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07/17/2008

Buzzword: Alpha Geek
What it means. Alpha, the first letter in the Greek alphabet, has spawned a lot of power-hungry personality types, including alpha males and alpha moms. The latest members of the Order of Top Dogs, alpha geeks, are perhaps not as tough as those other alphas though they do typically have a strong interest in cutting-edge technology. Alpha geek term first gained traction in office culture as a way to describe the person with the most technological know-how. (You know, the coworker you seek out when you can't figure out how to download pirated files through your company's ironclad firewall.) Alpha geeks strut their stuff outside the corporate world, too. For example, your Apple-crazed friend who happily waited in line overnight to buy the new iPhone 3G is an alpha geek, as is your cousin who's been LinkedIn since early 2004 and sends out annoying invites to join LinkedIn to you and the rest of your family. Why the buzz? Electronics aficionados are the most likely to be alpha geeks, but home and garden enthusiasts can be AGs, too. Consider cooking technology. An alpha geek will adore induction cooktops, which continue to impress our engineers and whose prices appliances are dropping. Alpha geeks are surely joining the steam revolution, a technology that has found its way into many appliances, including dishwashers, washing machines, and even ranges. Steam modes are supposed to improve performance, although our engineers haven't found steam a noticeable improvement. Outside the home, alpha geeks will probably know the pros and cons of zero-turn-radius mowers, or "ZTRs," as they no doubt call gear like the Cub Cadet shown above. They're also likely enamored of robotic lawn mowers, which are about as high tech as any outdoor power equipment can be. Note that one of the two models we tested was not acceptable.—Daniel DiClerico Essential information: See our Kitchen-Planning Guide for the latest on cooking technologies and our Complete Lawn & Yard Guide for what's new for the outdoors.

 

07/16/2008

Edison Electric Institute promotes energy efficiency
Just as consumers are getting socked by skyrocketing energy costs, the nation's power companies are paying more for fuel. The Energy Information Administration's recent short-term energy outlook, for instance, noted that escalating fuel costs are making it more expensive for utilities to generate electricity. But you could end up footing the bill. "Within the past few weeks," the EIA report stated, "a number of utilities have requested permission from State regulators to raise electricity rates in response to rapidly increasing delivered fuel costs for power generation." Residential electricity prices are projected to rise by an annual average of about 5.2 percent in 2008 and 9.8 percent in 2009, up significantly from the 2.2 percent increase in 2007. The electric utilities are aware of the challenges facing themselves and their customers. So on July 10, the Edison Electric Institute hosted a lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. A six-member panel of EEI representatives addressed journalists to discuss "the effort underway to transform the role that energy efficiency plays within the electric power sector," according to the event program. The EEI is the association of U.S. shareholder-owned electric companies, and its agenda is to ensure that its members turn a profit. So when EEI President Thomas Kuhn talked about the pressure the industry is under to "meet the growing demand for electricity in an affordable and reliable manner, and to supply it with minimal impact on the environment," I took his comments with a grain of salt. Still, whatever their motive, many power companies are pushing energy efficiency, largely by teaching their customers how to use less electricity. That puts them in an interesting pickle, because every kilowatt that customers don't consume affects their bottom line. It's akin to the tobacco industry being forced to tell smokers that its products will eventually given them cancer or kill them. Of course, that didn't exactly end cigarette sales. Similarly, the electric industry is hardly on life support—nationwide consumption is projected to climb 30 percent by 2030. But the power companies try will need to find a model that sustains their own growth and the planet.

 

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Innovative Software Tools Make Whole House Framing Design a Reality

Optimizing Structural Framing from Ridge to Sill Plate. Interest rates and land availability are usually outside of their control, but builders can reduce costs and improve efficiency by optimizing their building practices, especially for large-cost areas such as framing. Software is now available that helps you design an integrated plan for wall, floor and roof framing, helping improve framing performance while reducing material waste.

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