http://5amrunner.blogspot.com/

The blog is called 5 AM Runner (As I get up daily at 5 AM and go for a run) and its intent is to monitor and analyse my performance as I train

I will be learning new things about nutrition, exercise, sleep and how this helps me achieve my goals

Drop by sometime, you might learn somthing new ?

Brian

I’ll be bringing some new topics to the site and (hopefully) dedicating more of my time to posting new and interesting things. I’ll be changing the scope of the site to cover new topics and some of the existing ones will be amalgamated into, well I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it. Here’s a sneak peak of some new topics.

Design, Moving Image, Law, Marketing, Music, People, Business

I’m sure there will be some more iteration so I’ll keep you posted as to when we’ll be back up and running.

Brian H Fitzsimons

Brian H Fitzsimons

Jack Johnson’s no-pretensions approach to green living has turned the mellow rocker into one of the music world’s leading environmentalists. But the best part of his eco-ethos? It won’t make your eyes roll.

Credit: Jon Cohen
Outside Magazine
April 2008

IN THE RECORDING STUDIO at the back of the 1920s Craftsman-style bungalow that serves as Brushfire Records’ Los
Angeles headquarters, Jack Johnson taps out a groove on the snare and high hat while he whomp-whomps a bass drum with his foot. Johnson, 32, has put aside his guitar this November afternoon because this evening he’ll be playing percussion for his piano player, Zach Gill, who’s recording the first few tracks for an upcoming solo album. At the moment, Gill and a half dozen others are standing in the backyard, near an open entrance to the studio. In a scene that merges Home Improvement with Entourage, a woman from the healing center next door pops her head over the fence. “Is there any way you guys can shut that door?” she asks. “We’re doing massages and stuff.”

Someone in the Brushfire crowd quickly obliges. Maybe it’s not what the guys in Pete Doherty’s posse would have done. But Jack Johnson is a low-impact, less-is-more kind of guy. You hear it in his music—catchy little pop songs backed by spare guitar strumming that even at top volume are pretty inoffensive. You also see it in his Hawaiian country lifestyle. Johnson lives close to Pipeline, near his childhood home on Oahu’s North Shore, and his free time is focused on family and friends, surfing, and using his celebrity status to help slow the despoliation of the islands. Not exactly the setup you might expect from an international rock star—and while Johnson doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with that role, he’s stuck with it.
“PEOPLE SEE JACK AS THE ANTI-BLING,” says bodysurfer Mark Cunningham. “HE’S A BACKLASH TO ALL THAT CRAP.”

Johnson has sold nearly six million copies of his 2005 release, In Between Dreams. Add in the rest of his discography, which includes a kid-friendly soundtrack for the 2006 movie Curious George, and his total sales top 13 million. He’s something of an accidental icon, a surf filmmaker who became a multiplatinum recording phenom without really trying, and his noncommercial image is part of his appeal. “People see Jack as the anti-bling,” says Mark Cunningham, a champion bodysurfer and former lifeguard at Pipeline. “He’s a backlash to all that crap.”

While he’s not so radical that he gives away his CDs or sells concert tickets for $5, Johnson does have his rage—OK, exasperation—against the machine. At one point during the afternoon, he sticks out his puffy bottom lip, closes his eyes, and earnestly sings a line he loves from Fugazi’s 1990 tune “Merchandise”: “You are not what you own.” Back in the day, he wore a T-shirt that said the same. “It was music that had a real message,” he told me.

Johnson’s music has a message, too, but it’s not so much in the songs as in how he brings them to the public. He’s toured on a biodiesel bus since 2005, and he requires that performance venues buy carbon offsets for every show and compost the organic waste from his concerts. He’s staged the Kokua Festival in Oahu each spring since 2004—playing with friends like Eddie Vedder, Ben Harper, and Willie Nelson—and donates proceeds to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation, which he started to support environmental education in schools.

With the recent remodeling of the Brushfire offices, he and his business partner, Emmett Malloy—cousin of the pro-surfer Malloy brothers, Chris, Keith, and Dan—now operate one of the most eco-minded record companies in the industry. The Brushfire studios run on electricity provided by 32 rooftop solar panels; the building is insulated with blue-jeans scraps and outfitted with compact fluorescent lighting and low-flush toilets. Johnson even recorded Sleep Through the Static, his new album, which hits stores in February, in analog, on a hand-me-down 24-track Studer deck that reportedly once taped a David Bowie album.

Still, the reason millions of people buy Jack Johnson albums isn’t because of his toilets or the fact that he donates 1 percent of his profits to environmental causes. It’s because of his rootsy, campfire vibe and a distinctive sixties sensibility, which he’s reclaimed for the new millennium. “I’m a hippie,” he says. “I just have short hair.”

LET ME BE BLUNT: I’m no Jack Johnson groupie—his music just doesn’t make much of an impression on me. But he’s a skilled craftsman of infectious pop songs, and I’ve caught myself more than once singing along to one of his tunes on the radio.

Music critics have been less generous. Rolling Stone, after ignoring Johnson’s 2001 debut album, Brushfire Fairytales, gave On and On (2003) just two stars out of five, complaining that Johnson’s “Hawaiian surfer’s croon evokes the mellow-yellow moan of Donovan but without the weirdness that made that psychedelic folkie compelling.” Blender accused him of writing “lazy dorm-room poetry.” A New York Times reviewer said of one of his 2005 concerts, “About half the show exuded a sleepy charm; the other half was much the same, only without the charm.”

But one thing critics often miss with Johnson is something that doesn’t necessarily come through the speakers: There’s no act. “He’s just Jack,” as Rob Machado, one of his many pro-surfer friends, told me. “No matter what, he’s going to be onstage in flip-flops and a T-shirt. He’s just going to tell stories—and they’re real.”

Johnson has a knack for making even the most overt celebrity moments feel authentic, as I saw for myself when I met him earlier today in the rustic one-room house Malloy rents in Malibu. Johnson was using it for a photo shoot with Vogue, but the atmosphere was more Fourth of July barbecue than high-fashion showcase. As Johnson worked with the photographer, Malloy was out on the deck, grilling a fish for tacos. I sat on a step with Johnson’s wife, Kim, and the two Johnson kids, along with a family friend visiting from New York, a guy who runs biodiesel stations in Los Angeles, and Johnson’s publicist. All the while, Johnson was warm and attentive to his wife and kids, and seemed like part of the crew. There were no nannies, no deferential ass-kissing from the FOJs.

After we downed the tacos—served on brown recycled paper towels—we headed for the Brushfire building across town. “I can drive if you want to take notes,” Johnson said as we walked up the driveway to my truck. I declined, and he folded his six-foot frame into the passenger seat. While we headed south on the Pacific Coast Highway, the ocean as calm as a lake and the charred hills still redolent of ash from the recent wildfires, Johnson recounted the now well-known details of his past: He grew up riding waves on the North Shore but chose studying film at UC Santa Barbara over a pro-surfing career. In 1999, he wrote a couple of songs for a surf film he produced with Emmett and Chris Malloy, then stumbled into fame after being noticed by Ben Harper’s manager.

He also tried to explain the roots of his eco-sensibilities. Some of his best childhood memories, he said, were formed when the ocean flattened out and his dad took him to the outer islands off Oahu in a traditional Hawaiian canoe. “Those canoes are only as wide as your hips, as long as six people, and with just a little leg space between you and the person in front of you,” he said. “Everything you’d bring would have to fit into that space. It couldn’t spill over. You couldn’t pay more to bring extra baggage.” The material, in essence, was immaterial. “That’s as happy as I’d ever been,” he added. “It wasn’t about being overloaded with Christmas presents.”

It’s that scale-it-back philosophy that Johnson’s trying to bring to his music career—following a path, he’s quick to point out, paved by musicians like Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and Willie Nelson.

“I’m not trying to act like I’ve got all the answers and that I’m greener than everyone else,” he said as we turned onto a tree-lined boulevard. “I want to do what I can to help, but sometimes it starts to overwhelm me. It’s hard, because as soon as you put your voice in there, all of a sudden you’re the guy the newspaper wants to talk to. I accept the fact that I’m a somewhat known personality now and I like that I can use it for good things, but I ultimately don’t want to run for president.”

JOHNSON MAY NOT BE hitting the campaign trail, but with a new album in the wings and a worldwide tour to follow, he’s getting plenty of attention. Moments after we arrived at Brushfire Records, Johnson’s PR team grabbed him for a photo shoot with Entertainment Weekly.

As he posed in the foyer, guitar over his shoulder, I noticed a surfboard—a fat, short fish design that harks back to the loose and smooth soul surfing of the 1970s—leaning against the wall in a corner. The board and the revamped 1920s house both speak to the humbler, back-to-basics environmentalism that appeals to Johnson: It’s all about embracing the past, returning to the simpler life—but with better technology.

As Johnson explains it, Kelly Slater started riding new high-performance boards in the 1990s that were ridiculously thin and narrow. Slater, who’s known as”the Freak” for his extraordinary surfing abilities, could ride these boards with flair, but lots of other surfers couldn’t. Then the fish and other retro styles made a comeback. “You jump on there and suddenly you can glide again,” Johnson says. “I think about this in terms of music or anything: Sometimes things progress to the point that it’s not really progressing anymore. You get to this dead end, where you need to look back.”

As much respect as Johnson has for the past, at the moment he’s also looking toward the future. Brushfire is a growing enterprise, with a roster of musicians that now includes G. Love, Zach Gill’s longtime band ALO, Matt Costa, Rogue Wave, Money Mark, and Mason Jennings. All share Johnson’s just-kicking-it sensibility. “We do things that feel very handmade,” says Malloy.

Sleep Through the Static continues the tradition, although Johnson ventures further away from acoustic than he’s ever strayed, playing electric guitar on several tracks. This new sound won’t remind anyone of Hendrix, or even a plugged-in Dylan, and Johnson is certainly not remaking himself to win over the critics. “People like Jack, and his records mean a lot to them,” says Malloy. “All people need is another one. It doesn’t have to be different. It just has to be 14 new songs.”

Later, as the sun’s about to set, Johnson moves to the roof with the EW photo team. I head down to the studio with Gill, who sits on a giant exercise ball in front of a piano and plays a few of his songs for me—at one point the room momentarily goes dark because the lights are on a timer—starting with “All Still Family” and then moving on to a lovely dirge he wrote for the 2007 documentary Arctic Tale. He composed the tune for a scene showing a starving polar bear cub that dies as its mother stands by helplessly while the snow slowly covers its body, but the song didn’t make the final cut. Now it, like everything else here, is being recycled—and it may well appear on Gill’s solo album.

A few minutes later, Johnson returns and sits at the drums. “Let’s do ‘Family,’” he says. “1-2-3-4 . . .” As they jam, they look for all the world like a couple of friends in a garage, transported somewhere far away, lost in the sound. They aren’t playing for me or anyone else, nothing is being recorded, and the door is shut, so the neighbors have no reason to complain. They’re just making a few footprints in the sand that the tide will soon erase. And no fluorescent lightbulb, biodiesel vehicle, or low-flush toilet is greener than that.

~ Brian H Fitzsimons

Press Release: ESB unveils Strategic Framework to 2020
News source: ESB Press office, Thursday March 27th, 2008:

ESB has today announced that the company is to embark on an unprecedented capital investment programme of €22 billion.

The Board of ESB has approved a Strategic Framework to 2020 that will see major company investment in renewable energy, the halving of its carbon emissions within 12 years, and the achievement of carbon net-zero by 2035. Fifty percent of the overall investment package is geared towards investments in our renewable future. €4bn of this will be directly invested in renewable energy projects and €6.5bn will be spent facilitating renewables including smart metering and smart networks.

The plan, which will establish ESB as a world class renewables company, makes emissions reduction and energy efficiency central to its ambitious targets.

By 2020, ESB will be delivering one-third of its electricity from renewable generation. This will include over 1,400 megawatts of wind generation, in addition to wave, tidal and biomass. To promote this, the company will invest in emerging green technologies.

The €11 billion to be invested by ESB in its Networks will ensure continued efficient delivery of the vital infrastructure needed to support the Irish economy. It will also facilitate the development of up to 6,000 megawatts of wind on the island.

ESB will maintain its market share of power generation at well below 40 percent to facilitate continuing competition in the energy market. Completion of the present closure/divestment of 1500 megawatts of its stations and sites will assist this process. ESB will continue to enhance plant availability and performance in line with EU norms.

ESB will drive substantial cost reductions in overheads across all its businesses in order to meet its new financial challenges. Strong financial performance and continuing rigorous funding will underpin the investment plan while achieving shareholder and customer value.

Preparing for competition in the retail market, ESB will focus on delivering energy conservation and new initiatives on energy efficiencies.

With the development of a single British-Irish electricity market by 2020, ESB’s international profile will continue to expand. The company will invest in more generation plants and renewables in Britain and further plants in Europe.

ESB Chairman, Lochlann Quinn, said the Strategic Framework to 2020 addresses ESB’s response to those major imperatives now demanding action.

“ESB is operating in a dramatically changing environment. Three overarching concerns now exist - the consequences of climate change, energy security and competitiveness of energy supply and ESB is strong, focussed and prepared to deal with them”, Mr Quinn said.

ESB Chief Executive, Padraig McManus, said ESB had demonstrated its ability to execute strategic change in the past while maintaining profitable growth.

“ESB is now entering a new period of particular challenge that we embrace with enthusiasm and vigour. This robust plan will deliver tangible and sustainable results for the economy as we face global challenges in a coherent and managed way. It positions us as a leading energy company in Europe”, he said.

Brian H Fitzsimons

Sunday Times (Supplements), page 2
Vodafone developing responsible soiutions to environmental challenges
Author/Credit: Unknown @ Sunday times

Energy efficiency is a key item on the agenda of our cross functional Environmental Management Team who meet fortnightly. This team is challenged with meeting the overall Vodafone Ireland objective of reducing our energy consumption per megabit of phone traffic by 50 per cent by 2011. Fundamentally this commitment means the business aim to keep energy consumption sustainable while continuing to grow our network coverage and capacity.

It’s not only the internal management team who are driving this agenda, we have found that harnessing the interest and commitment of our employees in the area of climate change has resulted in environmental rewards. Our internal environmental messaging via e-zine, monthly employee presentations and face to face activities all support the engagement of Vodafone employees to ensure delivery against our environmental targets. So what are we at Vodafone actually doing? What makes us different?

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Air conditioning

As part of our Energy Efficiency Programme, we have identified those Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) sites across our network with inefficient cooling system configurations. Since 2003 we have:

• Replaced older air-conditioning systems with more efficient Inverter-driven units at over 150 BTS sites

• Reconfigured existing systems at a further 100 sites

• Replaced older air-conditioning systems with ventilation at another 200 BTS sites

• Planned our network, so that less than 10 per cent of new sites need to use air conditioning

These measures have led to a BTS energy savings totalling 3,000,000 kWh in the last three years.

This means that, while the last three years have seen a 20 per cent increase in BTS sites, total energy consumption for this period across all our business operations has increased by less than 5 per cent. So, as our business expands, we’re beginning to break the link between economic growth and energy consumption. This is a crucial step on our journey as a responsible modern business.

Headquarters

We’ve implemented a number of energysaving initiatives at our MountainView Headquarters. These include:

• Optimising operating hours: aligning the operating hours of the building services with staff working hours

• Consolidating staff operations: concentrating ‘out-of-hour’ staff operations in one block of the building, allowing all services in remaining blocks to be turned off

• Reducing light levels: dimming lights to match required levels of operations. Light levels have now been dimmed to an average of 70 per cent. Decorative lighting in non critical areas have been turned off permanently

• Using off-peak presence detection: employing presence detection technology to turn off lights in unoccupied building areas between 7pm and 7am

• Using variable speed drives: allowing for the adjustment of ventilation rates to match ventilation requirements during times of low building occupancy

• Reducing the threshold for the use of fresh air ventilation

Since our headquarters Energy Efficiency programme began in 2004, it has delivered an annual reduction of electricity consumption of 2M kWhr, and total savings of 6.3M kWhr. This is a saving equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 1800 houses.

Between April 2004 and February 2008 we made annual gas savings of over 3M kWh, with a total gas consumption reduction over the past four years of 9,700,000 kWhrs. This saving is equivalent to the annual heating requirement of 500 houses.

Vodafone has been shortlisted for the Thermal Energy category of the Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) Awards for the gas savings made at our head office Energy initiatives

We’ve also made progress in promoting and implementing renewable energy initiatives:

• Our retail outlets now use 100 per cent renewable energy

• Vodafone, where possible, purchase renewable electricity for our BTS network with 90 per cent of power purchased from green suppliers

•We have held employee energy awareness weeks where information has been provided on the Vodafone energy saving initiatives”. Copies of good practice guides for employees on energy awareness in their home have been provided

WASTE MANAGEMENT

In February of this year we engaged a new waste management contractor, Greenstar. They were chosen based on their reputation, collaborative approach to providing tailored solutions to suit Vodafone and their pioneering programmes.

“When Vodafone approached us about developing new and innovative waste management systems it was clear they were determined to make significant changes to create a positive impact on the environment. One of the key changes was the installation of a pilot Food Waste Programme in the Vodafone Staff restaurant. We are currently one month into the scheme and results are already extremely encouraging. We look forward to reviewing data in the coming months where we anticipate dramatic reductions in the amount of food waste that will be sent to landfill land a corresponding increase in the amount being tmmjbmed into compost. The benefits we have created will be significant; it not only costs less than landfill but it is a more substantial solution in the long term.”

Gregg McDonald, Account Manager,

Greenstar

RECYCLING

• Our rolling waste management plan has been developed to 2010

• For the year to March 2006, we recycled 93 per cent of our network waste against a target of 85 per cent

• A larger proportion of office waste is also now being recycled instead of going to landfill, recycling 39.38 per cent of our office waste against a target of 45 per cent, in the year to March 2006 we recycled 60 per cent against a target of 50 per cent (a 20.62 per cent increase).

• Overall waste target is 55 per cent of all MountainView and Dundalk waste. Typically achieving 51/52 per cent Waste streams measured and reported on are: – Cardboard, Wood, Paper, Food, IT Hardware

All of the programmes outlined are part of a continuous journey for Vodafone. A dedicated internal management team is constantly investigating innovative ideas which all aim to ultimately reduce our carbon footprint and impact on the environment in which we work. We are making a real commitment to challenge our systems, by critically assessing them and ensuring that they are reaching the optimum level of benefit to the environment at all times. This is actively supported by every individual in Vodafone. We want our performance to be seen as best practice and act as an industry role model. For Vodafone these changes are not only a significant investment for the company in the here and now but represent potential rewards in the future for our staff, customers and ultimately the environment

“Vodafone’s approach to addressing environmental challenges is continually innovative and inspiring, and the commitment to purchasing renewable energy provides an excellent example of this. Issues are changing at such a fast pace that the need to respond at an equally fast pace is critical, Vodafone do just that. The environmental programme at Vodafone should demonstrate to other businesses that making a few changes and stopping at that is not enough, this is an evolving journey on which each company must stay on track.”

Eva Geluk, Corporate Responsibility Consultant, Business in The Community

Where can our customers buy it?

iPhone will be available to purchase from 124 retail outlets across the country including:
• O2 Retail Stores
• Car Phone Warehouse stores
• It is available online at www.o2.ie/iphone

Tariffs for iPhone

Buy the 8GB iPhone for €399 or the 16GB iPhone for €499 then choose from one of our iPhone tariffs
Monthly charge €45 €65 €100 Units
Anytime minutes included* 175 350 700 Mins
Texts included* 100 150 250 Texts
Data included** 1GB 1GB 1GB GB
Additional calls 20c 20c 20c Per min
Additional texts 10c 10c 10c Per texts
Voicemail*** 15c 15c 15c Per min
Terms & Conditions

* Unused inclusive minutes and texts cannot be carried over to the following month
** Data use in excess of the 1GB allowance will be charged at 2c per MB excluding roaming
*** Visual voicemail is not currently supported.

All iPhone tariffs are subject to an 18 month agreement. It is a requirement that when purchasing iPhone that you pay your monthly bill by Bank Direct Debit or Credit Card Direct Debit.

iPhone is restricted to use on the O2 Ireland network unless you are roaming. If you do not enter into and remain in an applicable agreement with O2 on one of our tariffs for iPhone, you will not be able to use the phone functionality of your iPhone. If you attempt to unlock iPhone and use it on another network, it may become permanently unusable.

Making unauthorised modifications to the software on your iPhone violates the iPhone software license agreement, and the inability to use your iPhone due to unauthorised software modifications is not covered under your iPhone’s warranty.

One last thing … EDGE coverage

You can see O2’s EDGE coverage on a map located here

Cheers, Brian

Maybe this is why the unique Nintendo Wii has also been such a success, its flawlessly simple to understand. You could say to a lesser extent for services like facebook but does this mean that adults like simple given Wii’s and Facebook seem to be taken up more in the 20+ category than the Sony PSP and MySpace? So that raises the debate, if there were a set of guidelines that manufacturer’s, developers and network providers should follow what should they be. A Mantra as Guy Kawasaki would say, if there was a Mantra all of the above should adhere to what would it say if it were …

All of the above I use every day, the phone has a fast HSDPA connection running on the O2 3.6MBPS network so the services are fast to load and the experience seemless. As a mobile blogger this is a fantastic device. I take a photo on its 2mp camera, its tagged with time, date and GPS coordinates and over HSDPA mobile broadband I send it to Flickr. This updates on my blog and my facebook. When Im out and about I text Twitter, it updates my Blog and my Facebook. When Im away from my desk I activate Fring, it loads my Skype, Gtalk and twitter contatcs and my friends IM me. If i want to see whats going on at home I use eyespy FX and activate my webcam remotely so i can see if theres any unusual activity. When I get my train in the mornings I dont pick up a metro newspaper I check my google reader and browse BBC news.

Do you have any mobile sites or applications you would reccomend for me to try ?

I personally feel lucky, through my job, my friends and my family Ive had exposure to Web, Music, TV&Film and the opportunity to work in most spaces in my professional life. I feel its given me a clearer understanding of where the real visionaries are taking their respective industries and Ive formed some opinions of my own I’d like to share. I could write a book on this sort of thing but I’ll start by giving you just the index (see below), here are my views on convergence in the technology space.

Competing in a converged world …
• Theoretically speeds will eventually exceed service’s demand
• Differentiation will be defined by the quality & range of your value add’s
• Free-mium will be come a value add business model
• Price will be simple, bundled and seamless to the customer
• Strategy will have four tiers
• Mirroring industry leaders
• Partnering with industry leaders
• Buying those who do it well
• Learn to innovate & react quickly

All of the above is becoming achievable and much of it is there today, the bottom line is - In essence technology convergence and application should be …

Easy > Useful > Affordable > State of the Art.