Smart Grid 201

Part Two in Mr Batty's Series on the Smart Grid - we're onto the "what is it" section now.

The Smart Grid, Part 2 from Peter Batty on Vimeo.

Distributech Video

Due to a certain Australian making his wife have a baby just before a major conference, I got called into demo duty at Distributech. Included was a quick video segment on the stuff we were presenting, and the link has just gone live now. I definitely don't have the dulcet tones of Mr Tonkin, but it didn't turn out too bad in the end I guess......

Enspiria is Five Years Old Today

When you help start a company with a few friends, no office and no work on contract, it's bound to be a little scary. You have high hopes and dreams, a few panic attacks in the middle of the night, lots of long nights and weekends ahead, and a huge grin on your face (most of the time).

So here we are, 5 years later, with a real company on our hands, real (and hopefully happy) customers, and plenty of war stories from the ride.

The picture above is from way back when (I'm guessing around April 2005) in our first office space, and obviously when Chip still went for the short back and sides approach to getting his hair cut. We've come a long way since then - here's to the next 5 years, and thanks to everyone who's helped make us successful so far.

Enspiria Summer BBQ

A nice quiet affair for this summers bbq (apart from the water bombs Mr Tonkin decided to bring to entertain the kids, which they decided to use to soak Chip). Unfortunately, the weather didn't want to help out, so the planned park destination was quickly changed to Kathy's house, the home of all the best parties.

I managed to not bring a camera with me, so these picks are stolen from Tonks

Peter Batty Joins Enspiria

Although we've been mates for the last 10 years, and worked in the same industry, on some of the same dev tools, and with some of the same customers, I've never actually had the pleasure of working at the same company as Mr Batty. Until today that is.

Although he's still going to be President of Spatial Networking (sign up for whereyougonnabe if you can get an invite), we've managed to pry away some of his valuable time to help Enspiria get to the next level.

The press release has gone live and you can view it here.

And for the record, he did actually wear the lime green jacket - no photoshopping on this site! Wonder if it's going to make an appearance in a couple of weeks for JB's shindig?

What's been going on?

Not too much to be perfectly honest. It appears that a large percentage of the women of child bearing age in our company all got together and planned a synchronized pregnancy, we got to spend the whole day with Holly and Meaghan yesterday, followed by dinner at North with the usual suspects, and we've been on a bit of a shopping blowout for the new year - I got my first new snowboard since I got here in 1997, and we ordered Heidi's new car - delivery won't be for a couple of months though (on the car, the snowboard is in my possession). I might even try and take a day off work next week to rendezvous with the wife in the mountains to see if I can actually snowboard on something that isn't going to restrict my speed to 5 miles an hour. Accidents are expected.....

Our Christmas Party

Another corker of a night. George, you really should have come along....

In a real magazine..

I somehow got persuaded to try and fit in writing an article with a couple of colleagues. about work type stuff (nothing as exciting as cars and gadgets). Anyway, it turns out it got picked up by one of the magazines, and even made the front cover, and the theme for the editors notes.

So, if you're interested in mergers and acquisitions in the utility applications industry (and lets face it, who isn't ;-), the magazine is here (page 4 and 14 mother, as I know you're the only one who'll click)

Enspiria Christmas Party

It was another classic party - lots of fun, great company and a drink or two. Hopefully nothing got broke in the house, which was decked out with more decorations and Christmas trees (9 to be exact) than any house I have ever been too.

George made a break for the door late on (but luckily Tonks persuaded him a walk home wasn't the best idea), Dave initiated shots of the dangerous fire water that turns up every year, and some people even got to wear their Christmas sweaters. Me, I resorted to taking the opportunity to wear a tie for the first time in a couple of years. It even stayed on all night, and I didn't get choked by anyone, so has to be considered a success.

Photos are here, but the camera didn't come out until late. I'll try and get some links once the other photos are uploaded somewhere (Neil, Kathy, Tonks......)