Robert K. Loney

Demonstrator-Technician
Environmental and Resource Studies Program
Trent University

1600 West Bank Drive,
Peterborough, ON K9J 7B8 Canada

phone:
705-748-1011 ext. 7870
toll free phone:
from Toronto area- (416) 848-0616
from Kingston area- (613) 767-9092
from Ottawa area- (613) 482-0870
from Montreal area- (514) 312-3600
from New York area- (646) 216-9840

fax: 705-748-1569
email: rloneytrentu.ca
Robert K. Loney

Cardinal FlowerWelcome!

I have worked for the ERS Program since 1991, actively supporting and teaching in courses such as:

  • Introduction to Environmental Science-Studies (ERSC-100),
  • GIS (courses such as ERSC-GEOG-209H),
  • Management of Forest Ecosystems (ERSC-320),
  • Ecology and Management of Wetland Systems (ERSC-351H),
  • and several other ERS Program courses (varies somewhat from year to year).

I am also responsible for maintaining the ERS Program web site, and work on the ERS Program timetable and course registration, among other duties.

My research interests revolve around the question: what can the average person do to reduce their environmental impact? This includes issues such as energy use, waste generation, and food consumption...

In tandem with my personal interests, I am a member of Trent's Environmental Advisory Board, and maintain that committee's web site. I also have an interest in working with Macintosh computer users on campus, and maintain the TMUG (Trent Macintosh User Group) web site.

Software

Here is some software you might find useful...

  • Reducing Powerpoint File Size...
    This zip file contains a powerpoint presentation that takes a user through how to reduce the size of powerpoint files that contain images; why and how to optimize the images so the file size is reduced. It also contains 2 powerpoint file examples, one with an image not optimized, and one with the same image optimized.
    Reducing_Powerpoint_file_size.zip

  • Evaluate a new car's fuel efficiency compared to your current one...
    Download my auto gas savings calculator spreadsheet (requires Microsoft Excel) to calculate how much money and CO2 emissions you will save by buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Worksheets are provided for Canadian and US units of measure.
    auto-gas-savings-calculator.xls.zip

  • Compounding Interest explained...
    Download this Excel spreadsheet (requires Microsoft Excel) to get formulas that calculate compounding interest. These formulas are not built into Excel's functions, but compounding interest can easily be calculated using excel.
    Excel_and_compound_interest.xls.zip

  • Merge Two Databases...
    I often find myself with two databases that have one variable in common, and I need to merge them. For instance, I might have web site visitation statistics for one month in one spreadsheet, and the same statistics for another month in a different spreadsheet. There is no easy solution for a user of Mac OS X (except FileMaker Pro), so I made my own OS X application (created with Supercard). It will merge two databases.

    Download: Merge_Two_Databases.zip version 1.0 b1 (released May 30/08) (2 MB)
    This is the first iteration of this application. If you find a bug or problem, or want a new feature, email me.

  • Abilities:
    • Merge two different databases
    • No limit on the number of fields (variables or columns) in either database
    • Read & recognize either comma-delimited (.csv) or tab-delimited (.txt) files (which are readable by most spreadsheet and database applications)
    • Choose from comma-delimited or tab-delimited file output; choose name and where to save

  • Requirements (many checked by software prior to merging):
    • Application requires OS X 10.3.9
    • Will only merge two databases at a time. To merge more than two, merge the first pair, then merge the result of the first merge with the 3rd database, etc.
    • there is one (and only one) field in common betweeen both databases (field title exactly the same)
    • each database must:
      • include the names of the fields in the first row
      • have at least one record (row) of data (so minimum 2 rows total)
      • have at least two fields (including common field)
      • have a consistent number of fields for each record
      • have no duplicate entries with the common field

  • Known Bugs/Problems:
  • Option to open the merged database file in Excel does not yet function.

Dark-eyed Junco

Links

Feel free to visit the following links that might be of interest:

Sunset over frozen Chemong Lake

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This page was last updated June 2, 2008.
I welcome your comments about my Trent web site (rloneytrentu.ca).