A white background is irresponsible
I wish I could balance energy usage with easy-to-read text, but I just can't. I like big contrast, I like blank space. And so, libbyh.com has gone back to white. I'm sorry, world, for using more energy. I really am. I will try to find a color scheme somewhere between the black of earlier this week and the white of today; an intermediate gray might do the trick.
To learn more about how much power display colors use, visit EnergyStar's informative site. Right now, if you're reading this on my blog and not in your reader (whose color scheme I don't know), you're using 74 Watts when yesterday at this time, with the old black background, you would've used only 59 Watts. Please turn off some other light. We can work together to lower our energy consumption.
Communities and Technologies 2007 – Power
I'm in East Lansing for the Communities and Technologies conference, and I have some thoughts to share. First, the world needs more power outlets or wireless power. I'm glad I have a MacBook with a long battery life, but my MacBook often refuses to wake from sleep but does spin the hard drive as fast and hot as its little heart can. That, not surprisingly, runs down the battery, and then I'm stuck with no way to take notes. Remember, paper and I don't travel together. I walked over 7 other power cords to get back to my seat in a conference presentation room about an hour ago, and now I'm among a select group of people laptopping outside the auditorium. I'm all charged up, so I'm on a couch in the middle of the room. The other 6 people are lined up against the wall, slightly clumped near the few power outlets available in this room. The outlet scarcity does encourage some impromptu communication, I guess; I've had to ask irresponsible outlet users to rotate their plugs so I can use another plug on a multi-plug outlet or powerstrip too. Apparently we don't like to plug our computers in right next to someone else's. Every powerstrip I've seen has power cords spaced like single movie-goers - at least one empty plug between cords. I understand infrastructure like electrical wiring is pretty tough to change. Maybe I should start traveling with a portable power strip. Wouldn't it be great if it could fold up as small as my power cord and then pop out when I needed it? (Or maybe a wireless extension cord - found while I was looking for the link about MIT's wireless power project) Surge protection plus outlet multiplication = bliss!
Small things…
Here's a story from today's NY Times that you might like: Putting Energy Hogs in the Home on a Strict Low-Power Diet
I was happy to see the article not only because it has useful tips about reducing energy consumption at home but because it's at the top of the "Most Emailed" list. My heart is happy that Times readers are sending each other this story, and I wanted to join in. Maybe we really are starting to care about how much energy we use. Let's keep buying notebooks and turning stuff off when we're not using it. 1700 lbs is a lot of CO2 to save!