My Favorite Shortcut Keys

Even as the sun begins to set on Windows XP, I keep learning new shortcuts. Here are a couple of useful favorites.

Windows + m
Did you know that holding down the Windows key (the one with that little flag on it) and pressing m takes you straight to the desktop and minimizes all your open windows? I used to go through one by one, minimizing each open window, just to be able to get to a folder on the desktop. This shortcut saves a huge amount of time (and frustration), which is just what shortcuts are supposed to do, right?

Alt + Tab
More often than not, when someone is looking over my shoulder as I cycle rapidly through the open windows on my computer screen, they'll ask how I do that. For me, it's second nature to put my left thumb on the Alt key and use my middle finger to tap the Tab key as many times as it takes to get to the right window. The first tap brings up a little window with icons for each of the open windows. Successive taps cycle through the list, highlighting each icon in turn. (If you go past the one you wanted, just keep tapping and go around again.) When you release the Alt key, you go to the highlighted window. I've been using this shortcut as long as I can remember -- unlike the Windows + m shortcut that I only learned about in late 2011. One of these days I'm going to have to investigate whether these shortcuts have been preserved in Windows 7. I hope so, because they're very handy.

Ctrl + Shift + 8 (in Word)
There is a lot going on behind the scenes in Microsoft Word, and by allowing the "nonprinting characters" to be displayed you can often see why your text is behaving the way it is. For years I simply clicked on the little button with the paragraph mark to toggle the display on and off, but in April I discovered the shortcut key combination, which is Ctrl + Shift + 8. (You can read about how that happened in my April 15 post, "The Curiosity Hazard.") Whether you like seeing all the additional symbols or not, it's like having the answer key in the back of a textbook -- great to know it's there, even if you rarely refer to it.

F1
If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that when all else fails it might be worth looking in the help file. However, sometimes that's easier said than done. I like Chrome as a browser, for example, but it seems odd that they've hidden the Help link (You have to click on the little wrench icon to get the menu that lists Help.) Even so, the traditional F1 key still works, opening Google Chrome Help in a new tab. And that's comforting to know, as well as being useful.

Something Green from the Cutting Room Floor

Often in researching an article I come across something very interesting that ultimately doesn't make it into print. Sometimes there simply isn't room. Other times it's too far off topic. Usually, it seems to be both, and this post is one example of that.

I recently wrote an article about carbon capture and sequestration research that is currently under way in Decatur, Ill. The reason it's being done there is because that's where Archer Daniels Midland has a major ethanol plant located above a potentially excellent long-term storage area for carbon dioxide, which is a by-product of ethanol production. It's a pretty cool demonstration project, which you can read about at www.enr.com/midwest, but here's a direct link to the article.

The thing that got squeezed out was an explanation of how the idea of carbon sequestration came about. Here it is:

Capturing CO₂ and storing it to prevent its acting as a greenhouse gas is not a new idea. In a 1977 research memorandum, Cesare Marchetti, then a senior scientist at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, proposed the concept of capturing CO₂ emissions from power plants and disposing of the substance deep in the ocean. 

Although we now understand some of the major environmental drawbacks associated with ocean disposal, at least Marchetti raised the idea as a serious proposal.

Little was done on the subject in this country until the 1990s, when the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy began encouraging and supporting substantive research in this field. Contributing to the growing interest in the subject were organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (www.ippc.ch) which had developed hard numbers estimating the growth in CO₂ production worldwide – due almost entirely to the use of fossil fuels– and its potential consequences for altering the climate. Based on then-current scientific and socio-economic data, the organization’s Second Assessment Report: Climate Change 1995 singled out CO₂ as the most significant contributor to climate change.

TIME OUT: Here's where the research part got really cool. I came across the title of Marchetti's 1977 paper in a huge list of references in the Second Assessment Report. Googling the title led me to a copy that's available online as a scanned PDF document (link is in previous sentence).

What delighted me more than anything was that it is typewritten and just 13 pages, including maps and graphs. What a refreshing reminder of the good old days!You should look at it just to remind yourself that thought-provoking proposals don't have to have epic proportions. Now, where were we? Ah, yes...

Seven major energy companies including BP, Shell, Chevron and others from Europe and Scandinavia, joined forces in 2000 to form the CO₂ Capture Project (www.co2captureproject.org). Its goal has been to investigate how to best deal with CO₂ in the context of oil and gas related scenarios – oil refineries, heavy oil extraction and natural gas fired power generation – and specifically, how to capture it and then what to do with it. Now in its third phase, the project has fielded demonstration projects of several capture technologies and is investigating the impact of stream impurities on geological storage of CO₂.

To address the storage aspect of carbon capture and sequestration, the U.S. Department of Energy in 2003 awarded cooperative agreements to seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships (RCSPs). These public/private partnerships are charged with researching potential repositories and determining approaches and technologies for safe, permanent terrestrial and geologic carbon storage. The Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium, led by the Illinois State Geological Survey, in conjunction with the Indiana Geological Survey and the Kentucky Geological Survey, became the first of those partnerships to begin carbon storage from an industrial biofuel source when operational injection began in Decatur, Ill., on November 17, 2011. 

So now you know some of the background. One of the other things that didn't fit: a list of online resources for further information about the Decatur project. Here it is.

• Illinois Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage Project – NETL/DOE Fact Sheet (http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/project/ARRA1547.pdf)
• Midwest Sequestration Geological Consortium (www.sequestration.org)
•  Illinois State Geological Survey (www.isgs.illinois.edu/)
•  Archer Daniels Midland Company (www.adm.com)
•  Schlumberger Carbon Services (www.slb.com/carbonservices)
•  Richland Community College (www.richland.edu)
•  Curious about what supercritical CO₂ looks like? http://blog.makezine.com/2011/09/06/what-supercritical-carbon-dioxide-looks-like/

An Engineer’s Picture Postcard

Click to go to the full article.

One day late last summer Larry Kruth appeared in my office doorway with a question: “Want to see some pictures?” Larry is the vice president of engineering, technology and safety at a steel company in Michigan. In addition to both growing up in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, we share the opinion that one can never take too many photos. I wasn’t surprised, then, when his CD overflowed my computer screen with thumbnail images. (The number 158 sticks in my head.)

Larry had just returned from a field trip of the kind that most structural engineers only dream about — to the top of one of the Mackinac Bridge towers. And, of course, he had great photos.

Flipping through Larry’s photos reminded me of how much fun it was, as a child, to get a picture postcard in the mail, how my imagination just ran with the idea of interesting, faraway places. And again, I imagined myself there with him, 552 feet above the Straits of Mackinac.

We eventually figured out a way to share this experience, and his photo feature this month graces the pages of Modern Steel Construction magazine. I won’t give away any more of the story here — just take a look at http://msc.aisc.org/globalassets/modern-steel/archives/2012/05/2012v05_visiting.pdf, especially if you’ve ever dreamed about what it would be like to stand atop a suspension bridge tower.

“Having a great time—wish you were here!”

Thanks for sharing it with us, Larry.

But wait! There’s one more thing you should know. The file is a PDF, which allows you to appreciate Kristin Egan’s brilliant layout as well. To get the full effect, download and save the PDF file, then open it with Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click on the View menu, move your cursor down to Page Display and select Two Page View. If you’re using an earlier version the terms may be slightly different, but it should work the same. Enjoy the view!

Note: Links updated November 20, 2015, to reflect reorganization of MSC site.

Nature's Bounty (and how you can help control it)

This is the week in Northern Illinois that most of the maple tree "helicopters" (aka whirlybirds, propellers, samara) come spinning to earth. The abundance of nature's fertile bounty is hard to overlook. Maple seed pods are piled high on our gutters, clumped in the storm drain grate out in the street, and basically everywhere. (And there's probably another 20 percent still to come down.) Another, less desirable, plant - garlic mustard - is also getting ready to shed its seeds. Fortunately, if you act quickly you can catch it before that happens.

Actually, I never knew anything about this weed until last weekend. A group of us spent Saturday morning in Cook County's northwesternmost forest preserve, Deer Grove, pulling garlic mustard, hoping to stop its hostile takeover. Yeah, I know it's one of God's creations, but it doesn't belong there. It's non-native and invasive. Here's the way our host, Pete Jackson, explained it:

"Garlic mustard is a biennial plant from Europe, brought over for cooking purposes. In its first year it is a small ground cover type of plant and is hard to pull, but in its second year it sends up a flowering stem, flowers, sets seed, then dies. The trick is to pick the second year stems before the plants have shed their seed. Each plant is capable of producing thousands of seed! Very scary! Most years we pick until around July 1st, but with the early spring this year we are in a big hurry to get as much of it as possible, soon."

This is what 2nd-year garlic mustard looks like.

So 11 of us joined a group from Chicago's Uplift High School (they've been there before and they're pros) to clear a bit of the forest. What a great day! There's something very rewarding about spending time in the forest, off the trails and roadways, and working together to tend a little piece of God's creation.

We pulled like what seemed to be a ton of it and hauled it all out to a central compost pile. Even though the seeds are quite hardy out in the forest, they don't seem to spread from the compost pile.

Naturally, I went home and found half a dozen of these stalks around the edges of our backyard. (They're no longer there.) The good news is this: if you look around your yard and find this pesky plant, you still have time to break the cycle by pulling it before the seeds ripen and are dispersed. Just remember: keep an eye out for it next spring, too.

For a few more photos, click here.  

What to Get for Someone Who Has Everything

OK, well not necessarily absolutely everything - I think that's a different crowd than I move in, perhaps - but let's face it: some people are hard to buy for. Here's a cool and affordable idea, though - how about a built-in USB charger?

Besides being a convenient thing to have around the house, it also gives your significant other a weekend project! You can't beat that kind of two-for-one gift. (The creative person could also come up with a personalized t-shirt to go with, but I digress...)

These gizmos were introduced in the middle of 2011, and then featured at the Consumer Electronics Show last January. Meanwhile, I have yet to find them on the shelves at my local haunts - Home Depot,  Ace Hardware and Menards (which does list a couple varieties online, though) - but they are available on the Internet. (Just click on the links below.)

My favorite is from CurrentWerks, just because it's (a) really built-in, and (b) you don't have to sacrifice a regular outlet. The device is available in both a standard type outlet and a designer version, too (shown here). Directions are available online, courtesy of SmartHome.com, but it's really pretty standard stuff:

• Turn off the circuit breaker (or unscrew the fuse?)
• Remove the faceplate; remove and de-wire the old outlet.
• Wire up the new one and put it back into the outlet box.
• Attach the faceplate, and power up.

Suddenly, you don't have to unplug anything else to charge up your phone or iPad or whatever. And you only have to hunt for the cable, not the transformer. Just as an aside, whoever came up with the USB connector made all of our lives much simpler! Data and power in one simple, universal connector. Alleluia!

Another version of the built-in charger is available from Cooper, which is a well-known name in electrical circles. It's about the same to install, but you lose one 110 outlet in the process. Also, for me it just doesn't have the same aesthetic. Functionally, though, it's a good thing, and in my book it still counts as an upgrade to your castle.

Those two options are fine for homeowners, but what about you apartment dwellers? Well, Audiovox-RCA has you covered. Its version of the "built-in" charger is actually like a cube tap - you simply plug it into a standard outlet in place of (or over) the faceplate. It still offers one 110 outlet, but gives you two USB charging ports as well. It's the simplest of these three options to install, and it's portable; when the lease is up, take it with you and plug it in at your new place.

And if you want something really kind of different, Audiovox-RCA is on the verge of releasing a version of this USB charger that has a built-in nightlight as well. Now that's way cool. (The website says it's coming in May.)