A funny thing happened to me on the way to the fair. The Rockwell automation Fair that is.The Pilot comes on the intercom and says something like:
“Hi, it’s the captain here. I want to tell you that we can’t get the flaps into the right position. We need number 15 and we can only get to 14.” (or he said something like that). “We’ve tried a few times and it doesn’t want to move.”
So we (the passengers) are all thinking: “What does that mean – are we going down?” Most of us don’t pilot planes so we don’t know how serious the situation is. We all agreed in our seating row that it was ‘TMI’ -- Too Much Information? I think he realized that, because he then said words to the effect of:
“Chicago, Chicago, I’ll show you around, You’ll Stay Around”, sings Frank Sinatra in the Fred Fisher song ‘Chicago’ published in 1922.
Well, come to the McCormick Center in Chicago, Illinois this week (16th and 17th November 2011) and let Cisco show you around Booth #239 where we’ll show you some cool demonstrations, and talk to you about your business and technical issues and how Cisco can help.
In my video, I highlight the Innovation and Collaboration that the convergence of plant and enterprise networks enables, which we will be showcasing in our Cisco booth on the AF show floor, including:
So the other day my wife told me the water in the shower didn’t seem as hot as it normally does. “Maybe something wrong with the water heater?” she said. I did all the normal checks: no water on the basement floor, pilot is lit, check, check. All seems ok.
We happened to go to Home Depot to buy some other stuff, but we ran into the water heater guy. His diagnosis: water heater going bad. (Full admission, it is 11 years old)
I kind of buy his story, it makes sense. Here is an appliance that is 11 years old that I never maintained. Expected life is 10 years, so I am already plus one, right? And maybe a new one would be more efficient, right?
But isn’t that the sort of internal argument manufacturers go through every day? Sunk cost (what they already paid for) vs. Maintenance vs. Replacement? How efficient are the machines you bought 10 or 15 years ago? How do you know? How much does it cost you for a shutdown for two to three days while you secure a replacement machine and install it? Wouldn’t that information be valuable to you if it was visible? How do you know?
Energy management/awareness is certainly a big part of this sustainability issue. Check out this video from Chet:
