Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts

Are energy vampires in your home?

In the April Issue of the UCS Green Tips, standby or phantom energy loss is detailed. From the issue:

“This wasted energy, known as standby or phantom energy loss, represents a relatively small but growing percentage of an individual home’s electricity use (about five percent), but taken across all U.S. households, adds up to an estimated 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. This extra electricity costs consumers more than $5.8 billion annually and sends more than 87 billion pounds of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

Some of the biggest energy wasters in most homes are the adapters that come with rechargeable battery-powered cordless phones, cell phones, digital cameras and music players, power tools, and other electronic devices. Most draw power whenever they’re plugged into an outlet, regardless of whether the device battery is fully charged or even connected. Other culprits include appliances or electronic equipment with standby capability (such as televisions and computer monitors), a remote control, and/or a digital clock display (such as microwaves, DVD players, and stereo systems).”

Read the issue (it’s only a page long) to find out what to do to prevent phantom energy loss. Here is the link.

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Thoughts

The Apple-Microsoft Deal

This is just a year after the “Steve Jobs on Microsoft” video. Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Steve Jobs on Microsoft

Cca. 1996, Steve’s take on Microsoft. The next year, he turns around and makes a deal with them. An interesting lesson in business relationships… I’m reminded of the old adage: “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say nothing at all…” Yes, that’s a double negative, but that’s how I remember the saying. Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Are you watching what your kids post?

This is a great article by Tim Donovan, written for CNET News, where he details the dangers inherent in posting things willy-nilly all over the Internet – particularly as it relates to children/teens. They will come back to haunt them years later, and may stop them from getting into a good school, or getting a good job. Here is the link.

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Thoughts

Intersection in India

Here is the link to a video of a busy traffic intersection in India. Notice the lack of traffic signals, and how everyone finds their own way to do things. Very disconcerting for someone used to order on the streets.

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