At Scale Everything Breaks - Google

How big can government get? Could we expect a global government to emerge in the next decade out of the United Nations? As much as this might be planned for, it is instructive to see what Google has discovered about operating at scale.

Behind the scenes, Google is fighting a constant battle against the twin demons of cascading failovers and the increasingly challenging levels of complexity that massively scaled services bring. ‘At scale, everything breaks, and Google must walk a tightrope between increasing the scaling of its systems while avoiding cascading failovers, such as the outage that affected Gmail Read On


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Posted On: 1/1/0001
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Why are Container Homes Not Popular in Western Australia?

I find container homes fascinating & believe that there is a lot of opportunity in Western Australia for the concept, especially where components are built in China for local 'Makano like' construction. Our huge regional expanse and limited population makes it extremely expensive to build even the most simple home in WA so any modularised dwelling that can be easily transported and erected must have a good possibility of commercial success in this marketplace.

Most people have a poor opinion of container homes because little attention is normally paid to the facade & exterior design. For our climate in Western Australia I like the idea of combining container homes with large shade sails.

Most shires & councils in Western Australia have strict building codes that limit the use of container homes because of their standard unappealing design.

Some other useful posts on futureWA in relation to this style of home -

Video about container homes

A container home with real style


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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Container Home on Millionaire Row

So you thought container homes were ugly? Think again.


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
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Container Homes in Western Australia

Why might you consider building a container home in Western Australia? Well there are a number of reasons that might justify such a decison -

  • Buy your container home in China & have it shipped over to Australia. Container homes fit perfectly onto modern transport ships & prices are lower in China
  • Modularity of design make container homes perfectly extensible. Buy multiple containers as components and create a grand multi room home or a hotel
  • Don't feel limited by the shape of the container. Consider creating an external 'look' with shade sails or lattice for instance
  • Container homes can come preconfigured with wiring, plumbing, insulation & interior fittings

Build your future container home & beat the 'debt slave' mindset.


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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Distributed Energy

Historically energy grids have been highly centralised and in the case of energy in Western Australia the centre has consisted of coal powered electricity generating stations. With new DIY energy technologies becoming available the centre is yielding to the edge. The edge will include all homes and businesses that decide to invest in their own solar panels, wind turbines & wave energy generators.

As more distributed power generators come online, connections between these energy generators will grow, creating a robust, distributed and intelligent energy network. This new network will yield as yet unknown benefits beyond stability and price efficiencies.

The future is looking bright indeed.


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
Categories: Energy | Infrastructure
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Building the blueprint for powering Western Australia by a 100% carbon/energy neutral position by 2030

Western Australia needs to reinvent itself rapidly to survive & prosper in the future. We need to leverage our abundant natural resources into a low cost/long life energy infrastructure. A carbon neutral low cost energy infrastructure could be built in this state given its vast amounts of potential natural energy sources and raw material resources that can be traded to help finance the development of the infrastructure.

What does the most efficient carbon neutral energy infrastructure for Western Australia look like given the technology that we have available today & the political will?


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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Pilbara city to rise in the north

There appears to be a push coming from the liberal government to establish a city in the Pilbara.

At the opening of the Zone Conference in Perth at the University of Western Australia, Premier Colin Barnett commented that it would be unacceptable not to develop the north west of the state.

It seems that big corporates like BHP & Rio Tinto are keen to have services closer to all their mining action. The state government is chasing the federal government for a prepayment to kick start the project.

Ken Perry, managing director of Brandrill Ltd has prepared a discussion paper on the matter suggesting that there should be plans put in place to develop a city to be home for 1 million people.

The deputy managing director of CITC Pacific said that his company is building a giant desalination plant capable of producing 51 gigalitres is expected to produce 25% excess water. This excess water will be available to any major human population that emerges in the area. 


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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High speed rail for Western Australia

There is currently a global high speed rail explosion with many first world countries expanding or developing high speed rail networks.

This week, the Chinese government awarded a $4 billion contract to build 80 high speed (236 mph maximum) electric train sets for the new 3,700-mile-long high speed train network it is building. Half of the contract went to Bombardier Sifang, a Chinese joint venture with Berlin-based rail giant Bombardier Transportation. The company will begin delivering the trains in 2012 and finish by 2014— boom, done.

Russia is taking the plunge into high speed rail as well, spending nearly $1.5 billion to upgrade 401 miles of track between Moscow and downtown St. Petersburg, and buy eight electric Sapsan trains made by German conglomerate Siemens (ETR: SIE) with a top operating speed of 217 mph. Four runs a day will make the trip in less than four hours, compared with an average five hours to make the trip by airplane, including the time wasted getting to and from the airport and running the check-in and security gauntlets.

France already has the wonderful 200 mph high speed TGV network, with 1,100 miles of track, more than 400 trains, and the third-highest ranking of rail passengers per year, behind Switzerland and Japan.


Perhaps the population in WA does not warrant a high speed rail network just yet but as we expand our population along the coast between Kununurra and Albany we should expect to see a high speed rail network emerge as the longest single high speed rail network on the planet. The potential for powering the network with clean energy sources such as solar, wind, wave & geothermal is a reality too.

 

 


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Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
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Feed the grid with your car


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
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Intelligent cities coming to Western Australia

Smart cities of the future are being built now. South Korea's Songdo and China's Meixi Lake exemplify the design features that will distinguish our Western Australian cities of the future. These new cities are nearing completion in what are multibillion dollar builds that incorporate intelligent infrastructure and eco vibes.

Songdo is a modern mega structure marvel built on what was once an expanse of mudflats.  Presently this new city that lies fifty kilometres south west of Seoul is forty percent complete. It is now dotted with more than one hundred high rise buildings including a 7,800-person apartment complex, a massive convention centre and a Sheraton hotel. Completion date for the city is set for 2014 with a final price tag of 35 billion US dollars making it the largest private real estate project in history.

Backers of the Songdo project include Morgan Stanley, Gale & the Korean steel maker Posco. All are betting that the city will become a trading hub linking Tokyo & Shanghai.

The city will conform to the U.S. Green Building Council's energy-efficient L.E.E.D standards; all buildings are incorporating special window glazing and ventilated double facades. Grey water and rain will be collected for irrigation and use in cooling towers. A network of underground pneumatic pipes will move solid waste, reducing the need for garbage trucks.

From a transportation perspective the city is already offering car sharing, water taxis, bike rentals and buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

An amazing 40% of the city space is allocated to greenery & vegetation including parklands & play areas.

Data networks developed & deployed by Cisco link every facet of the city including schools, stadiums, municipalities and the utility grid.

Cisco views Songdo as a model it can replicate around the world. It plans to build a global centre for "intelligent urbanization" and the replicate the solution in new cities as they are built.

We can certainly expect many of these intelligent city themes to find their way into new cities built in Western Australia.

 


Posted by: Andrew
Company: Noble & Associates
Phone: 61894007400
Posted On: 1/1/0001
Contact via email: andrew@nobleaccounting.com.au
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