boulder

Timelapse of Boulder’s Flagstaff Fire

Colorado has some pretty intense wildfires “of epic proportions1” going on right now. It seems fortunate in that only one person has died thus far (from what I’ve been able to determine) and about 600 homes have been destroyed, but almost 150,000 acres of land have been burned in five separate fires that are still ongoing.

The sunset/nighttime/sunrise sections2 of this timelapse video by Dustin Henderlong are a wonderfully poignant view of the Flagstaff wildfire in Colorado, which is about 30 minutes north of my alma mater.

via Devin Reams

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  1. to paraphrase Colorado Springs Fire Chief Rich Brown describing the Waldo Canyon Fire, but really could be applied to all the fires in Colorado ↩

  2. starting at 1’32” and 3’45” ↩

What To Talk About?

On February 18th at 6pm, Ignite Boulder will be holding their third night of presentations. The idea is simple, I have 20 slides that automatically advance after 15 seconds and I can use them to talk about whatever I want.

Anything.

So, if you could hear me talk for just five short minutes, what would you like me to talk about? The topic can either be funny or serious. The current leading ideas, that other people are presenting on so I can’t do but am including them so you have an idea of what the types of topics could be, include:

I have currently made my stand with “Installing WordPress“, which will cover how to install WordPress 2.7, including setting up your mySQL database, how to download and install plugins and themes. I’m currently ranked 20th and only the top six vote getters will present. But, with your help, I think I can do better!

So, what what you like to hear me talk about?

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Operation of Hydroelectric Facilities and the Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Generating Plant

  • Mines

A while back I posted some picture on Flickr of the Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Generating Plant. At one point, I was going to write up a little post here explaining what they were and why I had picture of such a cool (albeit old) facility.

Instead, I decided to write the paper for my class and post that in lieu of writing an actual post.
The downside, though, is that posting my paper creates about five pages of technoblable that most readers will turn away from in utter disgust. However, posting my paper does have the effect of pushing forward my “long standing desire post my school work online” and I think the latter serves the purposes of this blog better then trying to remedy the former.

I generally detest posting things on here in the PDF format, however the IEEE format for publication is rather odd and doesn’t it lend itself to online publication very easily. However, I will include the abstract and index terms for the benefit of those who are at least a little curious but do not necessarily want to read the entire paper:

Operation of Hydroelectric Facilities and the Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Generating Plant (April 2008) [PDF]
Andrew J. Ferguson, Member, IEEE

Abstract – Boulder Canyon Hydroelectric Generating Plant has been in continuous operation since 1910. While the technology behind the operation has seen some upgrades, the infrastructure is mostly the same as it was almost a century ago.

Index Terms – Breaker, Hydroelectric generators, Synchronization, Transformer, Water.

Update: Received 95/100 on this paper.

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