Heading for a bar at midnight?

Heading for a bar at midnight?

An old friend who is retired from the police department stopped by the paper the other day. He was on his way to play poker at the downtown casino.

I mentioned that my son was in town and I suggested that the three of us go to the track.  I can t go this Tuesday, said my friend. (When we go, we go on a Tuesday for the afternoon session. Horse hookey, it s called.) Maybe we could go one evening, I said. My friend looked at me in horror.  I don t go out at night, he said.  Nothing good can happen to an old man at night.

There is truth to that. Years ago, when I was the night police reporter, I subscribed to the theory that the frontier was defined by time rather than place. Civilization ended about 9 p.m. By midnight, things had reached the Wild West mode. It was mostly populated by young men. It was a dangerous, unpredictable place. Things only got worse in the early morning hours. Civilization returned at sunrise.

So I knew what my friend was talking about. The Wild West is not a place for old men.The day after that conversation, I had coffee with another old friend. He was telling me about a fellow who had gotten into some trouble.  So he stopped at this bar at about midnight, my friend began. Not smart, I said.  I know. I know. But he was just there to get a sandwich, said my friend.

Venturing into the Wild West to get a sandwich. Needless to say, things did not go well.When will we learn? Almost any story that starts with an old guy going into a bar at midnight is going to have an unhappy ending. You can count on it. It s like any story that starts,  They met at a rehab center. That s going to be a sad story, too.

One day the bank near my house was robbed. (I sometimes think I live on Penny Lane. There is a bank and a barbershop. Everything but a fire station.) The robbery was sadly typical of most contemporary bank robberies. It was unsophisticated. A young man handed the teller a note in which he claimed to have a gun, and she gave him a sack of money. He was arrested at his girlfriend s apartment later that day.

I visited him in jail. He was 25 years old. He told me he grew up in Brentwood. His mom was a teacher. His dad was an attorney. Despite the benefits of an upper middle class upbringing, he became a drug addict. He went to a rehab center in Troy, Mo. While in rehab, he met a girl.

I do not mean to seem unromantic. It is entirely possible that some rehab romances work out, but we don t hear about them because people are embarrassed to admit having met in rehab. So they make up a story about where they met. People used to be embarrassed to admit having met online, but now that s considered perfectly respectable.

In fact, some people would say it s preferable to meeting a person in a bar. If you are an old guy, that makes some sense. You don t want to go into a bar at night, and you might not want to meet a woman who drinks in the afternoon.

I do not mean to seem dull. I have nothing against women who drink in the afternoon. I am not opposed to fun. Actually, it is entirely possible that I live an exciting life. At least, that thought came to mind when I examined my latest credit card statement.

I had a charge from a Dunkin Donuts in East St. Louis. I did not remember being at a Dunkin Donuts in East St. Louis. It did sound like something a newspaper columnist might do. Perhaps I was there to meet somebody. Yes, I liked that idea.

But you would think I d remember. I might be too old to hang out in the Wild West, but I am not so old that I would forget meeting somebody at a Dunkin Donuts in East St. Louis.

Perhaps my credit card got compromised. I shop at Schnucks, and that chain recently had a problem with credit cards, mine included. All of a sudden, I was getting billed for major purchases I had not made. Somebody used my card  or its numbers  to buy expensive electronic stuff.

But why would somebody go to the trouble of stealing my credit card to spend five bucks at a Dunkin Donuts? That would be like counterfeiting nickels. Why go to the trouble?

I mentioned this mystery to my wife. (I did not meet her in rehab.) She does not muse about things like I do. She called the credit card company. The charge was from a Dunkin Donuts at the airport. The St. Louis airport. The East Terminal.

It is called "big data,' and, whether it is from information posted on a social network, to one's online shopping history, it is a big business. But one FTC commissioner has a plan to put the control back in the people's hands.

With every click of the mouse, tap of a smart phone, swipe of a credit card and post on a social network, people give away more and more information about themselves. From sending coupons to deciding whether or not someone is eligible for a credit card, in the internet age, data mining companies are constantly learning more about people online.

Ecolibrium was set up in 2008-09, and its first breakthrough came in 2010, after it had approached the Gujarat government with the concept of energy monitoring through smart-grid technology. "We struggled for eight months to get a purchase order, which finally came from the Gujarat government and Torrent Power in 2010. Once we cleared the hurdle of a first purchase order, which we showed to CIIE, it got us incubated there," recalls Chintan.

The project with the Gujarat government required Ecolibrium to commission a smart micro-grid in Sachivalaya, the state government headquarters at Gandhinagar. "Sachivalaya had solar panels that supplied power. We monitored power generation from the solar panels and also monitored certain key locations in the building, which can be turned on and off, based on certain grid condition," says Harit, adding the profits earned from the project helped sustain their business for the next five months. He refuses to divulge further financial details about the company.

What kept the business going was a seed fund from their sister. "It was the financial help from family and friends, especially our sister, that gave the business a stronger footing and made it self-sustaining," adds Harit.

The next breakthrough came in the form of incubation and seed fund at CIIE. "We used that money not only to make our product commercial, but also to study the market potential. In the whole of 2011, we did not make any revenue and did not go out to the market, to ensure our output is robust and scaleable," says Chintan. The start-up went to the market only in February 2012 when Parthiv Patel, part of the core management team, came on board.

By then, Ecolibrium had a smarter and more robust product, as well as back-end technology to avail and maintain energy-consumption details of its clients. After this, the company began talking to several industrial units in various states, even as it went on to add to its sales team across the country.

SmartSense is a product for large power consumers such as factories that would want to monitor power consumption. When the same IEMU device is installed at a discom or electricity board, the product is called Grid Sense or Green Sense in the case of a renewable energy establishment. The first SmartSense customer was Vatva-based Odhav Enviro Projects. Currently, 96 industrial units in Gujarat, Maharashtra,Shop Stately Steel Circle Drop Chandelier wholesale stainless steel earring, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and some other states use the Ecolibrium product.

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