I’m currently trying to decide between Google Reader and Bloglines for my RSS reader of choice. Both keep adding new features and every time I think I’ve decided on one, the other adds the feature I like about the other. Google Reader is winning at the minute, but the organisation of feeds needs a serious overhaul and I’d like to be able to directly post to delicious. I’m guessing as delicious is owned by Yahoo, this might not happen, but I can hope.
Anyway, the point of this post is to ask if there is any other reader out there I should be considering? Needs to be:
- accessible from any computer (web-based)
- ability to organise feeds into folders (would love to have nested folders – neither GR or BL have this yet)
- When I read one post in a feed, the others must stay unread unless I choose otherwise
- ability to post direct to delicious would be great
- the ability to email posts (the link into Gmail means GR is winning on this one)
- drag and drop for organisation of feeds into folders
- able to publish as a blogroll to this blog so I can keep it more up to date than currently
mel starrs Uncategorized Google, Housekeeping, Yahoo
Blogging may be light for the next few weeks, so I’ll point you in the direction of this list of 100 economics blogs for a little diversion. Why should you be reading economics?
A close study of economics sheds light on political, social, and even environmental trends, all of which affect even the average person’s daily life.
There’s a few more on my blogroll (which needs a serious clean-up) if the 100 options above run out.
mel starrs Uncategorized Economics
Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian on Monday wrote a piece on population. Always a tricky debate, her main thrust was that the debate should enter the green mainstream, whereas currently it is seen as a marginalised issue (due to pressure from some quarters – Bunting cites the Pope and US pro-life factions).
A book which really helped me understand the issue of population was Jeffrey Sachs The End of Poverty
. As well as the population question, it also sheds light on some economic situations in the past 20 years, such as India, China and Russia. A fascinating read (and might work better as a biography of Sachs work, as the poverty bit felt a bit forced and overly optimistic).
2.1 children per couple – that’s Sachs prescription…
mel starrs Uncategorized Activism, China, India, Jeffrey Sachs, Madeleine Bunting, Russia, the Guardian, United States
For the first time since I’ve been out of the country, I’m feeling out of the loop. Catching up on some reading I found this in Building:
Faber Maunsell, the RICS and refurbishment specialist Skansen are to launch a green ratings system for fitting out commercial properties.
The online system will be launched at the end of October and rolled out at the beginning of next year. It will allow clients, contractors and consultants to calculate the environmental performance of their projects at the outset of refurbishment.
I have been under the (mistaken?) impression that BRE were to expand BREEAM for Offices to include fit-outs. Have FM taken over or are they producing a completely new scheme? Answers on the back of a postcard to the usual address please…
mel starrs Uncategorized Green Building, online system
This year’s campaign starts today.
The first 100 participants who return their CIBSE TM22 Energy Assessment form at the end of the 100 days will receive free Display Energy Certificates, ahead of the requirement for public sector occupiers of larger buildings to display the certificates by 6 April 2008. The certifcates will be produced by a member of CIBSE’s register of Low Carbon Consultants.
mel starrs Uncategorized Sustainability
In case you may have missed it, Architectural Record has started a blog, and it’s actually quite good. Catching up with the archives, I found this gem on open plan offices.
Having been on the receiving end of some less than stellar office re-organisations and also involved (somewhat indirectly in the actual design decisions, but present at the discussions) in the construction of open plan offices, I can only agree with Suzanne Stephens’ conclusions:
It’s time another Probst came up with acoustically satisfying work environments—ones that companies can afford, and everyone will find truly distraction-free.
She also touches on another problem with open plan offices – storage space. Can we come up with an acoustically satisfying space which also has enough space for the reference documents we all use? One solution would be a dual screen arrangement (one screen for reference material, and one for actually composing drawings or documents or running software). Of course, your desk would need to be large enough to hold both screens and then we would run the risk of supplying desks large enough to lay out an A1 (nevermind A0) drawing on. Can’t be going back to the good old days when we all had a drawing board and desk to ourselves, can we now?
This may seem rather petulant, and although the ”happy worker is a productive worker” is refuted by some, I’m still a fan of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Given a comfortable environment, in which a worker feels their needs are being respected, they will be able to advance towards attaining cognitive and aesthetic needs – surely a goal if your business is engineering or architecture?
mel starrs Uncategorized Built Environment, Management, Productivity, Suzanne Stephens
Spotted in Architectural Record, an intriguing attempt at philanthropy by american architects called the 1%.
Practices donate 1% of their billable hours to projects for non-profit organisations, pro bono.
I like the concept of using billable hours, rather than a percentage of profit or turnover. So for a company which tries to reach a utilisation of say 80% (i.e. 80% of hours are ‘billable’ or charged to the client and 20% are used on admin etc), then if a practice has 8 architects (or engineers) working a 1670 hour year, then almost 134 hours would be ‘donated’. In practice, I assume that rather than 1% from each member of staff, the hours would be pooled to make them more useful.
Anyone got any other examples of philanthropy out there?
mel starrs Uncategorized Activism, Architecture
The blogosphere have been saying it since day one, now the industry events circuit is catching up. CIBSE have announced The Great Refurbishment Event: Making refurbishment a green opportunity scheduled for 24 October 2007 in London.
And in case we need reminding why existing buildings are key, Cyril Sweett estimate that by 2050, 60% of UK buildings will still predate 2006 Building Regs, with corresponding high fuel consumption and carbon emissions. Barring a massive technological improvement in electricity generation at source, our only option is to address existing stock.
As I’ve said before, this is a lot less sexy than new build, but a necessary pill to swallow.
mel starrs Uncategorized Built Environment, Cyril Sweett, electricity generation, Green Building, London, Sustainability, United Kingdom
Found this via the Energy Performance Certificates for All blog:
On 22nd August 2007, Faero Ltd’s board unanimously agreed that Faero Ltd should immediately cease to trade, and proceed towards corporate dissolution. The reasons are set out in the Notification of ceasing to trade
Whilst the website is now not functioning, old pages exist in most search engines caches. From this page:
These assessors are individuals who have registered with one of the Authorised Energy Rating Organisations (AEROs). To register, they have had to pass a test of competence, and following registration they are regularly monitored to show their work continues to be up to scratch.
There was a strange situation a few months back where Hevacomp was an accredited SAP software (which the majority of building services engineers have access to) but unless the individual using the software was also with one of FAERO’s accredited companies (such as Elmhurst or NHER), the calculations were not able to be given to Building Control without checking by BC. What the situation is now with regards to the validity of SAP calculations done by, say, a chartered CIBSE engineer on Hevacomp as opposed to those done by a newly qualified EPC home inspector is unclear. I know which I would prefer, but I also know how much both would cost!
mel starrs Uncategorized British Columbia, Building Physics, Faero Ltd, Green Building, search engines caches, Software
Edwin is on form again – I’m beginning to look forward to his acerbic rantings. His thoughts on PFI schools in particular had me chuckling knowingly to the screen.
mel starrs Uncategorized Architecture
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