Yesterday morning it started snowing here, and it hasn’t stopped.  I think it must have snowed more heavily during the night, as there is a fairly substantial amount of snow on the ground out there this morning…and there is no sign of it letting up.

Watching the snow slowly covering the solar panels has reminded me that I have yet to adjust our panels to the steeper, 60-degree angle, which will help them shed the snow a bit more readily, and also collect a few more precious rays of sun (critical at this time of year.)  I hadn’t gotten around to it yet as we have had what seems to be an unseasonably sunny fall, even through the beginning of November.

I was able to take a couple quick passes on our driveway with our new tractor-mounted snowblower, but when I left to drive to work, I didn’t get far before I found the first casualty of the storm.

Perhaps today might be a better day to work from home!

Well as many people are aware, there was quite a sizable ice storm that came through Toronto on December 22nd, crippling large parts of the city.  At our house we have some very large old growth trees which were heavily damaged by the ice storm.  They also managed to smash up both our cars and our house somewhat.

Check out the attached gallery:

I always find it a little unsettling when I open my site and realize how long it has been since I last made an update.

Looks like another long spell has gone by without updates – which means, I have been busy!

I have been working on an online multiplayer trivia game for the past few months and it has turned out really well.

I’ve also ordered a Google Nexus One developer handset now that Android 2.2 is available and the device can run Flash (and AIR).

Hopefully won’t be so long between updates this time!

So they are trying to put up some devices which measure the wind (anemometer) in Lake Ontario just off of Scarborough, and the residents are apparently up in arms. I don’t really understand what problems people have with wind power, but I’d like to address a couple of claims the naysayers have been using to prevent the development from going ahead.

“Wind Turbines are an eyesore!”

To which I’d respond, which of the following is less of an eyesore, wind or coal? The power has to come from somewhere!

“Migratory birds will be killed by them!”

This has actually been proven false in locations where wind power has actually been implemented in the real world, such as Europe.

“Radar studies from Tjaereborg in the western part of Denmark, where a 2 megawatt wind turbine with 60 metre rotor diameter is installed, show that birds – by day or night – tend to change their flight route some 100-200 metres before the turbine and pass above the turbine at a safe distance.”

The thing I really don’t get is where people think all the power is magically going to come from if we don’t harvest the best free resource we have, the wind. It’s clean and about as environmentally friendly as you can get.

Here’s hoping we see more wind turbines and solar panels in the future, Ontario!