Tuesday night – 18 minutes of battery

What can I say about my day in less than the 18 minutes of battery I have left on my laptop.. Wasn’t a bad day… actually. Today was the 2nd day that a film crew from corporate was in to make movies about how computers can make the world smarter. I’m the co-star, I guess.. I play an enthusiastic nerd intent on convincing the youth of America that engineering is a good thing. The role’s a stretch for me.. but I did my best… Actually.. it was pretty cool, once again we spent the day crawling around parts of our factory that few folks get to see and live to tell about it.

We started at the high voltage grid connect for the site.. here’s where power enters the site at 115,000 volts.. we are by far the biggest electric draw in the state .. about 65,000,000 watts on a hot day.. that’s a bit more than the whole city of burlington.
Now that’s power !

On the movie we talked abotu how IBM is getting smarter abotu using that power.. we know exactly what to shut down and when to help out the new england power grid durign peak demands.. It’s all very cool and sciency.. (sciency.. what a great word !)

I also got us invited to go tour the Green Mountain hydro power facility across the road  from our plant.. Here they have 4 2 megaway hydro generators.. These beautiful machines have been in service wince 1917 !.. They were rebuilt in the 50’s.. but most of the moving parts are still original. including the wooden bearings in between the turbines.

Filming in there was a challenge.. even with earplugs it was absolutely deafening ..   What’s funny is thta at full capacity.. tat is all four hydro generators running.. and all 4 diesel back up gennies running.. this facility only would supply an eight of IBM’s energy needs on a warm day.. that’s amazing.

We finished the day with some cool demos.. I did some experiments with liquid nitrogen.. and my tesla coil. I hope they come across ok in video

Jack at the plant was kind enough to take  to get the LN2.. It was a hoot driving through the place on his electric cart.. Check out this movie I shot as he drove indoors.. weeeeeeeeeee !

We didn’t finish the last of the filing until about 9 PM.. what a long day (first work call was 7 AM.. 14 hour day.. !) It was a real pleasure working wiht the guys on th efilming project.. Iappreciate them lying in to make this work !

OK.. Low battery warnign just hit.. Better finish up.. one last bit abotu the day. I finally got to see the new office I’ll be moving into a week from today.. It’s well located.. but loooking a bit old and shabby (I’m  one to talk 🙂   Any ideas on how to decorate this place to liven it up a bit ? Any suggestions welcome !

OK.. Battery is shutting down now.. so.. I will too…   Hope everyone’s having a great tuesday.. I am.. nite Sam !
-me