Facehooked! :(

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:35:31 GMT

My deepest apologies to the handful of readers who read this "falling apart" blog. Most unfortunately, I have been facehooked since the last month. Addicted to the most addictive online game ever. Warbook.

Now, this post is not a publicity stunt for either the game or the website. Instead, it is about my feeble attempt to revert to the code-monkey lifestyle I have always lived for the last 6 years or so.

Therefore, expect the activity to go up a bit in the next few days. :) Like it used to be in October/November last year.

Talking about Weather

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 05:25:57 GMT

Eric Lippert nicely puts cloud formation and proceeds to explain thunderstorms.

The game ends!

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:28:19 GMT

It ends on 21^st July, 2007 of what started on 30^th June, 1997.

I am talking about Harry Potter. The magnificent seven part series of spell binding (no pun!) literature. It has been foretold that Harry will die at the end of last chapter of his life 'to prevent others from building on the popularity'. Though, it was already very hard to deal with Dumbledore dying at the end of 'The half blood prince'. I am eagerly waiting to get my hands on this last book.

Don't use this cure. It worsens the symptoms!

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 07:16:34 GMT

Tired of load shedding? Constantly interrupted with power failure in the middle of that important chat? Finally, you convinced dad to install a UPS to fight all those chance of assignment not being completed on time? Wishing you had a laptop or owned KESC? You are that victim of constant power failure who couldn't prepare for that DIFFICULT paper next morning? It is time to ride the band wagon to load shedding free summers in Karachi. You have three options, curse KESC all the time and do nothing else, not likely. Get a generator to fulfill your deepest desires. Buy a handy UPS for all you home, you are that generous person, you are. And in the meantime, get a small UPS for your computer too so that it does not suffer from jerks (electric and human included. It would be better if you could keep your hands off it for a moment.).

UPS come in all sizes in rating. They are for things as big as an entire office. They can provide power to an entire home if need be. Or they can be for things like computer we mortals have come to love. My office has a UPS that supports all machines in it and has a battery life of 15 minutes. The one at my home has a battery life of 6 hours and can power almost everything at once. Thankfully, they are designed such that battery life and load bearing capabilities are independent of each other. You can have as much battery life as you want if you add enough batteries. Load bearing can be as high as you want (well up to a certain point) by using power electronics and devices.

These preliminaries aside, have you ever given thought to what happens when power goes out, UPS begins its life as a power source and when power comes around, recharges itself for next cycle? For the illustration take my home as an example. Here is a typical day, 24 hour power consumption cycle for my home.

Initial surge starting at 6 AM is due to everyone waking up. Things cool down a little from 9 AM to 12 PM. Then, those who don't have a full day job return and the consumption surge begins. We have highest demand from 4 PM to 10 PM. Finally, one by one, we starting getting to bad, our share of electricity now served to someone else and a new cycle begins.

Add UPS to the mix and see what happens.

The baseline power consumption for constant recharging and losses accounts for a couple of watt every day. This adds a certain amount to electricity bill each month. This is one part of the cost we pay for having power all day round.

Overall, power consumption is increased by this base line UPS power consumption above what would be otherwise.

Each day, we are consuming 24x/1000 units of electricity with no obvious gain. It is just like insurance, if the loss you have anticipated does not happen, you do not get all your money back, there is some amount taken. The operating charges and risk factor in case that catastroph had happened.

From the last picture, can you guess what would happen when power fails?

UPS lost external power somewhere around 12:50 PM - 1:00 PM. This power out period lasts for about two hours. During this time, UPS' internal power consumption has reduced to a bare minimum, sort of only for housekeeping jobs. So has total power consumption. It is very near what would be baseline power consumption in the absence of UPS. When power finally comes back around 3:00 PM, a sudden increase in power consumption happens. Difference of area under total power consumption from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM in the last two pictures must be less than increased power consumption. What is the reason? UPS begins charging back itself and it is common knowledge that the energy it handed out during the last two hours must be more than compensated in the next few hours. UPS power consumption jumps to about double its baseline level. Similarly total power consumption stays at a high level for some hours. When UPS charging rate finally starts to come down, the solid curve assumes its normal profile.

Now, do you see what the problem is? As more and more people install UPS in their homes, offices power consumption may be low for a part of the city while it is experiencing load shedding, but after that period is over, the amount that was conserved will be more than compensated by recharging devices. At the end, load shedding has not helped anyone conserve power but caused disruption for some and increased load on the system in the ensuing hours.

Bug Vanquisher: Things in life

Facehooked! :(

Talking about Weather

The game ends!

Don't use this cure. It worsens the symptoms!