IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Cloud Computing is Not Well Defined . . by David Pinkowitz

I read an interesting Wall Street Journal article (see http://tinyurl.com/c25sq5) about the confusion caused by the popular term "cloud computing."  The term is widely used to describe a broad range of computing products and services that are offered through an Internet connection -- not requiring any on-premises hardware or software.   We are told that Cloud Computing is here to stay and that it will be very popular.  Exactly what that means will be defined in due time. 

-- David Pinkowitz (www.dcpmarkteing.com)

Sodium Vapor Street Lights: by John Dunn

Mercury vapor street lamps used to give off, I think, a rather good simulation of daylight as they enabled people to see clearly into otherwise dark places, but mercury vapor street lamps have now been replaced with sodium vapor street lamps because, we are told, the sodium vapor lamps use up less electricity.

As with LED traffic lights, we see the search for energy efficiency.

Unfortunately, the yellow color of the sodium vapor lamps has been found to cause diurnal (day-night) cycle disruptions of street trees which then start to sicken. Also, the yellowish light doesn't seem to penetrate the darkness as well as the mercury vapor's white light did, so, to solve that problem, new and blindingly bright sodium vapor lights have been installed in my neighborhood, which takes us back again to using more electricity while continuing to damage the trees.

We now see in the news that some states are looking into banning the sale of incandescent lamps in favor of those spiral shaped fluorescent lamps, again for the sake of energy efficiency. After all, those new lamps not only use less energy, they last a lot longer too.

Still, they eventually wear out and while they're not recyclable, they do have to be disposed of and, oh, by the way: They contain mercury.

Am I not understanding something here?

Home Heating Oil-to-Gas Conversion-What's Involved? by Carl Schwab

Part A
Starting about one year ago, I became interested in determining how I could convert heating of our home from #2 domestic oil to natural gas. I was well aware that most of the new construction homes on Long Island were being heated with NG, natural gas. But as a fact some 60% of the homes on LI are still heated with #2 domestic.

Our situation on the street was similar for my neighbors; our homes were built 1959-1960. At that time the builder made the decision to offer only oil heat - no gas option. So now many like myself were facing the prospect of needing to replace an old underground, 550-gallon oil tank because of leakage concerns. Not Cheap.

Further when the next street north paralleling our street was installed 4 years later, it had a natural gas main put in and the houses offered only with NG.