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City bosses violate PEC rules
Dim news on Knox lights
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

City bosses violate PEC rules

Ajouté le 16/5/2012

Before giving go-ahead, as claimed by the city managers, to costly Rs 6.5 billion project of installation of light emitting diode (LED) lights in the federal capital, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani seemed ostensibly unaware of the fact that shrewd city bosses have awarded this contract to a firm that is incapacitated in technical terms to launch such mega project.

The firm Oslo Lighting Solutions that has been given this lucrative project is registered under Category C-2 with the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) under registration number 0201305. The matter of fact is that the firms labelled as category C-2 could get work with maximum limit of Rs 500 million.

But interestingly the firm Oslo that could not undertake the projects worth more than Rs500 million has not only been pre-qualified out of three firms by the city bosses but has also been awarded the project worth Rs 6500 million in clear violation of rules.

“It is a common practice - indeed an obligation of competent authority - to verify the category of firm before issuing it tender documents for some project. As per rules the concerned quarters issued the tender documents to firm Oslo for Rs6500 million project in clear violation of rules defined by PEC,” informed an official.

He said that the project of replacement of traditional lights with LED lights involved not only the procurement of lights but also their installation and thus the project falls under purview of construction.

Talking to TheNation Additional Registrar PEC Engineer Dr Ishfaq confirmed that Rs6.5 billion project would be taken as construction work as it not only involve procurement of lights but also their installation and dismantling of traditional light.

“In case of procurement only, the limit of contractor goes beyond not more than 15 percent of described limit as per category. So in both cases either its procurement only or construction the firm is not capable to execute this project,” he observed.

He said soon PEC would formally write to CDA about this irregularity. Quoting several examples, Dr Ishfaq said in such cases PEC strongly recommends re-tendering of project. Dr Ishfaq suggested that CDA should re-advertise this project after being committing a “grave mistake”.

This scribe tried to contact Member Engineering Abrar Hussain Shah - who was designated as CDA Member Engineering just a day before CDA’s presentation to Prime Minister regarding LED lights project - but he did not respond for some obvious reasons despite a text message regarding queries was also sent on his cell phone.

Tags : LED lights project

Catégorie : fluorescent lights | Commentaires (0) | Ecrire un commentaire |

Dim news on Knox lights

Ajouté le 15/5/2012

KNOX Council says it is in the dark about what to do next after plans to switch to energy-efficient street lighting have stalled.

The changeover - which could save the council $7 million a year - has been deferred because the State Government is holding back funding.

Knox Council put the project on hold last year due to skyrocketing costs and red tape, as well as uncertainty over what the Government would bring to the table.

The Government’s move to hold back cash is yet another obstacle to the project going ahead.

It recently deferred funding from its $20 million Green Light Plan, which would help councils replace street lights with energy-efficient fluorescent lighting.

Council engineering and infrastructure director Ian Bell said they were “disappointed” by the decision as the cost of changing to energy-efficient globes had “significantly” increased in recent years and more funding was needed to change over.

Mr Bell said they also needed government support to see greater regulation and competition in the industry.

“We realise it’s something council cannot deliver without support,” Mr Bell said.

“Our changeover of streetlights program is on hold until the government removes regulatory and cost barriers to this process.”

Mr Bell said because the Government decision had only just been made the council didn’t have an official position on what it would do next.

Municipal Association of Victoria president Bill McArthur said converting to energy-efficient lights could save councils $7 million a year and the funding should be reinstated because the high upfront costs to change lights were beyond the capacity of most councils.

Greg Charter, spokesman for Local Government Minister Jeanette Powell, said the grant allocation component of the program had been “deferred” for several reasons, including financial conditions and the unknown impact of the carbon tax.

Tags : street lighting

Catégorie : diving light | Commentaires (0) | Ecrire un commentaire |

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1

Ajouté le 14/5/2012

The tablet feels comfortable in my hands, but it's a bit wide and feels awkward when trying to type and hold at the same time, even if you sport alienlike Arsenio Hall-long fingers, like me. Also, the bezel isn’t completely flush with the outer casing of the tablet, creating a slightly annoying edge.

The Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 trades in its predecessor's 2-megapixel front camera for a VGA one, and while it retains a 3-megapixel rear camera, the LED support light has been exorcised. There's no HDMI option, unfortunately, requiring you to purchase an additional accessory if you have plans to connect the tablet to a TV.

Samsung's TouchWiz UX skin is of course included and comes with custom Samsung apps like Music Hub, Media Hub, and Game Hub, a built-in screenshot app, and the Mini Apps tray located on the bottom of the screen. Tapping it brings up a tray of apps consisting of a calculator, notes, calendar, music player, and clock. However, the most useful of these is still the task manager, which allows you to quickly kill any app running in the background; this comes in handy when apps become otherwise unresponsive.

The basic look and design of ICS are retained, just with a TouchWiz skin and a few extra shortcuts for quickly turning off Wi-Fi, GPS, screen rotation, and so on. As an added bonus, Samsung offers 50GB of free Dropbox storage for the first year.

The IR blaster found on the Tab 2 7.0 makes its way to the Tab 2 10.1 and, in conjunction with Peel's included Smart Remote app, helps turn your tablet into a remote control for your TV. Peel can take the place of your cable or satellite channel guide and display a list of shows currently playing locally on your cable or satellite provider's channels. Go to the currently playing tab and click on a show, and your TV switches to the appropriate channel. Peel does a great job of holding your hand initially through a step-by-step setup wizard. The setup only requires that you know your TV's manufacturer's name, your cable/satellite provider, and your ZIP code. Thankfully, Peel spares us from having to know any more detailed information; however, be aware that Smart Remote does not work with regular monitors, only TVs or monitor/TV combos.

Once it's set up, you can browse shows by category, mark shows as favorites, or prevent shows you'd rather not see on the list from showing up again. Thankfully, Smart Remote now syncs with over-the-air listings, but its accuracy as to which shows and channels were available to me left a bit to be desired.

Navigating the interface took some getting used to, but was easy enough to pick up; however, I took issue with the method by which cable TV screen menus are controlled by the interface. Peel went with a swipe interface that requires you to flick the screen in one of four directions to highlight different menus. While this method works and after some time could be gotten used to, I would have much preferred more-direct directional controls.

As I learned with the Tab 2 10.1, Smart Remote's accuracy is very closely dictated by the information cable and satellite providers choose to release. So, while the Smart Remote guide might indicate that "Law & Order" was on right now on Channel 12, selecting it didn't always take me to the appropriate channel. In addition, sometimes the channel wasn't available to me or there was a different show on the channel at that time.

Tags : LED support light

Catégorie : bicycle headlight | Commentaires (0) | Ecrire un commentaire |

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