CEDX

Bookending the Season

At the beginning of the season, (summer) that is, Stacy Albin wrote this piece for the Long Island @ work section of the New York Times chronicling the efforts of myself and Brandon Palanker of Glen Cove to figure out how to make a living at doing Wi-Fi.  And today, at the beginning of fall,  Amy Gunderson writes a piece in the Real Estate section on staying connected while on vacation or at your second home.   In it, she describes two of my ventures, Wi-RAN and Fire Island Wireless.  Thrillingly for us, the piece made the web Front Page of the old grey lady. For about 24 hours.   Glenn Fleishman, the indefatigable chronicler of all things wireless; notes our efforts on Wifinetnews, and adds his insights here.

Google VPN, Google Wi-Fi?

Richard Dalton of Newsday wrote this article today on Google's latest search to add channels for driving folks to advertisers.    While still sort of under wraps, the Google VPN takes on, or will take on, a host of other "Personal VPN" services.  Glenn Fleishman, as usual, has the roundup of the players involved.  Folks have been asking me if I am quaking with fear, being a paid Wi-Fi operator.  Nay, though I walk half a country away from the valley of the shadow of Google, I have no fear, because I have somewhat defensible real estate!
Even though they have an insane amount of cash on hand, I'm not sure that they want to invest it in blanketing the country with free wi-fi.  I don't know if there's an ROI there with search results. It's one thing to conquer screen and hard drive real estate, its completely another game to acquire physical real estate to place wi-fi networks.  But as I said in the article, they are Google, after all.

Guest Hosting for Ernie

Ernie Fazio gave me the honor of filling in for him as moderator of the LIMBA meeting this past Friday, and it was a pleasure to help out the organization that I find most remarkable on Long Island.  My synopsis of the meeting follows:
Herb Healy of United Technologies' Power division came to speak to us this morning on the current state of fuel cell technology, deployments and the Long Island fuel cell picture.  As every LIMBA meeting is, this was another learning experience.  UTP has several varieties of power generation technologies in a few different packages, one, a complete power, heating, and cooling plant, another is a waste heat recovery-to-electricity device, and the third is a straightforward fuel cell, with natural gas in, and 480 Volt, three-phase power out.

 

We learned that economically practical residential fuel cells are pretty far off, due to the nature of fuel cell load characteristics.  A fuel cell capable of providing the peak power needs of a single family home on long island, is just too large and expensive right now.  What large fuel cells are good at is producing clean power for firms that need or want to have independence from the electrical grid, or that have a potential fuel source to recover revenue from.  A landfill or farm that is producing methane gas can collect this gas, "burn" it in the fuel cell in batches, use the electricity or sell it.  A hospital can use it for power insurance, heating and cooling.

 

The Long Island fuel cell scene is currently highlighted by two projects, one in West Babylon, where LIPA is entertaining proposals to replace the existing fuel cells in its substation there, and at a Verizon facility in Garden City, where a 7 unit, 1.4 Megawatt installation is coming on line in the very near future.  This facility is the largest North American fuel cell plant to date.  UTP's proposal submitted for the LIPA project will generate around 11 Megawatts if accepted.

 

The Q & A session demonstrated that folks were paying attention, to both the technology and numbers involved.  My question was in regards to repowering Long Island, where do fuel cells fit, and the answer seems to be that fuel cells are a base load contributor, in small increments.  I would see their primary benefit in being clean power for facilities that would be essential to social function in the event of a large power outage. A quick lesson on how a fuel cell works was also included for those members that aren't tech heads. 

The Brookhaven Contenders - Technocrat vs. Schmoozer

Ed Hennessey and Robert DiCarlo came to LIMBA this morning and presented their cases to be the Supervisor of the town of Brookhaven
Hennessey, the GOP endorsed candidate, hammered on changing the culture of Brookhaven town government rather than the other hot-button issue in the press, illegal immigration.
It was hard to keep track of all the specific organizational changes proposed by Hennessey, his command of the procedures of municipal government seems to be down pat. He certainly seems to have a plan for reorganization.

Addressing LIMBA's issues, he spoke about using smart growth principles to answer development needs in the town of Brookhaven.

Next up, Robert DiCarlo, is the challenger to be the GOP's candidate.
A former State Senator, DiCarlo is looking to be his bio emphasized his Pataki ties and past service in state government.  He opened with a description of his Dad's political career, the scion following in Dad's footsteps, relationships, lot's of name dropping.  Law and Order, increasing penalties for drug and domestic violence crimes.  Never thought he would run for office, but after many calls to run, he was convinced.

Foley will base campaign on an anti-incumbent strategy, so DiCarlo thinks that the only electable GOP candidate will be somebody that has not been involved in town govt.  He's not saying that Hennessey is corrupt, he is just saying that the Party structure and leadership is bankrupt, and wants to reform the Brookhaven GOP and town government.  Told a tale of woe for his cousin's business DiCarlo Food Service in their quest to develop their infrastructure, adding a rail spur, etc.
Invoking Saint Rudy, he proposes nuking the building department like Rudy did the city Board of Ed, and restoring property rights.

I had to leave during the Q & A, but it was lively.  Immigration didn't come up during my attendance.  I did stick around for one terrific question.  Steve Jones  of Suffolk County Water Authority posed the Shoreham Ferry question, Hennessey came out strongly for the ferry and the treatment of that property as a regional asset.

DiCarlo gave a politician's answer.

Bill Miller of Suffolk County National Bank asked what DiCarlo knew about Gordon Heights.  DiCarlo didn't know much.  That's bad for a candidate for Town Supervisor.  Bill is a Longwood School Board member and many of their students come from there.