Kookaburra

Microsoft could save 45 million tons of CO2 emissions

Travis Daub at "Foreign Policy Passport" believes "Microsoft could save 45 million tons of CO2 emissions with a few lines of computer code"

Most machines already possess software that allows them to run more efficiently—to "sleep" in a low-power mode when not in use—but few people enable this feature.

So, Microsoft should issue a software upgrade to every computer running Microsoft Windows worldwide. The upgrade would adjust the machine's energy-saving settings for maximum efficiency.

Microsoft estimates that it costs $55 to $70 per year for an average business to allow one computer to sit idle. Multiply that times 100 million computers and you realize that the world spends $5 to $7 billion* dollars every year powering inactive computers. Shifting 100 million computers into low-power sleep mode for 12 hours per day could easily cut worldwide C02 production by 45 million tons per year. That is equivalent to wiping away a year's worth of CO2 produced by every household and industry in a country the size of Ireland. Dozens of power plants would no longer be needed.

Personal Kyoto

While my country's Federal Government [Australia] and the USA admin won't ratify the Kyoto Protocol that's no reason for each of us not to take up the challenge of reducing out green house gas emissions. I am doing my bit (low wattage fluro lights, drive a small hybrid car) but I don't have a good way of measuring how I am going.

If you live in New York City you can use Personal Kyoto -- a website that "provides New Yorkers the means to measure, track and share their progress towards meaningful electric use reduction."

The creator of Personal Kyoto is open to bringing the services to other cities but needs local technical help - read on.

I'm the author of Personal Kyoto and I appreciate the link and the comments [at this O'Reilly Post]. Regarding the question of bringing it to London (or any city for that matter), I am totally soliciting other software developers out there who might be interested in working with me to move it beyond New York. PK works by grabbing data from the local utility (ConEd in the case of NYC) via a user's online account, so there's no need to create new physical meter reading systems. It just uses the utilities already existing system.

Posted by: Ben Engebreth at September 29, 2006 08:45 AM at http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/09/personal_kyoto.html

Can you help adapt Personal Kyoto for your part of the world?

Incidentally Personal Kyoto is funded by the non-profit Eyebeam OpenLab which is dedicated to public domain R&D. Check out there other projects - I am particularly fond of MintyBoost and how it breaks the consumer cycle.

A fast but good cuppa

As hard as I try I'm a sucker for gadgets (it is perhaps genetic, as so was my paternal grandfather) - the latest is a hot cafetiere travel cup essentially a combo coffee plunger and travel mug.

Picked it up on holidays in FNQ (Far North Queensland) for A$21.00, peddled by various growers of Australian Coffee such as Arabicas Coffee. Holds approx 300ml of Coffee. In my experience it makes a decent cuppa that can be enjoyed on the run.

Spent some of the holidays contemplating my acquisitive ways - I have too much stuff (clutter) and am going to try to ease back on collecting. Much as I love books - I am a self-confessed bibliophile - some types of books are becoming anachronistic (the digerati would say all books are anachronistic) - certainly my collection of business biographies look at odds with the way of the world. Seem to have a bunch on Time:Life and Readers Digest - dying businesses.

Certainly casting an eye over some of what I have kept reminds us of how far we've come - university course outlines generated by IBM Golfball typewriters - a great leap forward for its day. And until I'd looked at that link I'd forgotten about the daisy-wheel typewriter which actually first appeared in 1890. Damn, just thinking about it all has me thinking I need to get a typewriter just to have.

Perhaps I can be satisfied with WriteRoom, a virtual typewriter for Mac OS X - it lacks the clackety-clack sounds but does have a single font and an uncluttered display - ideal for getting focussed on your writing. The price is right too - freeware. As for sounds you could do as I did and search for an MP3 of typewriter noises.

"Right!" (said in best John Cleese manner) - best get on with decluttering.

Tragically funny responses to Windows Vista shortcut deletion tangle

The following pictures show the 7 steps needed to delete a shortcut in Windows Vista (beta).

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=151250154&size=o

Surely it won't stay this clunky.

Anyhow it naturally enough stirred up some comments from the commentariat. For example,

"t's even easier if you use Microsoft Shortcut Remover Pro Enterprise Edition which includes a shortcut delete wizard, it's own scripting language, and 234 page user manual. The next version is rumored to also allow you to rename files!"

It gets better in this Digg thread.

Spyware? Throw Your PC Away...

From Gizmodo

Spyware? Throw Your PC Away...:

...Dells are US$299. The New York Times ran a story on a man who threw away his PC because it was infested with spyware. Now, I know enough about journalism to know that anecdotal evidence does not mean it's time for widespread panic, but this is a major issue. PCs are cheap. They're full of PCBs and other dirty grossness. They're full of spyware. Therefore, you're damned if you throw it away and you're damned if you don't.

Ultimately, this is a Microsoft issue. For some advice on spyware, read on after the jump.

Man with spyware fixes problem by buying new PCs [TheInquirer or NY Times, if you like registration]

Here's Uncle John's Olde-Tyme Rules for Keeping Yourself Safe, in Order of Utility

1. Get a Mac
2. Get Xandros Linux - The BEST Desktop Linux Solution. I gave it to my Dad after I became the de facto tech support guy for the fam.
3. Use Firefox - FREE
3. Download Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy - FREE
4. Download Avast Anti-Virus - FREE
5. Turn off your PC and read a book.

Mind Like An Attic

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle via Sherlock Holmes contends that a mind should be an orderly thing

Dr. Watson, describing Sherlock Holmes in "A Study in Scarlet" [source]

"You see," he explained, "I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

Einstein tended to agree. Reputedly he didn't even recall his own phone number (can't say I am great at remembering my landline number - the mobile is easier)

ONE OF Einstein's colleagues asked him for his telephone number one day. Einstein reached for a telephone directory and looked it up. "You don't remember your own number?" the man asked, startled.
      "No," Einstein answered. "Why should I memorize something I can so easily get from a book?"

In fact, Einstein claimed never to memorize anything which could be looked up in less than two minutes.

A mind can be like a dustbin - but that's another post.

Wine & AppTel ... hmm

After a little further pondering I can only applaud Steve Job's brilliance. By making this announcement and supporting Mac OS X on Intel and PowerPC Steve keeps his options open on what chips to use in the future. If IBM have a 'breakthrough' he can ride that wave. If Intel keep winning the MIPS race then we wins again.

Instinctively I said, "Wow, Virtual PC will sure run fast." On further thought why run Windows? Mac OS X is a great OS, who needs to run mutiple OS on a single machine? What is needed, for some, is the ability to run Windows apps on top of Mac OS X.

If Apple emulate the Windows API on Mac OS X then WinTel apps will just run. Ok they won't be provide the complete Mac experience but the basics will be provided for - file access, network access and printing. There is no real reason why Apple couldn't pull this off.

If you like it's converting/cloning Wine for Mac OS X. What's Wine? See below.

From Wine HQ:

Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X and Unix.

Think of Wine as a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. Wine does not require Microsoft Windows, as it is a completely free alternative implementation of the Windows API consisting of 100% non-Microsoft code, however Wine can optionally use native Windows DLLs if they are available.

Now of course you're not going to run Windows apps on Mac OS X while there are good Mac OS X alternatives. Why run MS Office for Windows while there is a Mac OS X native version? Apple will need to manage this well so as to not discourage developers from developing for the Mac natively.

The Sims 2 & a relevant podcast

I am not an 'audio' sort of guy. As I try to listen to audio commentary - radio, spoken books or podcasts - my mind begins to wander and I don't retain a whole lot of what was said. I'd much rather read. I am a speedy reader and can quickly scan to the bits that interest me. Even better on the web we have Google, in page search and our age old friends Cut and Paste.

Fortunately for the world not everyone is like me. Some people are much more tuned into audio - such as my friend Peter Marks - who put me on to some worthwhile podcast streams.

In listening to one (hmm now how do I find the source of a podcast ... hmm) ah yes, Will Wright - Lessons from Games Design (IT Conversations) I did pick up some bits that were amusing.

Will Wright is the creator of The Sims - a virtual dollshouse where you get to create a simulated household. While the podcast ran for 1 hours 30 minutes I didn't pick up a whole lot. I was concentrating on other bits in the 'foreground'.

What I did learn was interesting

• Some people who have a psychological problems have used The Sims to explain their issues to therapists
• Some individuals have got seriously hooked on The Sims to the extent that they model their lives and their relationships, and experiment on The Sims before trying it in real life - wow.
• Uber-blogger Dave Winer claims to have coped with grieving for his late uncle by locking his Sims in their house for three days with no food or water, and slowly watched them die. hmm.

I was a little obsessive about SimCity when it first came out (1988 from memory) but after perpetrating a few earthquakes to destroy my nuclear powerstations I got unhooked. Maybe I am not so different to Dave Winer!

Best I keep well away from The Sims 2 and spend time with my real family.

Podcasting ... well I did get more of a sense that Will Wright was a really bright and engaging speaker. I was priveleged to hear him speak half a world away and in a different time. And all through the magic of the stuff we just take for granted - powerful computers, highspeed bandwidth and smart people continually trying just one more thing. What a great time to be alive.

Greenspun on (US) materialism

"Not being a materialist in the U.S. is kind of like not appreciating
opera if you live in Milan or art if you live in Paris. We support
materialism better than any other culture. Because retailing and
distribution are so efficient here, stuff is cheaper than anywhere else
in the world. And then we have huge houses in which to archive our
stuff." -- Philip Greenspun's writings about Investing, Telecom, Real Estate, Audio, Video, and Cars

Your Camera Does Not Matter

Ken Rockwell sets out in a recent essay to explain why the choice of camera is less critical than learning to really 'see' and capture the shot. What you see in your head is more critical than what you hold in your hand. I'll remind myself of that next time I start lusting after some marvellous new cameras.

People know cars don't drive themselves, typewriters don't write novels by themselves and that Rembrandt's brushes didn't paint by themselves, so why do some people think cameras drive around and make pictures all by themselves? The most advanced, exotic and expensive car can't even stay in the same lane on the freeway by itself, much less drive you home. No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want. Every camera requires you to make manual adjustments now and then as well, regardless of how advanced it is. Never blame a camera for not knowing everything or making a wrong exposure or fuzzy image.