₦airaland Forum

Does anyone on this thread have an Outback Mate 3 that they can rent to me for a couple of days. I got a VFRX 3048 and a Mate 2 without realizing that the new VFRX models are incompatible with the Mate 2.

bodejohn: Just then, a question came into my mind, which would be cost effective? Building a 3 day battery autonomy or installing enough panels to be able to provide the needed power during cloudy days?
I think doubling required panel size might just be better because the average life span of the solar panel is like double that of the battery, moreso while panels can be added at will, it is not that advise able to add more batteries to a bank that is older than 6months.

There's software that let's you make the right tradeoff. Have you heard of Homer Energy Systems?

This is a fantastic forum and it's exciting to see all the interest in renewable energy here. I'm especially pleased to see George_D echoing my concerns about Indian inverters. After getting burned once on a Luminous (I think) inverter. I swore off them. But in the interest of thoroughness in my market research, I decided to reconsider and stumbled on this page. I have so many more pages to read and so much more to learn from you guys but I wanted to toss a couple of questions out as well.

1. I haven't seen any talk about Outback batteries despite their seemingly impressive cycle life - 1800 cycles at 50% DoD. Any thoughts?
2. If folks are interested in going entirely off-grid, is there a reason not to go with a standalone inverter instead of an inverter/charger? It appears that this approach will expand the options available and produce some lower-priced options even for premium brands.
3. In a similar vein, what about the option of standalone inverter + separate battery charger?
4. Has anyone had issues with landlords preventing solar panel installations on their rented apartments.

Again, this is an impressive forum and I look forward to reading more from you guys.

Hey guys,

This is very unfortunate news. Please sign and share this petition to get a better explanation from ETS and to have them lift the suspension ASAP:

http://chn.ge/1gwukfs

Hey guys,

This is very unfortunate news. Please sign and share this petition to get a better explanation from ETS and to have them lift the suspension ASAP:

http://chn.ge/1gwukfs

Hello,

Thanks for the great post.

Can we have restricted stock/share units in Nigeria i.e. shares that cannot be transferred or traded until they vest and the company may reacquire at par value if the holder leaves the company?

Also, I read elsewhere that private limited liability companies have restrictions on transfer of shares. What is the nature of these restrictions.

Third, must all the shares of the company be allotted at incorporation? What are the procedures for re-allotment, company buyback and re-issuance of more shares.

Thanks.

proudlysports: That's why I asked cos I know ANN's can be garbage in garbage out (I'm assuming you are planning on using ANN?)

So are the apps for gathering data then? At least for now till you have sufficient training and testing data? Sorry if I'm asking too many questions. Just trying to understand the whole thing.

Kudos on the idea though. I wish you all the best. I know how difficult getting reliable data can be.

There are other machine learning algorithms that may be better suited (than ANNs) to the data representation we would use. The apps currently allow you make a report, perform a search for the current state of things at a particular location and provide a prediction on the state of things in your search results using the simple algorithm I earlier referred to. The web app is a little more fully-featured and provides a map view for the reports and gives an aggregate perspective on the state of things, useful, perhaps for holding the government accountable. It's better experienced than described so you should try it out: www.nepasituation.com And let me know what you think afterwards.

lordZOUGA: if there is a prototype, where is it? have you tested it? what is the accuracy of its prediction (%)? and then you used j2me. why? it does not make nice apps. you could have fared better with html5.
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you probably realize that for this application to make a trustworthy prediction in a given area, it might have to gather data on that place for weeks.

You can access the apps by visiting www.nepasituation.com from your web browser or appropriate mobile device. As for the choice of supporting Java ME, it was less an decision about the ease of making nice apps and more a decision about the popularity of the platform in Nigeria. This old report could give you a sense of our thoughts around the time we made the platform decisions: http://business.opera.com/smw/2011/05/

proudlysports: Have you tested the algorithm? Results?

No, not really. It's hard to test without data which is why I'm trying to generate as much traction as possible. Also, what we have running in the back is a rather simple but intuitive algorithm. There are much cooler things we could do once we have sufficient training data.

The apps themselves work as far as we have tested but a bug report is always welcome.

lordZOUGA: Oh.. alright. that's cool.
what platform is this app built for? there seems to be no mention of it on this thread.

Platforms: We have a web app that, hopefully, should display properly on most mobile phones as well. We also have a BlackBerry app that should work on BlackBerry 5 and 6, at least. Finally, we also have a Java ME app for Nokia Series 40 phones et al.

lordZOUGA: first of all, I'd like to say he tried but I believe this could be done better .
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oh and this is not new, he probably got his idea from my post here
https://www.nairaland.com/930302/project-2012-summer-code-work

I didn't have the resources to pull it off then I posted it there hoping that developers here might help but they didn't. they started making a trivial budget system which they didn't create by the way.

First of all, those are some great ideas you have there. I'll be pleased to hear your thoughts on how we can make NepaSituation better. As for the source of the idea, sorry to disappoint but NepaSituation kinda preceded your thread by a few months: http://www.whois.com/whois/nepasituation.com . I've just been working on it so slowly and sporadically because of the amount of schoolwork I have to do.

D-Heir Apparent:
Well, he try. Bt am not sure how this can really
Solve anything. The term erratic power supply. Means
Unpredictable. When PHCN take your light (due to faults, no gas, etc,)
PHCN themselves don't knw when it will b restored
Not to be a pessimist but, this is not
Ground breaking at all. Its just another app. I am a
Scientist myself can anyone tell me which international
Journal has publish his findings. This is just cheap publicity.
MIT is not bean ooo. Bt please come with real inventions o.

I quite agree that there's a high level of unpredictability and NepaSituation cannot hope to achieve perfect accuracy. However, there is some underlying regularity that we could exploit. Some of the non-fault-related outages are caused by load shedding. This load shedding is rarely announced by PHCN but it happens all the time. If the pattern is relatively simple, you would notice that your light goes out every, say, 6pm and returns at midnight, for instance. For more complex patterns that arise from multiple levels (transmission and distribution) of load shedding, it would take a few days to fully understand the patterns. Algorithms can easily tease apart the patterns way quicker than any human would. Another bit of regularity that the application would exploit is the level of responsiveness of the closest PHCN office. Some PHCN offices respond to faults faster than others and the expected response time is something the application could detect too. Finally, many supposedly random events in the world today fit some underlying probability distribution and with the right amount of training data, the application could exploit this distribution to provide pretty accurate expected times.

In the event that we were overly optimistic about the "predictability" of electricity outages in the development of NepaSituation, at least we now have an app that can save you the trouble of calling your barber to ask if he has light or calling your friend to know whether they have light so you could watch a premiership game with them. The app also provides a daily airtime raffle (shameless plug ) so even if none of the above use cases fit you, at least you know where to possibly win some free airtime . We (I and my brother) also having a great deal of fun and challenge developing the app. It's easy for us to sit back and wonder if there's some predictability in electricity outages but it's only in doing stuff like this that I'm able to know for sure.

This might not be as helpful as posting my interview experience (it hasn't happened yet) but for as many people want to go to EcoBank at Seme to pay for the SEVIS fee, you might want to leave early in the morning. I left my office in Lekki around 10:30am thinking Seme was just around the corner and arrived there by 4:00pm. Thankfully, the bank closes by 5:00pm.

@myforumid: baba, till now o! but God dey sha.

@gboyegaD: If its any consolation to you, I am still chasing funding up and down all over MIT, and I am not giving up till I get funding and you shouldn't either.

You can send it to thisbighead at gmail dot com. I'll get it from there. You realize that I don't want to put up my real email address here.

@fashokay: I'll be glad to help prepare "high school" students for these opportunities if I'm certain that its a totally non-profit venture. Does your organization have a website?

Your rejections are likely PhD rejections

@sefago: I might agree with you for most of my PhD rejections; then again not all were PhD rejections. I don't recall which ones in particular were MS/PhD but I'm certain that my UIUC application was for Masters only and I still got a rejection.

It kind of depends on what you are designing; if you have the mechanical design for flying cars, heck yeah, that's research. On the other hand, if you drew a wooden chair in AutoCAD, I would hardly call that research. Then again, this is coming from someone with no formal research experience. VPersiee, stzero may be in a better position to say considering that they've spent some time in research labs.

Sorry guys, my statement is a little personal and I would not feel comfortable sending it to people I don't know personally. I really wish I could. I would be glad to help proof-read yours anyway.

Disclaimer: My essay-writing skills are pathetic; I don't know how MIT and Stanford were OK with it.

@flo_path: I don't understand all the rejections myself; Maybe its God's way of reminding me that the race is not to the swift, or the intelligent for that matter. I'm sha thankful for the MIT at least.

I can't tell you what makes an SOP win but I could send you some of mine

I don't think they all do but its my understanding that if a prof really wants you, you will most likely get in. BTW, "prof" includes assistant and associate profs

Yes. That was what I meant. I doubt that it is counter-productive especially if your email demonstrates interest and a firm understanding in their work.

@sintame: I wish I knew, I can only say pray hard and give it the best shot you can. The best shot would include smashing your GRE & TOEFL/IELTS, getting the best recommendations from established profs, applying early, contacting profs in the programs you are applying to and writing one heck of a statement of purpose.

@tutuwater: Are you looking for the procedure for online registration? Because if you are not then you might as well visit First Logic on Oba Akran and register there.

I would never have imagined that I'll be rejecting an admissions offer from Stanford but then, na so life be.

So will they unofficially lower the bar for Africans? Or have a quota?

Are they looking to attract African faculty or students to the media lab?

Yes, and that's the only reason why I am not weeping profusely right now.

Rejection number *** (I think I've lost count). Columbia.

It is getting a little quite here. where is everyone lately?

We are here o! Reading, learning and chiming in when our two cents will be worth something.

All things being equal, I'll be at MIT too in August. Its a pity that you and VPersiee might have left Boston by then. Congrats to you both on your achievements.

Anecdotal evidence is easier to relate to than the unknown faces represented by demographic data.

what keeps most of us out is lack of undergrad research experience and LORs from mostly unknown(to the admissions committees) faculty

What's the source of the fact above? Is it anecdotal?

What schools are you considering for the IE/OR program? What country are you from? There may be scholarships your citizenship will make you eligible for.