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TMC Heads to Boston for Video Interviews of Industry Companies
Some important TMC corporate news I wanted to share. TMC is hosting TMC’s Special Executive Editorial Event in Boston, MA next week....
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Salesforce Cloudforce NY 2011 Live Blog
I am headed to NY as I post. Check back for updates throughout the day.Heading to the keynote there was a DJ...
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iMainGo XP Portable Stereo Speaker & Case for iPad Review
Portable Sound Labs has a cool new product called the iMainGo XP (model: 11BWB04), which is a portable stereo speaker for the...
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iPhone to Get 4 Inch Display?
Two weeks ago I discussed my smartphone envy after using the Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone which sports a dual-core 1.5 GHz...
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AT&T Sneaks One In
AT&T sneaks in a note that says they set aside $4B for a break-up fee during the Thanksgiving break. AT&T withdrew its...
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Localphone Offers Free Calling Thanksgiving Promo for 4 Days
For four days (from 5am GMT Thurs 24th to 5am GMT Mon 28th) Localphone, a 4 year old company based in Sheffield,...
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Samsung Mocks Apple Fanboys in Hilarious Galaxy S II Ad
Business Insider's Steve Kovach has an interesting interview with Todd Pendleton, Samsung's Chief Marketing Officer, and Brian Wallace, Samsung's VP of Strategic...
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Gratitude
Just a quick note to say Happy Thanksgiving! Although we have had a crazy ride these last few years, this is the week...
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Just in Time for Christmas, Xbox Live Gets an Update
Just in time for Christmas, Microsoft is releasing a new update for Xbox Live, which surely will only enhance the frenetic ripping...
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Drop the Phone in a Toilet and Still Use it!
Many of us have been there – you walk into the bathroom, the phone rings, you see who is calling and...
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Microsoft Surface Update Available. It's an iPoffee Table
The new Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface is now available for $8,400 or approximately the same price as 42 Kindle Fires...
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Polycom RealPresence Connects Non-standard TIP TelePresence Systems
I've written about Polycom supporting TIP (Telepresence Interoperability Protocol) and Cisco's response to Polycom supporting it. Well, today Polycom announced a...
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Oh no! VoIP is Going Down. Big Bad Bear Economy Taking its Toll
Well, whaddya know, the VoIP industry is not invincible to the Great Recession, which started way back in 2008. For the longest...
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Big Week for Tor and The Privacy Minded
Two big pieces of news are out this week for the privacy minded users of Tor who would like to surf anonymously...
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Scientists boost battery strength by Drilling Holes in Battery. Say what?
Now you would think it would be counter-intuitive that poking millions of minuscule holes in a lithium-ion battery would result in more...
Full Story »SkyRider Gives One Reason To Skype Or Web/Videoconference
September 27, 2010Give the airlines credit: unlike the automakers for whom greenwash is the order of the day, they and in turn the environment i.e. all of us benefit when they find ways to cut energy use. The lighter the weight, the more the aircraft can carry per pound of thrust the less fuel is needed leading to lower emissions.
Let's face it: even if we developed high-speed rail networks everywhere, air travel is the only practical means to carry people and highly-valued cargo over medium to long distances and to remote locations.
One of the means airlines have been using to gain productivity is seat pitch. The more bodies on thinner, lighter furniture packed tighter together that they can squeeze into the maximum certifiable capacities of today' well-engineered aircraft the less BTUs-per-customer they must expend while achieving more per-passenger revenues.
Yet there are limits to this as anyone taller than 5'5" can testify.
Canadian Newspaper Has It Right: To Go Green Cut Down On Packaging
August 30, 2010Canada is a big source of American packaging material, and that includes newsprint.
So applause should be offered to a recent editorial in the Peace Arch News, a newspaper which is distributed in the Metro Vancouver communities of South Surrey and the city of White Rock, British Columbia, Canada that face the U.S. border which called for manufacturers and retailers to cut down on the waste.
Here are some excerpts from the piece:
"The sheer amount of packaging we deal with every day is staggering. According to the U.S.-based Dogwood Alliance, 25 per cent of the 2.4 million hectares of trees cut down every year in the southeastern United States ends up wrapping and boxing consumer goods."
"The computer age, which was supposed to diminish our need for paper, has only made things worse."
"The little plastic cartridges for inkjet printers, for instance, are notoriously over-packaged, contained in complicated boxes, attached to cardboard or plastic trays, wrapped in sticky plastic and accompanied by a series of instruction pamphlets and promotional paperwork."
The problem, says the editorial "is compounded if you happened to order that inkjet cartridge from an online retailer; chances are it was shipped in a cardboard box five or six times larger than the already voluminous box encasing the little plastic cartridge, and then further protected by crumpled paper, bubblewrap or styrofoam peanuts."
"Responsible, environmentally-conscious consumers can only do so much to keep all these boxes, containers, trays and whatnot from filling landfills."
For Metro Vancouver and environs like nearly every city is facing a waste management problem. There is rising in adjacent to an environmentally-sensitive area of Burns Bog a landfill that is beginning to look (and smell) like the first stages of New York City's infamous and now-closed "temporary" Fresh Kills dump on Staten Island.
Power IT Down This Friday!
August 26, 2010Friday August 27 is "Power IT Down" day. Organizers say "just by turning off your computer, monitor and printer -- and any other peripherals -- when you leave work for the day, you can help save tens of thousands of costly kilowatt hours."
(There are also the knock-on benefits of reducing dangerous emissions, slowing down climate change and minimizing havoc-causing brownouts and blackouts.)
"Think saving a few kilowatt hours won't make a big difference?" says the web site. "To demonstrate the benefits of Power IT Down Day and how energy savings can be put to good use, its sponsors will make a donation to the Wounded Warrior Project. Last year, we donated $45,000!"
The Wounded Warrior Project's mission is, says that site to "raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of severely injured service men and women, help severely injured service members aid and assist each other, and provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of severely injured service members."
CDW's 2009 Energy Efficient IT Report backs up the benefits of such efforts as Power IT Down day. It found that organizations working to reduce energy consumption are realizing tangible results:
* Through routine measures, such as training employees to shut down equipment when they leave for the day, 52 percent of organizations actively working to reduce energy consumption have reduced IT energy costs by one percent or more
* If the average organization surveyed were to take full advantage of energy-saving measures, IT professionals estimate they could save $1.5 million annually
The message is getting out.
A Practical Way To Use Electric Vehicles: Commute/Reverse Commute Station Cars
July 21, 2010Electric vehicles (EV) presently and will continue to suffer one crippling flaw for most applications: the lack of range. Note the words 'most applications' for there is an imaginative and practical means of using them that is discussed later on.
A recent National Post 'Motor Mouth' article by David Booth points out that the batteries required to move EVs generate electrical energy far less efficiently than do gasoline or other fuels. Gasoline produces about 6,000 watt-hours/pound whereas the "most optimistic numbers" he has seen for advanced lithium-ion batteries is 110 watt-hours/pound.
"That means good old- fashioned gasoline punches 54 times harder for the same amount of weight, the fundamental reason electric cars' ranges are so pitiful compared with those fossil fuelled," writes Booth.
Simply put: there is no way you can pack that much battery power to match what gasoline, or even less efficient fuels like compressed natural gas (used in fleet vehicles, like taxis) can produce for your typical trips.
What about the vaunted greater efficiency of electric motors?
"In the electric vehicles' defence, electric motors transmit that energy more efficiently to the road," says Booth. "Some electric motors boast 90% efficiency, while internal-combustion engines can transmit as little as 15% of their energy into vehicular motivation. However, even being generous, that means EVs face a nine- times deficit versus traditional cars."
And that doesn't take into account driving on hilly terrain.
Revive The Economy. Save The Planet. Get Efficient.
July 2, 2010Nearly every firm, agency and especially nonprofits subscribes if not reads to the notion of doing more with less as the key to productivity, profits or achieving other desired results.
So why not take this sensible, proven concept to energy? And in the process slice the U.S. deficit, chop healthcare and other high costs, kickstart the economy and breathe and live easier?
That's the argument made by David Goldstein, who is co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC's) energy program and a MacArthur Genius Award grant winner in 2002 for his work on energy efficiency, in his new book, Invisible Energy: Strategies to Rescue the Economy and Save the Planet in which he challenges the assumption that we are powerless to our addiction to oil and other dirty fuels.
Goldstein's book, says the NRDC argues that by using energy more efficiently, "we can cut our energy demand, improve quality of life, cut global warming pollution, and reduce pressure to drill for oil in sensitive ecosystems like the Gulf. And in the process, we will be taking one of the few steps available to stimulate the economy while cutting the federal deficit."
"Goldstein emphasizes that we don't need the oil in the Gulf (or in other sensitive areas). He says the United States could do everything we are doing today - and in the foreseeable future - using currently available technologies to save more than $10 trillion over the next 40 years, reducing our demand for energy to perhaps 30 percent of what it is today."
"He also cites the failure to pursue strong energy efficiency policies since the 1970s as a primary cause for our global today's economic troubles, which can be remedied with energy efficiency policies that would pay off long-term dividends."
In a recent blog Goldstein writes: "Energy efficiency is one of the strongest tools we have at our disposal to recover from the recession. It can address all of the major problems that led to the Great Recession and that continue to hold back recovery: from the fear of inflation that [Paul] Krugman warns about to the trade deficit, high unemployment, and government deficits.
Dump BP, Dump the Pump (But Enable The Alternatives)
June 16, 2010With excellent timing, following U.S. President Barack Obama's taking BP to the woodshed for what may have been a preventable Gulf of Mexico oil drilling disaster the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) issued a release asking people to ride mass transit on June 17, the 5th annual National Dump the Pump Day.
"Sponsored by APTA which is partnering with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Sierra Club this year, the National Dump the Pump Day is a public awareness day that highlights the benefits of public transportation, two of which are saving money and promoting energy independence."
"This year offers more than an opportunity for people to save money by using public transit," said APTA President William Millar. "Given the Gulf spill crisis, Americans can also make a statement in support of public transit and its ability to help our country reduce its reliance on oil.
"U.S. public transit ridership saves 4.2 billion gallons of gasoline annually," Millar said. "America needs to be energy independent and public transportation plays a critical role in our country attaining energy independence."
"Representatives from the NRDC and the Sierra Club agree that public transportation is part of the solution for helping our country reduce its reliance on oil.
"Preventing future national tragedies like the Gulf spill requires moving America beyond oil, and Dump the Pump Day reminds us that public transportation options such as trains and buses are important tools for driving down our dangerous dependence," said Deron Lovaas, NRDC Federal Transportation Policy Director.
"Taking transit this Thursday and every day after is something we all can do in response to the BP oil disaster," said Ann Mesnikoff, the Sierra Club's Green Transportation Campaign Director. "Public transportation is key to ending our dependence on oil and reducing our global warming pollution."
"Besides helping our country reduce its dependence on oil, people can also help improve their bank balances. The average household spends 18 cents of every dollar on transportation and 94 percent of this goes to buying, maintaining, and operating cars - the largest expenditure after housing. In addition, according to the monthly APTA Transit Savings Report, which tracks savings for public transit users, the national average savings per year is more than $9,000 for an individual in a two-person household who downsizes from two cars to one car. "
"More than 120 public transportation systems are participating in National Dump the Pump Day activities this year. Some public transit systems are offering free or reduced rides; holding contests with giveaways such as free transit passes; and spreading the word through social media. Proclamations have been issued, including one from Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson."
The irony is that despite the rhetoric from the President about the need to move away from oil dependency, and in the face of stimulus-driven investments in new bus and rail transit system expansions APTA members are having to cut back transit services because of shrinking state/local government resources to fill the financing gaps.
Truly Going Green in Air Travel
June 3, 2010I used to like flying but no longer. I now loathe even the thought of getting on a plane.
A once-great experience has been turned into, well, the most appropriately named commercial aircraft is the "Airbus", which speaks volumes for it. Namely cramming as many bodies to a hairline above the pain thresholds of most humans into a huge of hunk of material and transport them via their conveyance from Point A to Point B.
And that's without taking security into account--whose strict and now degrading and often tokenistic measures and procedures are lousy substitutes from lazy and incompetent intelligence. It is easier to force passengers to virtually strip than to gather, analyze, and most importantly act on potential threats.
Cars, Sprawl Are Killing Us: American Public Health Association
May 24, 2010If there is any doubt that locating in car-oriented poor-transit served office parks and residing in likewise-vehicle-dependent low-density suburbs are injurious to our health--and one reason why healthcare costs are so high--a new report by the American Public Health Association, "The Hidden Health Costs of Transportation," should quell them.
The report's data indicates that if organizations truly want to make a difference in their costs, environment and quality of life that they need to get out of the "parks" altogether. For no matter how "green" the buildings in energy efficiency the dirt from the pollution and other even more deadly and expensive impacts on public health from car dependence resulting from their locations far outweigh the benefits.
This comprehensive study, prepared for the APHA by UrbanDesign 4Health examines all impacts and their staggering costs in 2008 dollars from transportation and land use that is shaped by and which shapes transportation choices. These include accidents, air pollution and obesity including administrative expenses (such as billing and contact centers) and where appropriate lost productivity and wages, property damage, travel delays and costs due to pain, suffering and lost quality of life and premature death.
The toll from cars in poor air quality alone range from $50 billion to $80 billion per year. Yet even that high amount is overshadowed by the costs of accidents that reach about $180 billion annually.
(Keep in mind that hybrids and zero emission vehicles also create pollution from extracting, refining and distributing petroleum products, in highway construction and maintenance, and in emergency vehicles responding to accidents.
Wealthy Biggest Driving Polluters? No, Really?
May 18, 2010The wealthy have the means to become the earliest adopters of the latest and greatest home and office green tech devices, methods and solutions. Yet it appears that too many of them are acting otherwise when it comes to mobility, if Canada's elite are any indication.
A Canwest New Service article printed last Friday in The Province revealed, citing new Statistics Canada figures, that "wealthy Canadians were the worst polluting drivers in 2007. While the rich, defined as having annual incomes of $100,000+ were responsible for spewing out the most air pollution per person, at 5,737 kilograms or 12,621 lbs in 2007.
"'People in this income group were more likely to own vehicles that use more fuel, such as trucks and SUVs,'" the article cites the report.
Along with that StatsCan reported an increase of new 466,472 vehicles on the road in 2007 compared with 2006, with more than half the additional fleet made up of (you guessed it) SUVs, trucks and vans.
Disturbingly if not surprisingly the same report said that individual vehicle pollution was up by one-third in 2007 compared to 15 years or so earlier. So much for fuel effiencies...
And if you add that up to additional driving, road wear-and-tear and resulting maintenance costs which also lead to higher pollution, it appears that any green gains in automotive technology--like the building of roads to alleviate traffic congestion--are eventually wiped out by the users.
One example that I hope doesn't go this way is increased recycling in car construction.
Steel Rails are Green
May 6, 2010A new report from the BlueGreen Alliance and the Economic Policy Institute, Full Speed Ahead: Creating Green Jobs Through Freight Rail Expansion, confirms what rail and many environment advocates and industry sources have been pointing out for years: rails are green and in more ways than one. So instead of ripping out railroad tracks in favor of highways: the dominant government policy for the past 90 years, governments should instead enable investing money into freight rail.
Shipping goods on trains in whole or in part of intermodal (ship/truck-rail) movements uses less energy and land, emits fewer pollutants at greater labor productivity than all-truck for medium to high volumes of freight over likewise distance: short distance heavy movements, such as aggregates are also more efficiently carried on trains. On a per-ton basis, trucking uses on average four times the energy to transport freight versus rail, says the report. That means rail jobs are green jobs.
Moreover, encouraging freight rail through investment in it will also enable green passenger rail.
