Wishing for drug busters of yesteryear

I grew up in the 1970s. The hippy movement started in the late 1960s, so I was well poised to be a hippy. I wasn’t one. The hippy movement was based on “drugs and sex and rock ‘n’ roll”, but most... 

Shaving the point finer and finer

Cellphone users will have noticed that the interval between when you finish entering the number (oops – I nearly wrote 'dialling the number') and when the other phone rings is getting slightly... 

Musk and Gates geniuses? I think not

The other day JP and I were chewing the fat. I mentioned to JP that Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket had gone up on the launch pad with a fearful scene of destruction. I also said that Musk was saying... 

Donald Trump’s win good for fossil fuels

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a climate change sceptic who does not believe that wind turbines are any good, thinks coal is great and wants to develop oil reserves. Unlike the Democrats,... 

African science

In Zambia, once a year, in early evening, you will be able to look at the moon and it forms a crescent,  with the planet Venus in the crescent – very similar to the Islamic moon and star symbol. I... 

Arguments for nuclear energy

When I worked for State-owned power utility Eskom, I gave up trying to explain to people how power systems work. Right now I am hard practising my ignoring skills in the debate over whether or not... 

Biometric identification is fine, but just don’t share private information

A growing technology is that of biometric interfaces. 'Biometrics' is just a smart way of saying "recognising the identity of a person by their fingerprints, voice or the pattern of the iris of one... 

Two tales from construction sites

In contrast to the gloom and doom of the economy and the political goings-on,I thought I would cheer you up with tales from two of the various sites I have worked on. Most construction sites start... 

R300bn-a-year climate change war chest could electrify all of Africa

The joke goes like this: a Frenchman and a German meet in a bar just after the end of the Second World War. Initially a bit wary, they start talking after a while. They have both just been... 

Interesting facts about electric fish

I recently visited the Zambezi river, in Zambia. During my time there, dedicated to fly-fishing and drinking milk and flavoured fruit juice, I speculated on the nature of electric fish (no, there... 

Another open letter to Mmusi Maimane

Recently, I read an article about the nuclear power deal. In the article, Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane states: "Jacob Zuma’s nuclear deal will be disastrous for South Africa. It... 

Running out of memory

Consider how much memory there would be in the form of computer storage if all storage was done on silicon chips and all the silicon in the world was used up. Of course, this could not happen... 

Breathtaking views on electricity and renewables

Of late, I have been reading in Engineering News and other publications of opinion on electricity and renewable energy by various people that are just breathtaking. It is interesting that these... 

The Great Wall of Trump

In this and future columns (well, in at least one), I will be discussing some of the electrical engineering issues coming out of the US election campaign and the promises made by the candidates.... 

Crowdfunding for fun engineering projects

I am really not sure what crowdfunding is. Wikipedia puts it this way: “Crowdfunding (a form of crowdsourcing) is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from... 

Open letter to DA leader

Dear Mmusi Maimane When Creamer Media publishing editor Martin Creamer and I agreed that I would write this column, he said the column must not be smutty and it is not recommended that I write... 

Nimble operator with a gas turbine

In May of this year the state of South Australia closed down its last coal-fired power stations. This could happen because the state has an extensive installation of gas turbine, wind turbine and... 

It’s all very taxing for small engineering firms

My friend hates paying income tax. He is also one of those people who did not do well at school. Nonetheless, he has a very acute mind. When he went into business, he got into trouble with the tax... 

Reflections on technological change

I believe that all technologies go through a cycle. Henry Ford once said: “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. But even as we read quotes from famous motor... 

Trouble in paradise

From the ESI Journal's July 22 edition: “South African State-owned power utility Eskom has said that it will not sign any power purchase agreements with private power producers once round 4.5 of... 

The aliens are coming

The other day, more than usual calls on my cellphone were being dropped. The Internet was erratic and that DStv was often on the blink. An increase in electromagnetic jamming always precedes an... 

Old school musings

I was born back in the day, so I’m ‘old school’. For the greater part of my school life we drove to school on roads which were not tarred. Growing up and going to school, I saw the first 6.6 kV... 

CSIR’s frightening attitude towards renewable energy

Wikipedia says of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR): "[It] is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an... 

Electrical engineering during WW2 – Part 4

This is the last article in this column about electrical engineering during World War II. In point of fact, this article does not discuss electrical engineering, but flying bombs. For those of you... 

Electrical engineering during WWII – Part 3

German and British scientists knew that radar was going to be an important component in the Second World War. However, at the beginning of the war, while both sides had developed radar systems,... 

Electrical engineering during World War II

In this article and a few more to come in this column, I am going to write about electrical engineering in World War II.  Okay? Good. We have all seen the film, haven’t we? The luxury liner is... 

How about analysing dog barks to better communicate with them?

Words that we use in speech are made up of a collection of individual sounds. In theory, if one had a group of people, each of whom had a tuning fork which, when struck, would make a pure note, it... 

UPS shenanigans

Not long ago, I found myself in the interesting position whereby my client wanted a standby generator and an uninterrupted power system (UPS) and he wanted me to buy it and have it installed for... 

New scam has replaced old tender shenanigans

You heard the term 'tenderpreneur'. This is a person who submits a price to do some work against a government or quasi-government tender. The price the person submits is generally higher than... 

The Internet is doing our children an injustice

Many years ago, a teacher called David H was trying to describe to a science class the concept of the inverse square law. He said: “Imagine you had a butter gun and that, once the butter has been... 

The massive benefits of the electronic age

  I have an acquaintance in Cape Town who runs a business. The other day at a meeting he said something particularly rude and noticing the silence around him he said: “I am in business to make... 

The downside of renewable energy

I have just read an article by one Leo Smith. I do not know him. His article is called the 'Limitations of renewable energy' – and it is hard hitting.  Smith says of renewable energy: “It is... 

Corruption goes back a very long way

I have just finished reading a book by Admiral Lord Cochrane. I am quite sure that you have never heard of him, which is hardly surprising, since he died in 1860. The book he wrote is about his... 

Henry Ford’s sound advice for business

When I was young, white families in South Africa often declared themselves supporters of various brands of cars. My father thought that Ford cars were the best. Only the rich could afford... 

Working for a living Part 5

This is the final column in which I detail my experiences of having to work to get money for my university fees. I am writing this to show all the university students who want to go to university... 

Working for a living Part 3

This is the third column in which I detail my experiences of having to work to get money for my university fees. I am writing this to show all the university students who want to go to university... 

Working for a living Part II

This is the second column in which I detail my experiences of having to work to get money for my university fees. I am writing this to show all the university students who want to go to university... 

Working for a living

By now news is university students who want to go to university and not pay any fees. I think this is a real tragedy. This is so because no longer will students have to work to make money to go to... 

Want power system stability? Go for nuclear

One of the difficulties with a column like this is that the people who read it have  a variety of expectations. One thing I cannot do is to write about what I did last week with my dog (or my... 

Engineers must stick to their knitting

I was talking to the manager of a refinery. He had qualified as an engineer and had risen through the ranks. I asked him how he liked his job and he said, well, not much. He said he had come to the...