I wish I had the source for the stats, but I remember reading that a significant percentage (call it more than 1/8th of the total budget) of a electric utilities budget could be spent on -just- tree trimming services. This was discussed in the context of investments by a electric utility to decrease downtime during a storm, and how the (large) investments in the 12mos for tree trimming services is what allowed for so little downtime.
Another recent example in 2021. Kauai is supposed to be up to 80% powered by renewables with their pumped storage install. Small scale, but great example.
Homes in North America are not built with wood from Southeastern US. Wood from PNW and Canada is used. I believe this is why a lot of furniture, cardboard boxes and cabinetry is made in Southeast US.
Mills / lumber yards consolidated during 2008-2009 financial crisis.
In the years leading up to covid, Canada unintentionally lowered lumber prices by cutting down trees that were infested with a certain type of beatle. At the same time, Canada was reducing the number of (healthy) trees allowed to be harvested for wood every year.
Some have argued that wood prices have been too low, for to long. The industry has never recovered from 2008-2009, and has a conservative mindset.
There are definitely a lot of perspectives to hear in this equation.
I like a quote from this podcast; higher prices cure high prices.
After learning SQL, Powershell, VB script, and taking a fifteen week CIS course on Android; Java was a natural segway for me.
I work an an Android use case, so reading Java stacktraces, and code commits became a valuable skill.
Then, I learned the value of using Java libraries such as Appium and Selenium for end-to-end integration, performance, and reliability testing.
Then I started using Java libraries like Okhttp, Jackson to build fancier test setups.
While this was happening, I was learning the value of writing code that could be ran in containers - which Java does. Now I can create microservices that I stick in containers on Google Cloud Run or Pivotal Cloud Foundry - and pass arguments to execute tasks.
After getting these foundational skills developed, I started working on adding features to Android apps in the use case.
Since I had learned that much, I figured I should write a personal site using Spring MVC, Spring JPA, VueJS, ChartJS, and CockroachCloud (postgres). I then went and wrote a DAO microservice to write to CockroachCloud on a recurring schedule, and used Java with JDBC to learn how to access postgres without Spring.
Java has become a great skill, that I picked up almost entirely during the pandemic. Especially when paired with Javascript. On Javascript, what I find interesting is that some teams have rewrote services from Javascript to Java. IME, Java works on everything, and with everything.
Once you master one object oriented language, having to learn Objective-C or another variant of Java like Kotlin or Scala becomes that much easier.
IMO, there are 3 things are worth learning. They are SQL, a high level scripting language, and a object oriented language. They all have their uses, and the skills are transferable. For me, Java just happened to be the most valuable skill I could learn.
I work on a use case that leverages Samsung DeX and secondary displays with keyboard/mouse. Applications are refactored to run on native Android, or accessed on HTML5 sites. What Win32 is left is accessed on VDI.
The solution supports MFA step-up auth to login to device, local print, proxy's traffic, per app vpn. Endpoint threat detection products for Android have more capabilities than ever. You can specify approved IP addresses, countries that traffic can communicate with. You can provide a list of approved WiFi BSSID.
With these mobile security SDK's embedded in native Android apps, functionality with the apps can be limited based on threat infractions.
E.g. - if the device magically became rooted while authenticated in android native app, or connects to rogue BSSID; the app performs whatever actions (terminates vpn to intranet, logs threat event on public facing endpoint, force re-authenticate with MFA.)
Where can someone buy Samsung DeX? I believe it is natively supported on all Samsung devices. E.g. - it is possible to buy a Samsung Tab S7 at a retail store, use a secondary display with built in USB-C PDP, and then bluetooth keyboard/mouse for interaction.
If you are looking to replicate the setup with MFA, proxy, per-app vpn and more; VMware's Workspace ONE product lineup will, along with Zimperium's mobile security SDK. While we can't rewrite all your apps from Win32 to Android for you, we can help you rewrite them to use OIDC and auth with a IDP of your choice.
Full disclosure; I work at VMware.
Personally, I think the power savings along is impressive. A tablet consumes a fraction of the power of a thin client running VDI or mATX desktop. Users get a device that feels modern, mobile-by-default and cutting edge. The business gets to realize electricity savings. At the same time, the business gets to redesign apps and services to run on mobile, so they can get rid of tech debt in win32 app design choices.
So a specialized setup, no different than typical IT setups that most Windows shops already have in place with AD, policy groups and hardware assisted sandboxing.
And completely out of reach as the typical setup most people buy for their homes.
Hydro storage is gaining popularity. During the day, with over-provisioned daytime production, they pump water to higher elevation ponds. At night they let it flow down to the lower elevation ponds.
These could still freeze and stop becoming viable sources of energy, but they are a non-lithium source for energy storage. If they could be kept warm enough to flow in these conditions, they could provide generous storage capacity.
