy recently, and this app needs some work and is receiving bad reviews. I tried making it open source in an effort to recruit some help, but it looks like that may have resulted in others reusing the code in their apps. Which is good, as at least the functionality will appear on Android Market in some form or other.

So the day to day work is continuing, quite a lot of rapid prototyping in Titanium Appcelerator. Also some Microsoft Visual Studio C# work with CANViewUSB.

The MSc keeps on coming, with the interim report on an anaerobic digester plant submitted. While it is the greenest way to process waste by far, it is also one of the most techno . . . → Read More: Progress]]> Sorry this blog has been a bit quiet of late. That’s because things have been rather busy in Nick Thorne Ltd.

The MSc keeps on coming, with the interim report on an anaerobic digester plant submitted. While it is the greenest way to process waste by far, it is also one of the most techno economically complex. Two other MSc submissions include a solar panel installation analysis using PVSYST software, and a very comprehensive comparison of the cost of electricity generated through combustion, pyrolysis, gasification and combined cycle gas turbine methods. Solar and Biomass exams coming up in June.

On the contracting front, some embedded software engineering at a local firm has turned up. Great to get back into “proper” coding again (i.e. embedded).

On the app front, Sourcing City app is in Android Market and Appstore (for iPhone), while the iPad version is still in review (come on Apple reviewers). Still the last niggeldy bits to finish off in all though.

I have open sourced Anchor Alarm Free, see link too. So let’s see if all you helpful reviewers can pitch in

Several other apps for all platforms (Blackberry, iPhone, iPad and Android) are lining up nicely too.

Right, where did I put my tea?

The show was mainly targeted at the on-farm market where crop residues and animal waste form the bulk of feedstock.

Completing this project by July, plus the Biomass 2 . . . → Read More: Anaerobic Digester Project]]> I visited Energy Expo Now on Thursday to discuss anaerobic digestion projects for making energy from municipal solid waste. There are quite a few projects underway in the UK.

The show was mainly targeted at the on-farm market where crop residues and animal waste form the bulk of feedstock.

Completing this project by July, plus the Biomass 2 and Solar 2 MSc modules and doing some mobile app developer work for iPhone/Android/Blackberry apps is certainly going to keep things busy.

Here are some related links:

Deerdykes with Monsal energy from MSW is under construction, the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal authority has several plants in progress, based on this one in Lubeck. Also Linkoping in Sweden is a good reference point.
BtG (biogas to grid) looks to be another key developing market.
And recently a 100MW biomass plant has been announced for Southampton. Basic AD process diagram.

There are projects from every area of renewable energy, solar, wind, wave and biomass. They cover integration into the . . . → Read More: Renewable Energy MSc Project: Solar, Wind, Fish …?]]> Today has been mainly spent reading through the 2009/2010 projects list for my renewable energy MSc at Loughborough University. Just to get an idea of the kinds of projects we are likely to see on offer for 2010/2011.

There are projects from every area of renewable energy, solar, wind, wave and biomass. They cover integration into the grid. They range from computer based modelling exercises to bring-your-wellies site surveys and resource assessments. Anywhere from Zanzibar to the Falkland Islands.

Some are sponsored by companies like Black and Veatch, ITPower, GoodEnergy and the like. Others relate to the CREST academic team’s interests. Then there is the “private deal” route where you create your own project, so long as it has the required level of academic depth and rigour.

The practical projects look appealing. For example, investigating renewable energy supply options for commercial greenhouses, or reviewing the supply of biomass fuel for the UK. The building energy monitoring also looks interesting, being very practical and in familiar technology.

One project in particular stands out, with a pre-req of having taken the Biomass I module (hint hint), and involving fish farms. More specifically “what to do with the dead fish”. In fact, researching whether these dead fish or “morts” can be turned into biodiesel. So, maybe by summer 2011 , we’ll be fine tuna-ing the salmon-to-diesel conversion process !

One for the yacht sailors, so they can sup their G&Ts with confidence in the knowledge that this little app (for use as a back up only of course – see the EULA) . . . → Read More: Anchor Alarm Free: a Free Google Android Anchor Alarm App]]> Quite a bit of spare time has been sucked up over the last two weeks knocking together an anchor alarm app for Google Android.

One for the yacht sailors, so they can sup their G&Ts with confidence in the knowledge that this little app (for use as a back up only of course – see the EULA) minds their drift for them.

Still quite a few updates are planned. The main one being to allow the service to continue when the app is in the background. The application lifecycle of Android takes a little getting used to. So some delving is needed into the foreground/background aspects of the Service class at some point.

Another area I didn’t quite get working in the time available are the GPS status callbacks from the locationlistener. The locationupdate callbacks worked fine, but not the status ones.

Registering on the app Market was a doddle, and once uploaded everything propagates out into the Google-o-sphere in no time. Unlike Apple apps, these apps are subject to “cloud review”. 56 downloads in the first 4 days.

Here is a link to Android Anchor Alarm Free, or search for Anchor Alarm in the Google Market.

Anchor Alarm Screenshot

(Note to Dave : meters is the International spelling )

Update Feb 2011, over 500 downloads and rising. Really is time to update this, but I am too busy working on a commercial Android/Blackberry/iPhone app.