Can a nekton drive?

Can you swim?
Are you insulted if I call you a "nekton"?
Well, I hope the answer is "yes" to the first question. And if you read on, then maybe the answer is "no" to the second.

Nekton refers to all the swimming organisms in a the ocean. These are able to move independently of currents of water, as opposed to plankton that just float along. So I hope that you and I both belong to that first category - I for sure can swim.

But what has this to do with driving? Well drive can be many things. In this context it refers to the apparatus that modulate electrical current to run ship propellers via electrical engines, so called variable frequency drives. A few years back I became aware that actually a large number of modern vessels use electricity to drive their propellers. This creates flexibility compared to running the propellers on the shafts of (e.g.) diesel engines, and more recently it interfaces nicely with rapidly developing energy storage technologies (like batteries).

Last week the company I work for launched a new low voltage variable speed drive for marine applications, like supply ships in the oil industry. And this new product is called "NektonDrive" (press release in Norwegian). This is a change from the typical names they operate with, like 800xA, ACS6000, PMS, and so on.

So why this sudden use of a name that can be pronounced? Well, as the product's project manager told me (my translation):

"It is a fantastic connection with what we are doing,

and many wonder how we found that name"

And what has this got to do with me, you may ask? Well, the name is the result of a naming competition. And who won? Well I did!

House of MOS Technology

Around Easter I started the process of changing the color of my house. We renovated and extended the house around the turn of the millenium. It used to be covered with Eternit, but we replaced that with wood paneling in red and details in yellow. But making sure the house looked OK when the coloring was an oil based wood stain proved challenging. As a consequence we decided to change to paint instead.

Well, the wife suggested that we use the same colors as we used on a new garage we built in 2012, but I was skeptic because I thought the result would be too dark. But when I noticed the NCS codes for the colors I changed my mind!
In the picture I have indicated how the new colors 6502 and 8502 are used. You can also see the original colors (after wire brushing and washing). I had to remove the rain gutter to get the scaffolding in place. That is why the edge of the roof does not look right.

So why did the codes of the colors mean so much to me? Well, when I was a kid in the seventies the microprocessor revolution was happening. I never had a Apple II but its processor, the 6502, was one of the technological wonders of that time, and I read everything I could find about such things. And the 8502 was based on the 6502 with special functionality for the Commodore 128.

Both of these processors were made by MOS Technology, and I fear that having these colors on my house will be as close as I will ever get to this technology.

Call me a nerd, but it is my House of MOS Technology.

Øystein's Twine

My house is partially heated by circulating water in the floors, and this hot water is generated by a heat pump. This pump, the hot water tank and the rest of the distribution system is meant to require minimal attention. But when I found myself looking for a target for my Twine, I found that monitoring the heat pump allowed me to maximize my use of its sensors.

Embedded in the Twine there are sensors for temperature, vibration and the device's own orientation. To this I added a moisture sensor, so that I can monitor:

• the temperature of the water pump
• the vibration of the water pump
• any water released to control the pressure in the system

Before activating the Twine I had to rely on observing the heat pump to get its status. As I frequently have business in the basement this was no big problem, but I had to be at home. With the addition of the Twine I can now get the status over the Internet, whether I was elsewhere in the house or somewhere with Internet access.

Access to the Twine goes via the services of Supermechanical, so I depend on they staying in business for the setup to work.

By the way, the use of solutions like Twine is included in the concept of Welfare technology, applied to finding ways to reduce the burden of the elderly boom that is expected in the future.

Do you know how to reuse computers?

Do you know how to reuse computers?

This video presents how the FAIR equips schools with computer labs built from recycled computers. Linux is the platform that makes this economically viable, and the result is a spread of IT knowledge among people that would otherwise miss out on this cornerstone of modern society. Unfortunately, you need to know Spanish or Norwegian to understand the audio or subtitles, respectively.

But you get the idea, don't you? Even though you have the latest in computer technology for yourself, the equipment you phase out can still be of use to others. In Scandinavia, large amounts of computers are being discarded each year. They are thrown away because they are not fast enough, or do not have enough disk space etc. We replace them for new computers that are faster, more modern, and have up to date features and functions - rarely because the old computer is broken! In developing countries, institutions such as schools, universities and hospitals, have a great need for IT in order to join the global information community, and enjoy its many benefits. Information technologies are an important prerequisite for the development and sustainability of democracy, education and health-care.

FAIR is working to bridge the digital divide between countries that are technically more developed and those that are technically disadvantaged. Schools in recipient countries are provided with integrated and effective computer solutions for use in IT classes - based on open source software and reused hardware, which otherwise would have been discarded and destroyed during recycling. You can help FAIR in its efforts by donating your own equipment, convincing your employer to become partner, or by becoming a personal member. The choice is yours, but the responsibility is with us all!

And by the way, I am biased as I am a member of FAIR's board.

Easy living

It has been a wonderful week. A week back a friend and I celebrated that we both had turned 50.

We had a big party in my garden with friends, live music, good weather, food and drink and everything else we could wish for. As you can see by the picture I was all smiles!

And it didn't stop there.

On Thursday I had my last day at my job in TraceTracker. I handed in my resignation some time back since I got an offer for a new challenge in a major engineering company. But first I cashed in a gift certificate for spa treatment on Friday to "wash off" my old job. And yesterday, out of the blue, I learnt that a musical wizard from earlier times, Ken Hensley, was performing at Eidsvoll Rock & Blues Klubb not far away. So I got to get my head cleaned out with old Uriah Heep music as well. Big success!

I start in my new job tomorrow, and I look forward to coming back to low level programming in the hardware/software interface.

FLL competition @ Kjeller

Last Saturday the local final in the First Lego League was arranged at Akershus University College. My youngest was part of the Team Kebabgeeks that got the fifth place out of ten competing groups. And they were nominated for the prize for best presentation.

The picture shows a panorama of one of the robot challenges, with my team in red. As the competition developed they got really excited, and contrary to my expectation they expressed the desire to participate next year as well. Whether they do or not, I think they have got an experience they will remember the rest of their lives, and maybe influence the path they take later in life.

Applications of EPICS in food supply chain management

I'm presenting at the workshop Applications of EPICS in food supply chain management in Oslo 16. November. This workshop is based around the work done by SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture, Matis and TraceTracker (where I work) in the eTrace project. I hope to see you there if you are interested in the use of EPCIS for applications like traceability, sustainability, logistics optimization and supply chain management!

Salami and tomato on lego

This year's topic for First Lego League is "food factor". This means that the participants shall study food quality issues, find ways to improve it, build lego robots to solve tasks etc. And my youngest kid has drafted me to help his team!

The different tasks in the challenge have not been distributed among the participants yet, but it feels like an adventure. At home we started by locating his brother's Lego Mindstorm set, so that we can practice at home. I even took some parts and build myself a salami and tomato on lego. What a treat!

Part of the challenge is to find some candidate food products for further study. I had hoped to find some fish products that carry information about the catch, the vessel and so on, but that proved more difficult than expected. I found one processed product from Domstein, but it contained too many ingredients compared to the limit in the challenge.

It remains to be seen where the project develops, but I hope for a memorable learning experience for the kids.

Agro based clusters and traceability

With the recent ecoli incidents in Europe I suspect it may get even worse for farmers in developing countries to sell their products. German authorities are now certain that it was locally grown products that were to blame, but the average consumer may have become more conscious that it matters where foodstuff comes from.

So what should growers of fruit and vegetables in developing countries do to secure market access?

Last weekend I read a FAO report on Agro based clusters in developing countries. I have become involved in the design of such a cluster, with focus on using electronic traceability for creating product documentation. This solution is intended to support the cluster in creating market advantages through the use of modern export and sales support technologies. But can this also be used to make the end consumer trust the products?

A pilot in the eTrace project had success with using traceability information in the dialog with consumers at the point of sale. According to the fish monger “Instead of selling just a few kilos a day, I sold more than 150 kilos over 4 days. This is a very significant increase for us.”

Can similar effects be expected if flowers, fruit and vegetables from developing countries are equipped with traceability information? And how should it be done, by printing the information on the packaging or by providing links to online solutions like this (in Norwegian)?

Vipukirves, the magic axe

For my birthday I got a Vipukirves axe, which is specially designed for chopping firewood. In my role as gentleman farmer I try to keep my household with firewood. Sometimes chopping is required, and an axe is an obvious tool.

However, the Vipukirves changes the process of chopping wood entirely, especially for wide segments of logs.

Consider the first picture - it shows the unique profile of this axe, and a promising firewod candidate. Also shown is a "belt" around the candidate. I used the inner tube from a bicycle tire, but I suspect that a car tire would have been better. At least, that is what is often used in instructional films on Youtube.
Anyway, the purpose of the "belt" is to keep pieces from escaping and keep the workpiece on the base during chopping. Even with a regular axe, the chopping process has a tendency to eject the log pieces in different directions so that they fall off the base. With the Vipukirves the smaller piece can be thrown away quite violently. Therefore the belt, so that the workpiece remains on the base and you do not have to traverse the entire yard to gather the chopped firewood.

So what about the result? Well, this next picture shows the same log segment after being chopped. As you can see the pieces are more rectangular than the usual circle segments an ordinary axe would produce. The belt has kept the pieces in place so that they can easily be moved to a stack for drying.

This was my first experience with the Vipukirves, and I am not fully trained yet. I still had to use my hydraulic splitter for log segments with many branches. But the new axe is definitely a useful tool. I must be on the lookout for a used car tire though. The "belt" I used did not work as well as a wider tire would.

Google selects Arduino for Android Open Accessory

Stop press! Google's initiative for using the Android platform for controlling your environment, Android Open Accessory, has selected Arduino as its platform.

Think of the possibilities - the Arduino is so simple to play with that we can expect "everybody" to play with this. I even have one myself.

With this I can play with simple instrumentation projects and easily interface the real world with applications written in Processing. And now I can also start controlling Arduinos and whatever is connected from my Android devices. Hurray!

But will I find the time? Back in the early eighties I did instrumentation projects with Z80 and similar processors. It was such fun! If my employer practiced the Google concept for employees time to own projects, then I definitely know what I would be doing!

See you later, calculator

The abacus and the slide rule have both been replaced by new technology. When I went to school electronic calculators with scientific notation were becomming available. These days, in Norway, kids are at some point expected to have graphing calculator, but isn't this an anachronism?


With desktop and laptop computers have we have access to tools like Matlab, Mathematica, Macsyma and Gnu Octave. And schools are beginning to use tablet computers. Isn't the natural consequence that calculators go away, and that tablet computers take over the role of both the standard computer and the calculator. Maybe the concept of the Dynabook is eventually becomming a reality?

Currently, the rules in the Norwegian educational system rules out tablets, but there is time for a change, don't you think?

Paper tape programming tool

We all know how programming is done these days. But it has not always been so. I was first exposed to programming (BASIC) on a Tandberg desktop computer in 1979 (I think), but even then the screen and keyboard combination was a fact.


Was there anything before that? Well certainly - there were paper tape and punched cards. I have never used such technology myself, but I have the device in the picture in my posession. It consists of some pieces of aluminium that have been machined to work as a primitive programming/repair tool for paper tape. The actual holes were made with a broken off screwdriver in the lower right.
This device was a write-only tool on its own. But I guess anyone using it would also have a suitable reader as well.