This month's issue
Staying with the smart new style that we began using in the last issue, we have a tidy magazine that includes the usual good stuff. Some highlights include:
* Valve and Automation's Ron Nel and his fellow directors have been busy.
* In time for our Effluent and Environment feature - Part two of the wastewater plant optimisation article. Here we see how relying on direct oxygen measurement alone is not sufficient if a wastewater plant is to run as cost-effectively as it could.
* Michael Brown is taking some time off but very kindly produced another of his Control Loop articles in time for this issue. Once again Mike raises that favourite topic of mine ... the gap between what is taught and what is really needed in industry. This month's article looks at why the quarter-wave damped response is not the silver bullet for every loop optimisation - thanks Mike!
* A mini-scada system running within an operator interface sees to the filling of 500 toothpaste tubes per minute - without the use of any PLCs.
* Operating systems for process control - This is a feature that has been comatose for years, so we tasked Maurice McDowell to take a look at what is happening. This is an area that we would like to hear more about. If your company is making use of an 'alternative' operating system, please write to the Editor ( john@technews.co.za) and let us see if we can all get to learn a little more about what is out there. It would be good to see some submissions for this feature next year.
Software wars
Speaking of alternative operating systems, etc, I recently received a CD-ROM in the post. This CD cost me nothing. The Open CD is a collection of substantial software applications sponsored by the Shuttleworth Foundation.
Taking a look at the cost of a PC, then the cost of the operating system, then the cost of an office suite of software... it is obvious that those without access to substantial disposable cash have little hope of gaining significant experience at operating a computer. They are stuck. They may have aptitude and potential - but how will they ever know? How do they get out of the hole that they are in? This is particularly pertinent in the South African context, where we want to provide a means for the previously disadvantaged to become active players in the economy.
The CD addresses this need by containing a whole office suite, graphics packages, a 3D renderer, Web page generator, PDF creator and various other bits and pieces - and you are encouraged to make as many copies as you like! (In this day and age it is kind of like seeing an egg laying a chicken.) Visit www.theopencd.org
Microsoft has dominated all areas of computing (industrial and office) for so long, it is hard to imagine it any other way. In a free market economy these things normally result in a situation where the consumers benefit because the producers have to compete. But Microsoft has been an unusual case, for example: Why should anybody buy an alternative browser when one came with the operating system?
Slowly a groundswell has been developing. Initially it seemed futile, just a dream - but Linux, Linux applications - and free Microsoft-compatible software has being growing in its level of capability and refinement. I understand that the two biggest things holding industry back from adopting Linux-based control installations are lack of Linux drivers for the industrial hardware, and the scarcity of readily available technical support. I believe that this is gradually changing. When the number of Linux technical supporters reaches a critical mass, and the control hardware manufacturers bundle Linux drivers along with the Windows drivers... maybe 2010?
John Gibbs, Editor
Send your letters to the Editor: john@technews.co.za
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