I’ve made some updates to the SoundCloud Energy Web App (that’s the actual app to the right; if you’re using Safari or Google Chrome you can press the “play” button to stream music right here).

From the original somewhat primitive version I’ve made the following updates:

• In the original app I wrongly assumed you could treat multiple source elements for an HTML5 audio element as a “playlist.” This isn’t the intended use of multiple sources – it is intended to allow for multiple formats for a single track. To allow for a “playlist”-like functionality of multiple tracks I’ve loaded the SoundCloud tracks into a JavaScript array and written some simply JavaScript code to loop through them.
• I got rid of the default HTML5 audio controls and replaced them with JavaScript-bound “play” and “pause” graphical buttons.
• I removed the wordy explanation of what this actually is and replaced it with a Pachube-generated graph of the last 24 hours of energy interchange.

The updated code is in the github repository for your enjoyment.

Here’s the SoundCloud Energy App, but as a Mobile Safari-optimized web app.

Get it from http://l.ruk.ca/pei-energy on your iPhone or iPod touch (it will also work on an browser capable of player MP3 streams via HTML5 audio element, i.e. Safari but not Firefox).

Right now it’s loading 50 tracks into the <audio> element, but only playing the first one; JavaScript magic coming to make it play onwards.

Source code is here for the checkout on github.

In theory, as these two graphs – wind speed at East Point and North Cape – go up, meaning it’s getting windier:

This graph – the amount of energy that Prince Edward Island is importing over the cable from New Brunswick – should go down:

If you want to try out my New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island energy flow Pachube + SoundCloud mashup and don’t want to fuss around with code, and you have a relatively modern Mac, grab soundcloud-energy, unzip and double-click: a few seconds later your iTunes should open and start playing music reflecting the current energy flow.

It’s all very well and good to be able to visualize the energy flow from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island, but what if we want more “ambient” feedback? What if we want to feel the energy flow?

Enter Pachube, SoundCloud, and a bit of PHP code to stitch them together. The result: iTunes plays songs with a beats-per-minute reflecting the current energy flow. Watch it in action:

What’s happening here is this:

1. The New Brunswick System Operator page is being scraped and converted into a Pachube feed which exposes the data in XML (code here).
2. The XML data is grabbed from Pachube and the figure, in megawatts, representing energy flowing from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island is use to search SoundCloud via its API (code here).
3. The tracks returned from SoundCloud are played in iTunes.

The result: you can hear how much energy is flowing over the cable from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island.

Update: I’ve packaged up the code as a Mac OS X app that you can download and install without the need to fuss with code.

Yesterday I pointed you at the New Brunswick System Operator page that shows real-time information about how much energy Prince Edward Island is pulling from (or sending to) New Brunswick.

While it’s great that this information is made available to the public, when information is locked inside a static web page like this it makes it hard to use it elsewhere, like to make graphs and other visualizations, or to see historical data. Things like this:

To work around this, I wrote some code (available here for you to look at and build upon) that would take that data and make it available in formats that are suitable for reuse elsewhere. Using my code you can get the NBSO data as XML, JSON, or in a format suitable for feeding to Pachube.

Pachube is a sort of clearinghouse for digital data like this, and when you send data to Pachube you have the benefit of being able to use tools that others have built to visualize the data. Like the graph above, which comes, live, from Pachube, so it’s always up to date. Or through widgets like this, also from Pachube:

What this data tells us is how much energy is coming over the cable from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island. Or, when the wind is blowing and demand here on the Island is low, how much energy we’re sending to New Brunswick.

The “peak demand” for electricity on Prince Edward Island, we learn here from the province, is 220 megawatts. That’s the theoretical maximum amount of energy we’ll all use at any given time. So you can consider the number on the graph and widget above as being, in a sense, “out of 220.” Although obviously it’s not really that, because the peak demand only happens rarely.

Although it doesn’t tell us everything we need to know to built a “smart grid,” this data is likely enough to use as a good starting point. Let’s say you want to do some energy-intensive activity, and you want to have a greater chance that it’s powered by wind energy: just watch the number on Pachube until it turns “negative” – a sign that we’re sending energy to New Brunswick because we have a surplus and are meeting all of PEI’s energy needs from wind – and use that as a trigger.

Remember The Man in the Blue Shirt? That’s the single person inside government that Ton Zylstra suggested we all need to find to aid us in our efforts to open up government data.

Well, I’ve long wished that live data for provincially owned wind farms at East Point and North Cape was made available to the public. I’d like both the raw data (like an XML feed) and friendlier visualizations to illustrate how much wind power is being generated, how much it’s earning we citizen-owners, and how much of the total demand it represents.

What’s nice about living in a small jurisdiction like Prince Edward Island is that the distance between we regular everyday citizens and our bureaucrats and politicians is quite compact: in this case my “man in the blue shirt” was Hon. Richard Brown, Minister of Environment, Energy & Forestry: about a year ago Richard and I first discussed the idea, and today we finally got around to having a formal meeting on it, joined by Ron Estabrooks, the department’s energy adviser (and a guy who knows a lot about energy).

The result of our meeting: the data’s there, via VestasOnline Business and all that needs to be done is to pull what’s needed together and make it available in a web-friendly format. Ron and I are coordinating how this is going to happen. (North Cape is a little more problematic than East Point as there’s only dial-up access to the site right now, so it might come later).

By far and away the most interesting thing I walked away from today’s meeting having seen was the public New Brunswick System Operator real-time system information, which looks like this:

What this table reveals, simple as it may appear, is pretty amazing information: the “Net Scheduled Interchange” figure indicates how much power, in megawatts, is flowing to (positive number) or from (negative number) power companies in New England (ISO-NE and NMISA), Quebec, Nova Scotia and PEI from NB Power.

In the case of the example above, at the moment I grabbed the screen shot this evening PEI was pulling 127 megawatts from New Brunswick (earlier in the day, when the wind was blowing harder and more wind power was being generated, it was only 30) and Hydro Quebec was sending New Brunswick 476 megawatts.

Peak energy demand in Prince Edward Island is somewhere north of 200 megawatts – it varies with time of day and time of year – and so if you know something about the demand, this table can give you a pretty good indication of how much wind energy Maritime Electric is using.

I learned a lot more today about wind energy and the North American electricity market too, and I’ll be relating that here in the days to come.

And stay tuned for live data from the wind farms!

You may recall that when we spoke a couple of weeks ago we were heading to Disney World in Florida with my parents. Well, we’re back.

In our absence my friend Dan tweeted “The question that has been taking up a disproportionate amount of my mindshare lately: Will @ruk love or hate Disneyworld?” This is my attempt at an answer.

Truth be told, this was not my first visit to Disney in Florida: in the late 1980s I was courted by a business mogul friend of mine to come and work for him in a Disney-related venture in Toronto. Part of the courting involved flying me down to Orlando to experience a bit of the Disney magic. Which is how I found myself, at age 24, touring the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

And I can tell you that there’s no better way to ensure that you don’t enjoy Disney World at all than to tour it alone in your mid-20s; which is to say that the magic didn’t take, and I returned to Canada chastened and ran as fast as I could away from the aforementioned venture.

So I was going to Disney World both with my communistic family values and my previous experience lending a strong bias against enjoyment of any sort.

To my surprise, I actually had a really good time.

Why?

Well, as much as I am an anti-corporate hater of big media, I am also passionate about customer service.

Disney might be big and faceless and populated by very annoying animated characters, but there is no better company in the world at customer service, and as the whole point of customer service is to disappear into the background and create a frictionless experience, that’s exactly what happened: a day that, while utterly devoid of anything real, was executed at such a high level as to be quite a lovely experience.

So, for example, as the day drew to an end we were standing in Liberty Square studying our Magic Kingdom map for a route to the exit. At exactly the right moment a smiling Disney “cast member” appeared before us asking if he could help us. He provided excellent routing advice and signed off with “Have a magical day!” And he said that in a way that was so completely sincere that we were left with the impression that he actually meant what he was saying.

From our arrival first thing in the morning, where we glided into the parking lot and were seamlessly shepherded, along with thousands of others, into the park, to the management of lines and crowds (it was one of the busiest days of the year in the Magic Kingdom, and yet it didn’t feel that way), to the efficiency of the food service, there was not a rough edge to the experience.

So what did we actually do?

• Rides: My father and I started the day on Splash Mountain, where we were trapped in a line in a tunnel for 30 minutes so baby ducks could be cleared from the way (whether this was true or not I don’t know, but as a “why you are stuck in line” explanation it’s a pretty good one). We got wet (just the right amount of wet), were thrilled (but not too thrilled) and came away happy. Over the course of the day we rode Peter Pan’s Flight (enjoyed by all, especially my mother), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (enjoyable, but probably the least-enjoyed ride of the day), Buzz Lightyear (maximum fun, especially because you could spin your cart around and around and around under your own control), the PeopleMover (my favourite: a simple tram running through Tommorland), the Speedway (tiny go-carts on a track; weird and pleasant in a “reminds me of the 1970s” kind of way). Other than Splash Mountain, which he wouldn’t even consider going near, all of the rides were [[Oliver]]-friendly (and Oliver really, really doesn’t like rides in general).
• Shows: I don’t think of myself as a “shows” kind of guy, but I enjoyed all of the shows we saw: they were well-executed, and had the added bonus of being an air-conditioned place to sit down out of the sun (it was 84 degrees the day we visited). We saw Mickey’s PhilharMagic (3D movie well smell-o-vision), Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (probably the highlight of the visit: you SMS in jokes while you’re in line and they’re integrated into the show; Oliver’s joke – “why is 6 afraid of 7… because 7 ate 9” – was selected first!), the Carousel of Progress (my favourite, mostly because it represents the pre-Pixar Disney attitude of my youth; I was also pleasantly freaked out by the animatronic actors).
• Walking Around: There’s a lot to entertain the eyes just by walking around: we toured Tom Sawyer’s Island in Frontierland, got pictures taken with President Mickey Mouse in The Hall of the Presidents, joined in (well, Oliver joined in) a dance show in the courtyard in Tomorrowland, rode the Walt Disney Railroad to Frontierland and walked through Cinderella’s castle on our way out.
• Ate: My friend Paul, a Disney enthusiast, had one big piece of advice for us: as soon as you arrive at the park, he emailed, call WDW-DINE and make lunch and dinner reservations. Of course we ignored him, and so we ended up eating lunch at a burger place in Frontierland. The food was basic, the service quick, but given the crowds and lines it was hardly relaxing. For supper I reasoned we needed a good break so, 8 hours after I was instructed to, I phoned the WDW-DINE line on my mobile and walked my way through making an automated reservation at the Liberty Tree Tavern, a “family-style” restaurant in Liberty Square made up to like a ye olde American tavern. I was happy I made the reservation when I did because appearances suggested the had I waited a few more minutes we would have been eating at 8:30. The meal was great: excellent service, tasty food (turkey, ham, flank steak, stuffing, all served on a platter for the entire table) accompanied by string beans, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese with apple crisp and ice cream for dessert.
• Didn’t Shop: While Oliver’s a casual reader of Mickey Mouse comics and is in the heart of his Suite Life of Zack and Cody-viewing years on the Disney Channel, he’s never been a merchandise consumer, and so we didn’t need to buy, or even look at, a single thing in any of the myriad gift shops in the park.

In addition to the “make your lunch and supper reservations” advice that I really do suggest you follow, here are some other pointers we picked up along the way:

• Derek pointed us to TouringPlans.com, a Disney-specific website full of valuable information on how to tour the parks, what days are busy, etc. It was worth the $10.95-per-year subscription price just to get a third-party lay of the land, and we ended up choosing Wednesday to visit because the site predicted it to be the least-busy day of the week (of course we had no way of knowing whether it worked out this way, but it was a way of narrowing our decision at the very least).
• The Fastpass system is your friend. Rather than lining up for a ride or attraction, you can insert your park ticket into a machine and get a “Fastpass” that allows you to return later in the day and skip the queue. It’s free, and with a little planning it can save you hours of time in lines. One point that’s worthy of special note: your Fastpass will give you an hour-long window in which you can return, but, in truth, you can use the Fastpass any time after that as well. So if you have a “Return between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.” Fastpass, you can actually use it a 7:00 p.m. too
• It’s expensive. Our one-day, one-park admission was $82 each (Oliver, being 10, is an adult in Disney’s eyes). Add on lunch and supper and parking, and it was close to a $500 day for the four of us. I’m not complaining, but you need to know that Disney’s not a cheap way to spend the day.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom at around 9:30 a.m. after a 2-hour drive from St. Petersburg; we left 10 hours later at 8:30 p.m. and that we lasted that long was, I think, a surprise to all of us. We saw a lot of the Magic Kingdom, but not all of it: we missed Adventureland, with its Pirates and Swiss Family Robinson, entirely, and probably hit about half of the attractions and rides we could have if we’d been more manic about it.

On the 2-hour drive back to St. Petersburg I can honestly say we were all happy and content after a day well-spent.

Apparently I like signs a lot, as it seems as though it was mostly signs that I took photos of during our trip this week to Florida.

Here’s a sign in the Glazer Children’s Museum in Tampa that seems entirely at cross-purposes with children’s museum philosophy:

Outside on the plaza in front of the museum is a “spray deck” – a sort of water fountain that you can walk through when it’s hot. It’s one of the oddest signs I’ve ever come across, especially point number six, which would seem self-evident:

At the condo where my parents are staying there are two elevators, one of which bears this sticker (the elevator is nonetheless in operation):

Around the corner is a statue of a pirate. You’re not allowed to climb on it:

Between my parents’ condo and the pirate is a boulevard with a suggestion that pedestrians should thank drivers for not running them over:

And on the main street you’ll find a series of non-signalized pedestrian crossings that are outfitted with bright yellow warning flags that pedestrians can wave to reinforce to drivers that they are crossing:

In the airport jetway in Terminal F in Philadelphia is a place where you pick up your “gate checked” luggage. There are obviously some issues that need addressing from the perspective of the luggage handlers, so they’ve modified the sign:

Back in the 1970s I bought myself an iPod Touch almost as soon as they first came on sale, and it’s been an off-and-on part of my digital toolkit ever since. Apple’s done a commendable job, especially when compared to other mobile device vendors, at maintaining software compatibility over the various iPod Touch generations, but in the past couple of months, with iOS now at version four and their modern devices have cameras and gyroscopes and microwave ovens, my ye olde iPod Touch has been left out of the game.

Ditto, for example, wouldn’t run on it (and who wants to feel left out of a Jyri Engstrom social object party). Nor would the new Foursquare client. Or the neato Google app that lets you point a camera at something and automagically identifies it. The FOMO, in other words, was getting to me.

The logical upgrade path, given that I’m carrying around an ancient [[Nokia N95]] in my pocket, would have been to chuck both the N95 and the iPod Touch and get an iPhone. But something buried deep inside me – fear of tribalism? complete vendor lock-in? simple iconoclasm? – prevented me from doing that. And so I bought a brand new 32GB 4th generation iPod Touch last night up at Future Shop (which almost lost the sale; actual conversation: “I’d like to buy an iPod Touch.” “Oh, he’s in a meeting. I can tell him to find you when he comes out.” “But I just want to buy one!” “Okay, I’ll find someone else”).

The effect of just a dramatic upgrade is akin to having just discovered the automobile after riding around on a horse all my life (okay, so maybe that’s over-emphasizing the importance of a mobile device in one’s pocket; let’s just say “it’s considerably faster”). Not only is it faster, but it’s got more gizmotronicness. Like the two cameras, the ability to tell where it is, and so on. The cameras have been widely derided by the technorati for being so poor as to not be worthy of a “megapixel” rating. And that’s true. But I think it misses the point: I’m not taking photographs with an iPod to blow up to 8 by 10 prints, I’m taking ephemeral shots meant to be viewed at 500 by 350 pixels. Like this:

Those aren’t photo-studio-quality photos, but they’re more than enough to suit the purpose, and considerably better than not having a camera at all.

Of course in many ways the last thing I need is another device forcing me into Twitter updates, Foursquare check-ins, compulsive email monitoring and so on. And maybe that’s why I got an iPod Touch instead of an iPhone: at least there are still places on earth free from wifi, and so I’ve bought myself a device with naturally limiting tendencies. That’s probably a good thing.