umaruba's blog

Umar Uba
December 2012.
Intelligent Building – How ready are you?
The objective in intelligent building is to maximize energy efficiency and to enhance work performance by combining environmental system technologies.
The intelligent building takes energy management system a step further. The purpose is not just to control energy consumption but also to operate the other systems in the building in the most efficient way.
Imagine when a home tells you the garage door is not shut. When a house tells you the light in the baby’s room is left on. Or when the house shuts the windows and power up the air conditioners because it senses you inside and also senses the temperature indoor will make sweat.
The list goes on and on. How ready are you to invest in such a structure?
Conveniences are known to dominate the automobiles and aircraft industry only. These are temporary accommodation for human comfort. Imagine setting out on a journey of about three hours in a very comfortable vehicle. In reaching your destination leaving the keyless car entry to enter your apartment you have to fiddle with the key to unlock the entrance. Fiddling with a switch to lit the room and a fan regulator to provide air and then switched on the air conditioner. How long will it take you to settle in? All the comfort you had enjoyed enroute will be wasted before you pick up again.
What does a building need to be intelligent? Several factors are required to enhance your building to make it intelligent these include:
Power back up system. Not only having a stand-by generator but having a fully back-up of average requirement to last through the rainy day. This is achieved by the use of inverter and battery banks to store energy.
Embedded solar installation. This is done to be part of the structure either of roof, windows and walls. The solar panels are mounted to fit into the structure.
Structured Cabling. This is considered during the initial design embedded during the construction to contain features such as; Network system, Detectors and Fire alarm systems.
The need to have a building intelligently cannot be over emphasized. The security system having couples of camera and monitors with switches to activate alarm in the case of break in. The sense to monitor fire/smoke in a volatile area. Economic saving in energy consumption as the system shut the use of it as you exit, thus saving utility bills.

Umar uba
Kashim ibrahim library
Ahmadu Bello University
Zaria..
May 2011
The INEC’S DDC Machines – their limited use in the 2011election.
Being under the shadow of networks for a while now , I have come to terms with the progressively changing technology of computers and their networks.
The possibility of having a perfect election in the country for the 2011 was clearly the vision of INEC. This, of course was at their finger tips with these machines in use.
The decision of the government to acquire this technology and put it to use was to completely eliminate the fallacies of elections at all levels.
Computers and networks are required to handle these operations with the trained personnel having them on their laps. The operations solely rely on waves and power.
Firstly, the technology of the computer is beyond the limit of INEC’s operations to exhaust. These computers can even do more. It all depends on what we want them to do.
With what the government concur, to play with the dummies, the finger prints, image capture and data which are the key elements required during the registrations all powers were within the finger tips of the operators. These data once captured remain within the system for its own consumption only unless we use the waves and signals to extract them out either in print or stored in magnetic form.
Secondly, the network aspect of the technology is the medium that shares these resources among the dummies and other locations. It goes beyond the eyes, it is either in waves, light or metal (copper) it’s the wedding ring of computers.

Finger prints which have a probability of one in a million being the same is a major item field required for specicificity. In Nigeria, we have an average of 120- people having the same finger prints. Then comes the picture, this is prone to duplication with twins, kins. The probability of having a duplicate is high. Lastly, could the data/information such as name, age, telephone no etc all be wrong or untraceable?

The computers and other networks equipment are the hard wares that are physically visible to perform these jobs. To use this equipment, software is required to communicate between them. This side of the ddc machines is as important as the other. As the banks have succeeded in centralizing their operations with added limitations so also these machines could be made to follow suit. The software must have the ability to sort the data with accuracy how ever much it is to create very useful information in a millisecond. This ability of the software is far beyond what human calculation could handle.

The INEC registration machines must have come with this software and that was why the registration was a success. Unfortunately the software failed to attend to the issues of multiple registrations and duplicate data entry. This should be the character of each machine. It was as a result of this failure we had people registering in multiple places. These multiple registrations, for some were not deliberate but as result of a system failure during the initial registration. A case so many was when patrons registered and the personnel came back the next day and claimed the system has crashed therefore people must re register. Such cases came out with multiple registrations as the system failed to sort out the duplications.

What was expected from these machines was a similar enquiry and response we do get when registering the yahoomail or gmail address. In such instance the system must be connected to the inter-net. As we register it sifts through it if such a name or data had ever been entered. It then came out with an option. This was because the data provided by us was once entered by someone else. Therefore we have a different identity. The ddc machines could have done more owing to inclusion of finger-print and image.
Another failure of the INEC machines is the lack of wide Area networks for the wards and local government polls, metropolitan Area network for the states polls or the internet for the online one time national polls.

How best to use the ddc machines during elections:
(With everything being equal) having a good working machine with a well programmed software and an excellent network the hope of having a perfect election is at our finger-tips. If all the above conditions are satisfied, and the registration was conducted successfully with all data edited and sorted out all we will require is the fingertips recognition inter face and touch screen to make a perfect election.
Once you place your finger it simply recognizes you and displays a screen of ballot boxes. You then place the other finger tip and select the party of choice. As you release the first finger the screen disappears and waits for the next person. This operation takes barely two minutes.
The authenticity of this is that it can’t be manipulated and two people can’t vote at a time and one person cannot vote twice.
If all these are done, the next and subsequent elections in the country by a determined INEC to have a free, fair, credible and honest election will be hailed not only in Nigeria but world wide for a well handled election.

Umar Uba 2011

We have succeded in having a paper-less office. unfortunately we fail to exempt our rooms from hanging and flying cables. what a compromise! many center's core rooms are wired only with the basic systems in mind and most often than not those who made the wiring had no idea how/for what those rooms are to be used for. These call for a need to standardize the scenery of these rooms.
There are several auxillary equipment that arrived these rooms after construction/renovation. what are actually required to be wired? these includes the rack (depends on either the wall mount or the self standing type). The electrical sockets/patress and data faceplate. The air conditioners and other ventilation systems.These rooms are bored crudely just to have access for the electrical/generator/uplink cables into the room.

what do we need to create a wireless-wired room?
First we must consider all the primary equipment and possibly of supporting newer. Secondly, we shop for the materials to use. The primary of them being the PVC trunk or cable ducts. Then, the installation.
Two horizontal rows of trunk are enough to clear the trip wires.These could be anywhere between the lower part of the window and the floor. The lower row being for data path the vsat /uplink etc. These must be bored behind the trunk using a drill machine. The higher row will be for the power. This will require a horizontal rise for lighting, air-conditioners and to the racks.With this arrangement the table arrangements and bigger equipment will follow.
in this perspective the only cable likely to be visible are power to the laptop (optional), usb/keyboard/mouse from back of the system.
A separate smaller room be provided for keeping the portable generator and battery bank.

I just heard of the unfortunate incidence that happen at office i sicerely sympathise with the affected staff and pray that culprit will be exposed to justice. long live NgNog.

I have started working on an automatic change-over switch that will enable the power to switch over to public utility and as well switch off the generator. This will greatly saves time and fuel.
i would like to work with any member of the forum to actualise this.