Lights Out 2008

Yes, I did my part, I took part in the 60 minutes for the Earth Hour event. It was easy, I stayed at home, kept all the lights, computers, and our *TV off for the hour. Perhaps it is something that should be done more often. For instance, before you sit down and fire up that super powered gaming machine, why not go for a walk. Yes, a walk; hey, it is a cool thing to do. After all it was something John Lennon really enjoyed doing. We seldom waste money in large chunks, the same holds true with energy. The energy consumed by my desktop computer may not amount to much in the overall scheme of things, but the combination of all of our desktop computers do. 2008 may mark the year of "lights out" for power hungry computers. The gPC sold at Wal*mart and the Asus Eee PC led the way, both running Linux of course. The trend began in 2007 when we were introduced to the Koolu PC: I test drove a Koolu at the Ontario Linux Fest last year and I was impressed with its speed and graphics capability. So far, everything that I have read, and experienced indicates that the low wattage computers are very capable of delivering what most people need for conducting daily business and recreational web surfing. The future looks better. The new Atom processor from Intel is bound for low cost and low power consumption computers. Of course one way to shave off at least $100.00 off of the price of a computer is too ship it with Linux installed. The race is on to produce low cost and low power consuming computers. It is the most interesting trend to hit the computer industry in years. I am more than willing to do more with less. As far as I am concerned the whole global warming debate is a dead parrot argument. (If you have no idea what a dead parrot argument is you will have to ask your local Monty Python guru.) Let's stop spewing hot air debating if global warming is happening or not or if man is causing it or not. Just accept that the same things we have to do to stop global warming are the same things we have to do to reduce smog, hazardous waste, and just plain garbage. The smog season is approaching us here in Southern Ontario. It is time to get on with it or we could be just as dead as that Monty Python parrot.