Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

We Got U.S. Border Officials to Testify Under Oath. Here’s What We Found Out This is a guest post by Hugh Handeyside , Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project, Nathan Freed Wessler , Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and Esha Bhandari , Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. It was originally posted on the ACLU Speak Freely blog. In September 2017, we, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued the federal government for its warrantless and suspicionless searches of phones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry. The government immediately tried to dismiss our case, arguing that the First and Fourth Amendments do not protect against such searches. But the court ruled that our clients — 10 U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident whose phones and laptops were searched while returning to the United States — could move forward with their claims. Since then, U.S. Customs and Border Pro...

New Documents Reveal DHS Asserting Broad, Unconstitutional Authority to Search Travelers’ Phones and Laptops EFF, ACLU Move for Summary Judgement to Block Warrantless Searches of Electronic Devices at Airports, U.S. Ports of Entry BOSTON — The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the ACLU today asked a federal court to rule without trial that the Department of Homeland Security violates the First and Fourth Amendments by searching travelers’ smartphones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry without a warrant. The request for summary judgment comes after the groups obtained documents and deposition testimony revealing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorize border officials to search travelers’ phones and laptops for general law enforcement purposes, and consider requests from other government agencies when deciding whether to conduct such warrantless searches. “The evidence we have presented...

High maintenance costs, rising energy prices, and aging infrastructures can all have an impact on the quality of services delivered by hospitals and clinics. Regionservice Skane, the organization that manages 31 healthcare facilities across approximately 16 million square feet in the Skåne region of Sweden, is no stranger to these challenges. Tackling energy and maintenance costs Regionservice turned to Schneider Electric for its EcoStruxure for Healthcare * solution to develop a strategy that would reduce their energy and maintenance costs, reverse negative cost trends for its aging property portfolio and reduce energy consumption through better meter structuring and energy monitoring. With high hopes of improving energy costs, Regionservice commissioned Schneider Electric in 2003 to uncover energy savings opportunities. The initial findings were promising. So, they partnered with Schneider Electric to upgrade 11 buildings, including Lund University Hospital, a 1.5 million square f...

In the past few years we have started to see more and more posts and adverts about glasses and head-mounted displays, augmented reality (AR), mobile computing and many more. What do all these digital trends mean? How can we catch up with all these novelties? For most people it is still quite an abstract and exotic technology from the Hollywood movies. Different Industries However, some businesses are actively implementing this seemingly ‘sci-fi’ technology into their marketing. Thus, we are seeing animated holograms, interactive displays in shops and virtual 3D models of new houses with furniture. Industries from retail to aviation are using computer-generated objects in a real environment. Education Moreover, schools and universities started incorporating gaming elements into their classes. Augmented Reality (AR) is great solution to turn a boring lecture into exceptional experiences via 3D AR modelling. Furthermore, teachers even managed to use AR in physical education. Students...

DERMS: Distributed Energy Resources Management System The proliferation of distributed energy resources (DER) entering the distribution networks (including distributed generating units, energy storage and electric vehicles), is challenging the traditional operational actions which have been used to plan, design, operate and maintain the electric grid. Electricity companies will need to rethink their approach to grids when facing these new challenges which include: Incorporating two-way energy flows Lack of visibility of the distribution grid Intermittency of renewable generators may cause voltage and power quality issues Inadequate protection in a case of two-way energy flow Realtime Platform ADMS Maintaining power reliability for customers. In addition, grid design and operation are being directly impacted by the acceleration of changes in the electrical commodity market. Recently, there has been a push to evolve the market from one that is wholesale and incentive-based, t...

In the past 10 years, the data center industry transformed itself.  We’ve gone from first hearing the term cloud computing to talking about edge computing and driverless cars in a little more than a decade. The progress and performance made have been tremendous. And it really got us thinking. What if we compared the performance of the data centers back then with today’s data centers to see how they’re performing and to determine what progress we’ve made as an industry? So, we modeled three step function examples that have made a significant impact — UPS improvements, containment, and economization — and our model showed about an 80 percent reduction in losses just using those three technologies. We have increased physical infrastructure efficiency by about 80 percent by providing more efficient architectures and more efficient products. And this finding prompted this question: What will drive the next 80 percent of data center improvements in the next 10 years? We know that if...

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 calls for universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services by the year 2030. 1.1 billion people worldwide still have no access to electricity. That’s nearly equivalent to the U.S and European population combined. The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that, unless electrification efforts are further accelerated, by 2030 a total of 674 million people will still be without access to electricity. Though these numbers seem daunting, bold ideas are rapidly driving successes across the globe that show the SDG 7 goal is attainable. New initiatives including government programs, innovative business and financing models, new technologies that enable digital tracking and monitoring of energy assets, and locally-based training programs–are ushering in a new era of access to energy . For example, in Bisanti, Nigeria, Green Village Electricity (GVE) Projects Limited , a local partner of Schneider Electric, succe...

Industrial Control System (ICS) operators recognize the need to improve cybersecurity , but many lack the understanding on how to start the process.  End users attend cybersecurity conferences, webinars, or read articles in the trade press and learn about specific cybersecurity topics – like threat detection or defense in depth architectures.  Many are tempted to start to take steps to improve security – but it is critical to first create a plan prior to taking action.  Schneider Electric has issued a white paper designed to provide guidance to operators who are initiating projects to secure industrial control systems. The whitepaper introduces the cybersecurity lifecycle which consists of four phases; Assessment, Implementation, Maintenance, and Auditing.  The white paper focuses on the Assessment Phase, and provides a detailed overview of the steps required to create a security plan.  The Assessment Phase is divided into 4 major steps: Documenting the Syst...

In previous articles, I’ve talk about the importance of aesthetics for the control interfaces of machines, how a pleasant to see control interface could ease your sales talk by providing more attractiveness and well-designed components and control panels could ease the operators’ life by providing more ergonomics. In term of fashion for pushbuttons , the latest trend is the introduction of flush mounting products. It means that you usually have to choose among 3 criteria: the color (matt black or shiny grey) The aesthetics choice is usually based on taste, contrast with the panels. In cases were the environment is very bright, the light can be reflected on shiny metal pushbuttons, thus bothering the operators… so that black colored pushbuttons are preferred in that last case. the external height depending on the mounting solution (standard or flush) Flush pushbuttons are sometimes considered a more modern look & feel because this aesthetics trend is quite recent. In addi...