Henry's Web Log

I have uploaded ALL my October 2008 photos to my Picasa web album account (HenryBassACI).
There's some overlap with the McCrady folder because McCrady is a subset of October 2008, created for my fellow soldiers that were with me at McCrady.

Lisa and the boys are definitely visiting this weekend! This marks 4 weeks apart, and it's a great time to get together. Last weekend was a reconnaisance mission for this weekend!

Thursday was an ACI covered dish lunch, Friday the President's Council hosted what may have been the first gathering of all 3 groups for a sendoff lunch. Both days were interspersed with "final" client and employee meetings, since there's always just a few more things we need to take care of. Kevin Litten's article about this deployment and its effect on our business appeared in today's Virginia section of the Roanoke Times. The online edition put it under business. It was a great ink, got everything right, and captured our sentiment: this is a challange, but we're up for it and all of us (family and employees) see this as a patriotic responsibility.

Saturday's swan song was at the Virginia Tech tailgate: not a celebration tailgate, but our golden opportunity to sell Cub Scout popcorn! We piloted a popcorn sale last year, visiting our well-to-do tailgaters and found them very supportive. It helps that our Cub Scouts are enthusiastic, pull a red wagon full of carmel corn tins, and tell the fans about the great activities we do in our Pack. Plus the cuteness factor. We managed to sell over 28 cases, 12 cans/case. As over-priced as Cub Scout popcorn is, many fans supported our boys with tips and donations.

Sunday we made waffles at home, a delicious family tradition, and I zipped through a quick IASO course (information assurance/computer security), some reading I had been doing over the last 2 weeks. The boys and I enjoyed some horseplay, helped me put on my uniform and we headed out. While traveling in uniform wasn't required, Lisa suggested it would help the boys understand that this is no ordinary business trip. Message received! We stopped at the new R/C flying field on the way to the airport: the Radio Controlled airplane club was hosting a fun-fly and cook out. The weather was great. We enjoyed a few flights for me, Eric and Ethan, then had a burger before continuing to the airport.

Good-bye was certainly tough. Eric was stoic, Ethan was emotional, and Lisa was wonderful, supporting both boys and me.

The NewVa Corridor Technology Council, NCTC hosted its Fall Gala on Wednesday night. Lisa and I enjoyed the event, including a VT business professor known for his rapping and other gimmicks to hold the attention of students. Lisa and I enjoyed meeting a few business contacts, but also got to talk to several First Lego League coaches and supporters. I was honored to lead an NCTC committee, prompted by a generous donation from SyCom Technologies, to stimulate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education in our region of Southwest Virginina. We were specifically targeting robotics at the upper elementary and middle-school level. In short order, we were able to fund most of the startup costs for 5 new FLL teams, and are planning additional recognition not only for the teams that win Blacksburg's regional competition, (Nov 16, 2008), but also recognizing the volunteer coaches on each of some 30 expected teams. Lisa and I enjoyed the night out and meeting some of the people who have been touched by this program.

For almost two years, we've been developing, testing and improving a fantastic innovation for the supermarket refrigeration controls industry. ACI, working under Zero3 Controls, has developed what I refer to as the BabelFish for refrigeration control. Not only does it translate nearly all commercial controllers to a universal XML format, but also puts refrigeration energy and usage data on the web. The protocol is clean, efficient and very much revolutionizes the industry at a time when energy management is big on everyone's radar.

We had some units in an Ohio store and Pennsylvania store, but not since April. Prompted by my immenant deployment, and motivated by our advisory board, we arranged a meeting with Greg Wade, the manager of a popular, independent group of 3 supermarkets in our own New River Valley. We learned that all 3 of his stores had electronic controls. 2 will make excellent demonstration candidates immediately, and the third will be refit soon.

Zero3 will perform an "eCommissioning" where Mr. Wade's stores are tuned for optimum energy performance, without sacrificing food quality. Supermarket electricity bills are the single largest expense on any store's balance sheet, after payroll. Even a 15% decrease in energy can save $2000 per MONTH in a store's expenses, plus the reduction in carbon emissions and improvement of our energy grid. One popular quote I've heard, but not been able to verify, is that supermarkets consume 10% of all generated power in the United States. So reducing every store's energy usage makes a huge improvement in our nation's energy posture.

We look forward to serving the Wade's Foods chain well, and to the subsequent stores that have been waiting for a real demonstration of this technology.

Once a summer we've always thrown an employee picnic, and our favorite venue has become Claytor Lake. With my deployment, our celebration took on an additional significance. We did have a great time, and I think it's important to celebrate with friends.

One remarkable accomplishment: everyone on the MatWeb team got up on water skis. Not simultaneously, but over the course of the day. The weather was already a little chilly, but the water was ok and it beats working!

Matt Gentry of the Roanoke Times joined us mid-afternoon and shot plenty of photos, which will likely wind up in the business section around the time I deploy.