Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries

Crude Oil and Total Petroleum Imports Top 15 Countries:

"The top sources of US crude oil imports for May were Canada (1.840 million barrels per day), Saudi Arabia (1.579 million barrels per day), Mexico (1.116 million barrels per day), Venezuela (1.030 million barrels per day), and Nigeria (0.851 million barrels per day)."

I found this very interesting. Canada is our single largest source of crude oil, about 17% more than Saudi Arabia. Iraq isn't even in the top five, and if you walk through the list, it's not a very pretty sight. Lots of unstable countries, and countries that are not very friendly with the United States. These include Venezuela, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, and Libya.

I'm posting and commenting on this list for several reasons.

First, to my friends in Canada. If Karl Rove wants to visit, I highly recommend not letting him into your country. No good can come from a visit by Rove. Double that for McCain, but he was already there and apparently he doesn't realize Canada is a foreign country. I would keep an eye on him. He keeps running ads about off shore drilling and his energy plan. After re-reading through his plan, it's a quick read and requires no technical background, he *may* be considering Canada part of his plan. Again, keep an eye on him.

Next, I don't agree with either party, but at least Obama is using credible technical resources (academic and industry) rather than industry-only.

Here is what I think the US should focus on in the next five to ten years:

• Drill off shore and in ANWAR. By drill, I don't mean pump oil from production wells, perform the studies necessary to accurately estimate the size and scope of any and all reserves in the United States. There is little risk to the environment and it will provide accurate information, currently not available, to make an informed decision.
• Nuclear Power. This has to be revisited. Consider a standard design for reactors, which increases safety and reduces cost. Also, plan to reprocess waste material instead of burying it in a salt mine. It doesn't have to be safe enough for humans to ingest, but somewhere in between. Charter the appropriate scientists to come up with some options and review, and this is not a ten year study, give us your best information within a year. At this point, we will have enough information to make an informed decision. Sound familiar?
• Forget ethanol.  It can’t be pumped, it’s hydrophilic (absorbs water), it’s corrosive, poor net energy, need I go on?
• Forget Hydrogen, at least for now and as a vehicle fuel.  Read “The Hydrogen Myth” and other references.  Look at the specifications for the BMW mixed fuel car – it generates half the performance when using hydrogen fuel.
• Biofuels are viable, just don’t compete with food (use non-food source material), and target generation of diesel or clean burning oils.  I’m quite interested in generating methane and other simple hydrocarbons from algae.
• Wind power generation – there are huge possibilities in some areas of the United States.
• Solar generation – we need tax benefits and contracts to sell back power to local companies at pre-defined rates.  Tax benefits have to be long term to make it a simple decision for homeowners and encourage wide spread adoption.  I’m an engineer and I can barely figure out how to complete energy rebate forms for my new HVAC system installed last year.  One page and you should be able to do the math in your head to figure out the payback and net cost.

 

Technorati Tags: politics,energy

New approach to my web site

I’m taking a mental health break because I should be working on an RFP that is due at noon tomorrow.

Moving forward, I am taking a different approach to my Blog.  I’m not even sure I like the term Blog anymore (although I like the Blogger software/system).  I will still link to sites that have content that interests me, or that is thought provoking, but my new focus is to publish original content or observations for all future posts.  I think it’s the election, but my content will be a combination of politics, technical, personal, and productivity.

I will target 500 words (212 so far), but this will not be a requirement.  The web has reached the point where five people post original content, everyone links to them, and the MLM people still think they can be millionaires working part time from home.  I have reached a  point in my life where I want to add value and not just follow others.

My web sites are hosted on a server I share with friends.  I will be migrating this week and there may be an interruption in service while DNS updates, but the new server is bigger, better, faster, and I am looking forward to the transition.

 

Technorati Tags: personal,blogging,hardware

END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD

Sarah is taking the HP TX1110US laptop back to school in August.  Last week she mentioned that the system was mysteriously shutting down after about an hour or so.  I tried to ignore the problem, but I wanted to image the system before I installed XP.

I reset the System configuration so it would not automatically restart.  An hour later, the BOSD shows the event END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD. 

This can’t be a Good Thing.  I Google (yes, it’s a verb).  Don’t find much, but I dug around TechNet and found that this can be generated if you installed a beta of Windows Vista SP1.  Crap.  Yeah, I did that, and never updated (well, I thought I updated…).

I uninstalled SP1, restarted (three step count down to complete the uninstall).  After restart, I used Vista Windows Update and painfully re-installed the pre-SP1 fixes, SP1, post-SP1, and just for good measure the latest security fixes as well as some HP specific hardware driver updates.

NOW the system is up and running.  I will image (Acronis is my friend), and install XP (yes, a legit license I have from my IBM Z-Pro workstations which are now running Windows Server 2003 R2 and Windows 2008 Server.

Technorati Tags: Vista,backup,BSOD

Hunter S. Thompson’s 9.12.2001 Essay predicted the future

Fear & Loathing in America

This essay by Hunter S. Thompson was published September 12th, 2001. I'm not sure how I missed the original article. Hunter S. Thompson was prescient.  Thirty years ago, he was the first person I read to realize that Jimmy Carter would win the presidential election (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Rolling Stone, 1975) and in 2001, he was the first person to predict the reaction of the Bush Administration.

Given the state of the nation in 2008, I think this article bears reading. Everything Thompson said, possibly including the death tolls from 9/11, was entirely accurate. I was mildly amused by his description of President Bush II:

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed -- for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won't hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

Technorati Tags: politics,Thompson,Bush,terrorism

The upside to FISA and government monitoring

 

Technorati Tags: politics,privacy

Office 2007 and ActiveSync 4.5 Problems

ActiveSync stopped doing a bi-directional synchronization with my Sprint HTC Mogul a few weeks ago (naturally before I went on vacation). 

I never discovered the root cause of the problem, but it may have been a combination of Microsoft Desktop Search 4.0 beta, my Outlook profile, and my being very busy and not sorting out the problem when I noticed the synch stopped working.

Around the same time, Outlook generated an error on opening that stated it was not the default Mail Client, even though the option was properly set.

Problem: ActiveSync would not synchronize Outlook with my HTC Mogul.  Period.  End of story.  Not even thinking considering it.  ActiveSync would connect properly, display the proper count for Contact items (934!), the count would jump to 100/934, then complete and go to Calendar without any Contacts being copied.

I reset the phone, still no joy.

Finally, Sandy suggested I delete the contents of \Windows\Messaging on the device. 

This worked!

Resolving the default client error was resolved by a re-install of Office 2007.  All my settings were saved, including my Outlook Profiles, it was just inconvenient.

I also upgraded the HTC Mogul to Windows Mobile 6.1 (Developers build downloaded from third party site, not HTC or Sprint).  It’s a very nice upgrade and I’ll post after I have it running for a few weeks.

 

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Office,ActiveSync

ScanGaugeII - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool

ScanGaugeII - Trip Computers + Digital Gauges + Scan Tool

The hypermilers have made mainstream news, and this is A Good Thing. However, I fear too many people did not pay attention in Physics class (if they took Physics at all).

In my Saab 92x Aero (2.0 liter turbo, five speed manual transmission), I have increased my average mileage from 22-24 mpg to 26-28 mpg in mixed driving. We also have a Chrysler Town & Country LXI van that gets high teens in local driving. On long trips, without stuff on the roof (bodies, bicycles, Sears roof carriers), we have gotten as high as 25mpg.

I think I can do better, but I need more information, so I ordered a Scan Gauge II. This is an add-on interface you plug into the existing OBCII interface built into every car after 1996. It offers a superset of the features available in most car computers (trip computer, digital gauges, and a scan tool. The scan tool displays any faults and allows you to clear them as well (check engine light...).

Reviews have been very good and if I increase mileage by 10% in my cars, the Scan Gauge will pay for itself in less than a year.

I will post an update and detailed review after the first month of use.