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Dumfries and Galloway
Latest News for Dumfries & Galloway
SGS grid contract: TCP licence offshore
Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) has won a £2.9m contract to supply the software it has developed to help maximise the use of power input from variable sources such as wind farms and electric cars within the national grid for use in the city of London.
Bad bank attitude or data dumping glooms?
Have the Carbon Reduction Commitment penalties for large energy users like datacentres, regardless of the source of their energy or their overall impact on carbon emissions, been the dismay factor behind the suspension of Lloyds Banking Group's advanced plans for a £250m datafarm investment in Ecclefechan? Lloyds after all are "still considering potential locations.. across the UK." What Scotland appears to need are some astute developers not an English oriented bank.
Dumfries & Galloway's new data centre
At a time when Inverclyde Council's pioneering scheme is not delivering the anticipated £1.9m savings, lawyer and former civil servant Unison's Dave Watson rails against "purveyors of ruinously expensive IT so-called solutions," it's a brave council that puts its head above the parapet. But undaunted, Dumfries & Galloway Council together with IBM and their mutual "Eric" or 'little by little' approach, that seems both brave and commendable, have relocated a data centre to maximise energy efficiency, offer improved real-time data processing and an estimated £20,000 saving per year.
Conditional approval for £950m Lockerbie data centre
Local road safety concerns are fly in the ointment to Europe's biggest data centre at Peelhouses which has been granted conditional approval. The decision means construction of the facility, which could attract up to £3.5 billion worth of investment, could start as early as next year, as approval from Scottish Ministers is no longer needed.
Next week for £950m Lockerbie datacentre approval
Bruited as Europe’s largest data centre, the Annandale and Eskdale area committee will consider the advice to approve it next Wednesday. Construction of the £950m scheme is expected to start next July with the first part of it open by the end of 2011.
BT landline blackout blamed on corrupted data and a Glasgow computer
Last week more than 55,000 people across south west Scotland found themselves without a landline phone service as the lines across the region and in Ayrshire went down for four hours due to a computer fault at a BT office in Glasgow.
Music bus gets upgraded software for track on a disc
The Music Bus of the Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association not be outdone by any other music bus, has just taken on board some computers and new software and been re-branded for a busy schedule.
Stage three of Scottish Government ePlanning contracted
AIM listed software solutions supplier IDOX which provides local authorities with software that delivers seamless integration and automation from user interfaces through to document storage has won a £1.5m deal to deliver phase three of the Scottish Government's ePlanning Efficient Government Project.
Tides & cloud computing for Ecclefechan
Two years ago, Internet Villages International (IVI) announced plans to build the world's first green powered Data Farm on the outskirts of Lockerbie in Dumfriesshire, Scotland consist ing of approximately 20 Data Centres. Now a new scheme is being aired to harness tidal power to power a "cloud-computing" data centre near Ecclefechan (best known for its famous cakes) in Dumfries and Galloway. Internet Villages International (IVI), are again behind the proposed data centre, but has now joined with marine turbine developers, Atlantis Resources.
Consultancy bill still rising at Dunfries & Galloway
Dumfries and Galloway Council show that £2.24m was paid to external consultant in the last year, its highest level in five years, despite assurances that controversial spending would be cut back. The authority is also now considering cutting jobs to make savings in its budget. The council’s total consultancy bill for six years now stands at a hefty £11.6m, according to the data released under the Freedom of Information Act, enough to pay nearly half the annual police wage bill or two thirds of the DG One leisure complex. Labour councillors have condemned the Tory-run administration for allowing the spending to go up.
Scottish manufacturing excellence scores three awards
Best Engineering Plant award went to Gates Power Transmission, Dumfries, while Plexus, Kelso manufacturing facility was recognised in two categories, at the 2008 UK Best Factory Awards. Both companies embrace lean manufacturing techniques. The awards, organised by Cranfield School of Management are held in conjunction with Works Management Magazine, rewarding excellence within the UK manufacturing industry.
Data, video & audio tape storage: do paper and vinyl have the last laugh?
A Scottish photographer, Chris Frear who runs an audio archival preservation company, Precious Voice in Dunfriesshire has reported the growth of mould affecting audiotape and videotape. Reports in the Globe and Mail and Telegraph add that thousands of kilometres of magnetic tape have already been destroyed by the dust-like substance, but museums and archives may not know it yet, as they have not opened their boxes of old cassettes for years. The mould is so hardy that it spreads easily. Touch one contaminated tape and then handle a clean one and it is likely to be infect it too.
Scottish leukemia request sets Freedom of Information against Data Protection
An original Freedom of Information (FOI) request from Michael Collie, a researcher acting on behalf of a Member of the Scottish Parliament asked for "details of all incidents of leukaemia for both sexes in the age range 0-14 by years from 1990-2003 for all the DG [Dumfries and Galloway] postal area by census ward". The purpose of the request was to establish whether a nearby nuclear power station and military firing range had an effect on incidences of cancer reports Pinsent Masons, the OUT-LAW.COM publishers.
Crichton Carbon Centre offers local SMEs free carbon audits
The Crichton Carbon Centre has launched an EU-backed bid to offer free carbon footprinting services to small, medium and micro-enterprises in Dumfries and Galloway in what is the most comprehensive initiative of its kind to date.
Howie scan & cut timber efficiency
With the new sawmill, the company uses state-of-the-art machinery, a computer system that can accurately predict with precision how many planks will materialise from the logs and what size they will be.
Lockerbie gets internet Data Farm and village
Internet Villages International (IVI) plans to build the world's first green powered Data Farm on the outskirts of Lockerbie in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. On a 140 acre site, the Data Farm will consist of approximately 20 Data Centres, which accommodate computer systems or servers. Increasingly businesses and public sector organisations are moving these facilities out of their offices and into separate purpose-built Data Centres where the equipment is maintained under optimum conditions and managed by specialists. Several Fortune 500 multi-national companies have already expressed interest in the Lockerbie Data Farm.
Calvin Harris' Amiga creates 'Disco'
A battered old Amiga computer was the first technology used by Dumfries resident Calvin Harris in his debut album I Created Disco . Now his first single in both UK and US "Acceptable in the 80s" is reported as "a masterpiece of hooks and gushing synths" and a testament to talent at work.
Crighton reprieve being watched
Crichton campus in Dumfries is reprieved
Computing skills on the ball
Footballer Allan Johnston holds the 10,000th ECDL skills card
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