Norman Morrison

Welsh Green Data Centre first of it’s kind in Europe

Norman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:31:28 +0000

I read a couple of interesting articles recently about data centres and managing their energy use. In an article in the Environmentalist (which unfortunately is not open access) Intel claims that an esitimated 7.5% of the power going into datacentres actually does what it’s intended to do. That leaves a staggering 92.5% to be picked up through efficiency and design changes. Furthermore, 60% of the total energy bill is for cooling! So it was encouraging to see that an operator based in Wales claims to be the first in Europe to run a facility on 100 percent renewable energy.

See also Greenpeace’s report on make IT green.

Microbiome transplant

Norman — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:16:18 +0000

Amazing article in the New York Times. During my first proper job when I left university I was involved in a study looking at the transfer of commensal bacteria populations in isolated communities (on the British Antarctic Survey base station) and this topic has always fascinated me.

“Dr. Khoruts decided his patient needed a transplant. But he didn’t give her a piece of someone else’s intestines, or a stomach, or any other organ. Instead, he gave her some of her husband’s bacteria.”

2D Barcodes in the Environment

Norman — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:39:18 +0000

So, as my first post, I’ve recently become interested in the possible applications of 2D barcodes in environmental informatics. More thoughts to come but as a start here’s a QR Code for this blog.

2D Barcode for nmorrison.info

Norman Morrison

Norman — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 16:17:04 +0000

School of Computer Science,
Kilburn Building,
University of Manchester,
Oxford Road,
Manchester, UK
M13 9PL

E-mail: norman@nmorrison.info (preferred)
E-mail: norman.morrison@manchester.ac.uk (official)
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 0646, Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6236
Skype: morrisonnorman