Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

The State of the Union: What Wasn’t Said President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address last night was remarkable for two reasons: for what he said, and for what he didn’t say. The president took enormous pride last night in claiming to have helped “extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth.” But he failed to mention that Congress passed a law at the start of this year to extend unconstitutional, invasive NSA surveillance powers. Before it passed the House, the Senate, and received the president’s signature, the law was misrepresented by several members of Congress and by the president himself. On the morning the House of Representatives voted to move the law to the Senate , the president weighed in on Twitter, saying that “today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land.” Make no mistake: the bill he eventually signed—S. 139—very much affects American citizens. That bill reauthorized Section 702 original enacted as part of the FISA Am

EFF Asks California Court to Reverse Ruling That Could Weaken Open Records Rules, Impede Public Access to Government Records State agencies in California are collecting and using more data now than they ever, and much of this data includes very personal information about California residents. This presents a challenge for agencies and the courts—how to make government-held data that’s indisputably of interest available to the public under the state’s public records laws while still protecting the privacy of Californians. EFF filed an amicus brief today urging a state appeals court to reverse a San Francisco trial judge’s ruling that would impede and possibly preclude the public’s ability to access state-held data that includes private information on individuals—even if that data is anonymized or redacted to protect privacy. The California Public Records Act (CPRA) has a strong presumption in favor of disclosure of state records. And the California state constitution recogni

California’s Senate Misfires on Network Neutrality, Ignores Viable Options Yesterday, the California Senate approved legislation that would require Internet service providers (ISPs) in California to follow the now-repealed 2015 Open Internet Order. While well-intentioned, the legislators sadly chose an approach that is vulnerable to legal attack. The 2015 Open Internet Order from the Federal Communications Commission provided important privacy and net neutrality protections, such as banning blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization. It is important for states to fill the void left behind by the FCC’s abandonment of those protections. States are constrained, however, because federal policy can override, or “pre-empt,” state regulation in many circumstances. State law that doesn’t take this into account can be invalidated by the federal law. It’s a waste to pass a bill that is vulnerable to legal challenge by ISPs when strong alternatives are available. In a letter to the Cali

Stupid Patent of the Month: Bigger Screen Patent Highlights a Bigger Problem For more than three years now, we’ve been highlighting weak patents in our Stupid Patent of the Month series. Often we highlight stupid patents that have recently been asserted, or ones that show how the U.S. patent system is broken. This month, we’re using a pretty silly patent in the U.S. to highlight that stupid U.S. patents may soon—depending on the outcome of a current Supreme Court case—effectively become stupid patents for the entire world. Lenovo was granted  U.S. Patent No. 9,875,007  [PDF] this week. The patent, entitled “Devices and Methods to Receive Input at a First Device and Present Output in Response on a Second Device Different from the First Device,” relates to presenting materials on different screens. The first claim of the patent is relatively easy to read and understandable, for a patent. What Lenovo claims is: A first device, comprising: at least one processor; storage accessi

Digitization of the energy sector for a shared future The convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), software, big data, analytics, and the growth of renewables, is revolutionizing today’s energy system. A new energy world is emerging, in which digitally enabled services allow opportunities for increased savings and greater efficiencies. Disruption of our energy system Two major technology innovations are disrupting our energy system: As cost curves of renewables are coming down , renewable technologies are spreading. Global power capacity is expected to double by 2040, 2/3rd of which from renewables. In 2018, solar is already as cheap as coal in Germany, Australia, the U.S., Spain and Italy. Its capacity growth in 2016 was larger than any other form of generation. Over next 15 years, solar cost is expected to drop by another 60%, and the cost of wind by 50%. The adoption of digital technologies in the energy sector is accelerating and changing the way energy is produced, distr

Electric utilities and other power networks are in a unique position when it comes to improving sustainability. That’s because they have the ability to not just control their own carbon footprint but also promote more efficient, sustainable energy use for consumers. They can improve sustainability and decarbonize to mitigate climate change while still supporting their consumers’ growing needs ranging from smooth, efficient integration of electric vehicles into the grid to better energy accessibility. There is impressive growth in electric vehicle (EV) use as consumers seek greener, emission-free transportation. In 2016, there were record-breaking sales of EVs worldwide , and that growth is expected to continue . Some predict that one in six new cars in the world will be electric by 2025 . How will this explosion in EV popularity benefit utilities ? It’s a huge opportunity because EVs need charging stations and other essential power infrastructure and will depend on utilities to pr

In industrial applications, the main types of equipment that generate harmonics are: static converters, arc furnaces, lighting, saturated reactors and other equipment, such as rotating machines which generate slot harmonics... Read more from Energy Efficency – EEP – Electrical Engineering Portal Visit Toronto Wiring for more info

¿El fin de una Internet libre, abierta e inclusiva? Este artículo fue escrito por Edison Lanza, Relator Especial para la Libertad de Expresión de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos. En poco más de 20 años se hizo evidente el potencial de Internet para el ejercicio de las libertades, la educación, el impacto de las redes sociales; y la revolución que supuso para el comercio, el entretenimiento y la innovación. Por supuesto, un cambio de tal naturaleza también entraña desafíos como la diseminación del discurso que incita a la violencia; los riesgos para la privacidad; la necesidad de que toda la humanidad acceda a la red; la difusión de noticias falsas y el papel de las plataformas en la circulación de la información. Con todo, los beneficios e impactos positivos de internet parecían justificar el optimismo respecto a la marcha de la revolución digital. Pero el fin de la historia, ya se sabe, no está a la vuelta de la esquina. El 14 de diciembre de 2017 la administració

California Senate Rejects License Plate Privacy Shield Bill The California Senate has rejected a bill to allow drivers to protect their privacy by applying shields to their license plates when parked. The simple amendment to state law would have served as a countermeasure against automated license plate readers (ALPRs) that use plates to mine our location data. As is the case with many privacy bills, S.B. 712 had received strong bipartisan support since it was first introduced in early 2017. The bill was sponsored by Sen. Joel Anderson, a prominent conservative Republican from Southern California, and received aye votes from Sens. Nancy Skinner and Scott Wiener, both Democrats representing the Bay Area.   Each recognized that ALPR data represents a serious threat to privacy, since ALPR data can reveal where you live, where you work, where you worship, and where you drop your kids at school. Law enforcement exploits this data with insufficient accountability measures. It is also

Code Review Isn’t Evil. Security Through Obscurity Is. On January 25th, Reuters reported that software companies like McAfee, SAP, and Symantec allow Russian authorities to review their source code, and that “this practice potentially jeopardizes the security of computer networks in at least a dozen federal agencies.” The article goes on to explain what source code review looks like and which companies allow source code reviews, and reiterates that “allowing Russia to review the source code may expose unknown vulnerabilities that could be used to undermine U.S. network defenses.” The spin of this article implies that requesting code reviews is malicious behavior. This is simply not the case. Reviewing source code is an extremely common practice conducted by regular companies as well as software and security professionals to ensure certain safety guarantees of the software being installed. The article also notes that “Reuters has not found any instances where a source code revi

Private Censorship Is Not the Best Way to Fight Hate or Defend Democracy: Here Are Some Better Ideas From Cloudflare’s headline-making takedown of the Daily Stormer last autumn to YouTube’s summer restrictions on LGBTQ content , there’s been a surge in “voluntary” platform censorship. Companies—under pressure from lawmakers, shareholders, and the public alike—have ramped up restrictions on speech, adding new rules , adjusting their still-hidden algorithms and hiring more staff to moderate content. They have banned ads from certain sources and removed “offensive” but legal content . These moves come in the midst of a fierce public debate about what responsibilities platform companies that directly host our speech have to take down—or protect—certain types of expression. And this debate is occurring at a time in which only a few large companies host most of our online speech. Under the First Amendment, intermediaries generally have a right to decide what kinds of expression they

The UN weather agency recently announced that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased at record-breaking speed in 2016, meaning that rapid cuts to CO 2 and other greenhouse gases are now needed to avoid “dangerous temperature increases” by 2100 that would far surpass targets set in the  Paris climate accord . The IEA estimates that buildings currently account for about 33% of global energy use – more than industry or transportation – and 20% of energy-related GHG emissions. By 2050, 66% of the world’s people will be living in cities, consuming over 80% of the world’s electricity. Driven by these trends, your facility team may be facing corporate mandates and government regulations aimed at making your building, campus, or plant more efficient and sustainable. But you’re also likely dealing with higher capital and operational expenditures, and increasingly complex building systems. But there’s cause for optimism. The IFMA estimates that with active controls, a 50%