June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
– Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.
This site shares about my life and work. Most of what I do is devoted to practical solutions to avoid a global climate crisis. Acting from a point of compassion for all living things (or at least trying to!), I'm always ready to be challenged on how to maximize impact. Passionate about developing "whatever is missing" I'm building towards a sustainable future for all.
Since 2012 I've been working with Solar Fire toward initiating a global wave of solar enterpreneurship.
Building web-platforms and systems with purpose that connect actors, empower people and facilitate change.
Contact Urs Riggenbach:
info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663
Bitte kontaktieren Sie mich:
Urs Riggenbach, info@ursrig.com, 079 918 0663
I get involved in things that make sense to me, have impact or bring learning and creation with it.
June 2012 - now
Solar thermal technology solutions in the humanitarian and industrial sector.
– Technological development, project management, IT consulting, web and communication.
June 2012 - now
Launch of innovative platform for the spread of solar thermal energy solutions.
February 2017 - May 2017
– Industrial CNC machine training (Waterjet, Lasercuting, 5 axis CNC)
– Rapid prototyping using state of the art CNC machinery
2014 - 2022
Development of custom web-platforms for the Zurich-based environmental communications agency.
2014 - now
Creation of web-development agency of impact and sustainability projects and beyond.
February 2013 - July 2013
– Development of exhibition on renewable energies.
August 2013 - February 2014
– Support in research and development.
– Instructors from the fields of architecture, construction and joinery/Carpentry
– Application of principles of sustainability and sustainable design in the architecture of a "tiny house" of 227 square feet.
– Project planning and management with different build milestones.
– Construction of entire tiny house, see it in New York Post "Tiny House 227".
– Study and implementation of HVAC systems.
September 2008 - June 2012
– Relevant Coursework: Agroecology, Economic Development, International Water Resource Management, Physics II, Collaborative Leadership, Fieldwork: Seminar in Community-based Research, Documentary Film Making, Webdesign, Fixing Food Systems, Sustainability, Local Production - Global Collaboration.
– Senior project in Nepal installing renewable energy framework at rural school
– Spanish proficiency during project-stay in Yucatán, Mexico
– Davis UWC Scholar: full scholarship awarded
September 2006 - May 2008
– International Baccelaurate (IB) with major biology and economics.
– Course language English.
– Extended essay: Sugarcane Cultivation in the Mulshi Valley, India.
– Full Scholarship from the Swiss Association for UWC
1990
I work in a network of curated developers, designers and content creators, so each project happens in a project-specific team. For the Canton of Bern I built the interactive App "Biz-Links" that helps people find the right career. As a progressive web app it is simultaneously avaiable on Android and iOS devices, as well as directly reachable in the browser by link. My full portfolio is further below.
Selection of projects in the fields of web-development, internet security, Android-app development, webstores, crowdfunding and campaign sites, online community platforms and financial modeling. Most projects are based on a security and scalability optimized tech-stack based on open-source SPIP, LXC and GNU/Linux.
Project idea and need a tech-team? Let's talk!
Posted Wednesday 3 June 2015 by Urs Riggenbach.
PiWik can lookup your site visitor’s IPs to geolocate them. But if you’re running PiWik as an LXC container and forward traffic with Apache or Nginx to the container, PiWik thinks you’re coming from the IP the last network interface, eg. 10.0.0.2 or your server’s public facing IP.
I assume that the container runs Debian and you’re running PiWik with Apache.
1. Make sure you forward the original remote IP as HTTP headers to your Piwik install.
If you use NGINX as a proxy, you’d do it as follows:
proxy_set_header X-Real- $remote_addr;
proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
2. Configure Piwik to use the remote HTTP headers instead of normal ones:
nano /var/www/html/config/config.ini.php
and add these three lines below the [General] settings:
; Uncomment line below if you use a standard proxy
proxy_client_headers[] = HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR
proxy_host_headers[] = HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST
You may also need to enable the Apache RPAF module.
apt-get install libapache2-mod-rpaf
nano /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/rpaf.conf
Change RPAFproxy_ips setting to include your bridge network’s IP, or public IP depending on your set up, eg. 10.0.0.2
service apache2 restart
Check your PiWik and see visitor’s IPs. PiWik can automatically anonymize IP adresses to retain privacy.
Posted Thursday 2 April 2015 by Urs Riggenbach.
1. enable [multilib] repository.
2. Install winetricks, wine, and lib32-lcms from multilib.
# pacman -S wine winetricks lib32-lcms
3. Then download and install Picasa:
wget dl.google.com/picasa/picasa39-setup.exe
export WINEARCH=win32
winetricks ie7
wine picasa39-setup.exe
Now you got picasa working.
Next is installing video codecs so Picasa can pick up .MOV files, etc.
Download this codec pack, and install with Wine. Select "Advanced" during install, and make sure you never select the "Windows" options when you can avoid them.
http://codecguide.com/download_k-lite_codec_pack_basic.htm
Posted Saturday 14 June 2014 by Urs Riggenbach.
I stumbled over this blog post that made me think about a pretty hillarious moment at OKFest 2012, my first time in Finland.
An illustration of the potential difference between centralised and decentralised development at the infrastructure level was offered by Urs Riggenbach of Solar Fire, who described the development of open source hardware for small-scale hydro-electric power generation. Urs argued that, rather than massive cost large-scale Dams projects, with their visible ecological impacts, potential to displace communities, and scope for corruption in their contracting arrangements, communities could make use of Intellectual Property free designs to construct their own small-scale solutions.Tim Davies, www.timdavies.org.uk
It was in a panel representing the “open development” efforts done by the World Bank, Os and NGOs. As Tim Davies points out in his blog, open development and open knowledge as framed by the Open Knowledge Fondation strongly focusses on data as in statustics, exluding other knowledge that’s open such as open tools for change: Open hardware, openly accessible knowledge, construction plans, etc.
For me, open development means to work on solutions for positive change ("development") and at the same time "open" up the tools for this change so that others can do the same.