The End Of Paper Books?

Amazon have just launched their Amazon Kindle, a revolutionary electronic-paper display provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. Whilst not the first on the market (the Sony Reader being the first that comes to mind), it certainly almost brings electronic book readers into the mainstream.

The Amazon page does a good job of promoting it’s benefits, on the Amazon page are many more videos and you can hear what Neil Gaiman (very interesting) & James Patterson have to say about it. The user reviews are interesting too.

Professional reviews have been mixed, with some thinking it is good or great, and some not so positive.

Pros:
- All your books in one place (well, around 200 books, newspapers or blogs).
- No use of virgin paper and printing inks.
- Little distribution cost.

Cons:
- Initial cost is high, needing a lot of second hand books to cover it.
- You can’t pass a book on.
- Proprietary format books are stored in (you can’t read them on your PC).
- It’s made out of plastic.

Overall my personal opinion is that buying or borrowing used books is better, however it seems that in the future this sort of technology will only become cheaper, easier to use, and more widespread.

Carbon Neutral Web Hosting Is Here (With 10% Off)

A new web hosting company called Solar Energy Host is offering carbon-free web hosting. Based in Salt Spring Island in Canada and the first of its kind in the country, Solar Energy Host offers 100% carbon free web hosting that generates zero green house gas emissions.

It’s not carbon neutral but carbon free.

Company founder, Aaron Handford, said: “By using solar power to host the sites I saw an opportunity to make a difference in a real way. Instead of using the “carbon neutral” system where companies purchase carbon credits to offset their green house gas emissions, we offer a cleaner solution – websites powered by solar energy – nothing comes from the grid, it’s carbon-free.”

It’s a good idea as I often think trying to be environmentally friendly is at odds with the fact I’m using a computer to write about it on.

Some more details below, please let us know if you’ve had experience of using it. At the moment if you sign up with the code ’solarrules’ you’ll get 10% off.

What makes it possible is a state-of-the art server that is part of the only solar powered professional web server system in the world. The servers and technology are based in California where solar powered solutions are cropping up in dramatic fashion. A Salt Spring Island based company; Solar Energy Host presents a great hosting solution – and another way to make a difference in the fight to stop global warming. For more information please visit: www.solarenergyhost.com

Searching The Energy Saving Way

Now, I’ve no idea how true this is, it would be good to hear your comments.

When your screen is white, be it an empty word page, or the Google homepage, your computer consumes 74 watts, and when its black it consumes only 59 watts. Mark Ontkush wrote an article about the energy saving that would be achieved if Google had a black screen, taking in account the huge number of page views, according to his calculations, 750 mega watts/hour per year would be saved.

In a response to this article Heap Media created a black version of Google, called Blackle, with the exact same functions as the white version, but with a lower energy consumption.

As I said, I’m not so sure about this, are the savings too minimal? The fact the site is a custom search that has the potential to earn the owner money makes me wary, although of course you can be green and make money! Any thoughts?

[Thanks Sarah!]

Taskforce to cut ‘cyber warming’

A new public-private “Green Shift” taskforce that will be led by Manchester City Council has been created in the UK. It’s aim is to “reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the production, operation and disposal of computers ” with a “green PC” policy.

This involves removing desktop computer, and replacing them with desktop boxes that access central server controlled office applications, email and internet browsers. The scheme, that should be ready by 2009, hopes to reduce resource use in the production of PC’s by 75%.

[Via BBC]

See How Much C02 You Are Saving

This is an interesting idea, C0₂Saver is a desktop appication that will manage your computer’s power usage when it’s idle, saving energy.

Obviously the less electricity produced, the fewer harmful emissions and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere.

I’m not sure whether knowing exactly how much C0₂ you’ve saved is a particulary interesting thing, simply adjusting your power settings manually would do the same, but without the figures. If anyone has tried this out, please let us know what you think.

Sending Electronic Waste Abroad

The US state of California sends approximately 20m pounds of electronic waste (e-waste) abroad each year. Some of this is toxic materials that these countries are not supposed to accept, such as those containing barium, cadmium, mercury and lead. However controls are not strict enough, and resources not great enough to prevent a lot of this material being sent abroad.

With the increasing numuber of people aware of the need to recycle, it’s sad to see that efforts are not taken quite as much at the other end. What actually happens to the waste you send to be recycled? We’ll be looking at that very soon.

[Via: Union Tribune]

Surface Computing - Not Just For Geeks

Even if you have never heard of surface computing, you will soon start to see it everywhere. Initially in retial stores and businesses, they’ll soon come to the home. The following video explains what this is, but if you’ve seen the movie Minority Report then you may be familiar with it. there are more videos available on the Microsoft Surface website. I wonder what the energy consumption is like…..

[Via TechCrunch]

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