Please support Earth Hour 2009.
Turn off your lights or reduce energy usage on March 28, 2009 (Saturday) 8:30 – 9:30 PM.
Or better yet, know and get involved and take action about climate changes and how to preserve our precious planet.
Found this article from Microsoft Research Team. Delaying Data Could Cut Net’s Carbon Footprint
It’s good to see how bigger companies do their part for the environment. Besides they won’t only be doing that but also help save companies from saving a lot and thus allocating more resources on more important things than wasted energy.
And so should we.
In joining the rest of the eco geeks in contributing small or little ways to help the environment I switched to a black background for my desktop for a start and sharing a few steps here. [more]
I explored a bit on having other things (windows content, application backgrounds) to black but not ready for that transition yet.
Nevertheless I just figured for a few of those out there who wish to change to a back background but not quite sure how. (** Warning: this may appear too simple for some so this is not intended for you)
1. Click on your desktop background. You should see a menu item named Properties. You should something similar to this: (Note that the My Computer icon is only included to illustrate that this is done by clickin on your desktop background – eg. in the image anywhere in the backscreen/space)
2. Click Properties menu item and you should see something similar to the window in the image below. Then click on the Desktop tab
3. While in the desktop tab, find the color drop down in the lower right corner. Select your background color (eg. Black)
4. Click Apply, wait for the changes to be applied, and click OK
Will also include my Black theme file here. So here too are the steps for using a custom theme file. (I think you can add this file in a theme folder and it will appear in the themes list but going for another approach for now).
1. Download My Black.Theme (5.42 kb) and save it on your disk (eg. C:)
2. Show Display properties again (see item 1 above) then instead of going the desktop tab, stay on Themes tab. Note the Theme dropdown list highlighted in image below.
3. Click on the dropdown list and you should see a browse option at the bottom of the list. Click on it. It will open a File Select Dialog and from there look for the Black.Theme you saved on your disk in item 1 above (eg. in C:). Click OK
4. At this point Black should be the item selected in the Theme dropdown list.
5. Click Apply, wait for the changes, then click OK.
They say the effects are significant for CRT monitors vs LCDs but even if you’re using LCD the small difference is significant if combined together. Besides what’s there too loose, the black backgrounds doesn’t hurt and looks cool anyway. 🙂
Martha Stewart’s Going Green Checklist (with 101 ways to get started)
Found this from my friend/colleague Jeigh‘s blog post. Great, more blog posts for the environment.
And once again, seriously turn those PC off when you’re not using them (or at least the monitor) and hey I just remembered, PC’s take in energy but would be more efficient to save digital files than have tons of paper pile up on your desk (unless you actually do recycle them).
Shame for a geek like me to hear about EarthHour only [more]a few minutes after it just finished. I would have wanted my typical excuse that I have no television (which is true in the past) but not until a few weeks ago since our newly rented place had one and it would be weird if I’d ask the owner to bring it and besides a TV has its advantages. I’ve overheard about earth hour sometime ago but never really knew the date until that time I saw it on the news. But then again, there’s the internet, new pages, RSS and all but I guess I just didn’t see the news when earth hour was a buzz (if it did become one).
My friend Chris posted on this too here and it made me think hey we’re not just geeks. Like everyone else, we’re concerned about what’s around us too. What’s there and hopefully what’s left long after were gone. But unlike “everyone else” were geeks and there must be something geeks in particular could contribute to the environment.
I’ve been into buying a few domains lately and I wen’t straight to google and checked geeksforenvironment.org and there it was available. But hey, there must be someone who thought of this before me so instead of impulsively buying the domain and envisioning a forum and blogs about geeks on environment (probably running Community Server) I googled again and there it was. EcoGeek.
EcoGeek talks about technology for the environment, innovations to conserve energy, developments/updates, news etc and links to blogs of other ecogeeks.
You could probably think of hundreds (or a thousands ?) ways how a geek can contribute to the environment like inventing this or inventing that BUT hey, start by turning those computer monitors off before going out for lunch/dinner. These days, it’s safe to say that geeks are a little well of (financially) than others but even if you don’t mind spending for your electric bill at least do it for other people and the generations that might not longer exist because our planet is a mess.
Unfortunately sometimes we just have to leave the PC on even during breaks, otherwise I might get fired or when clients come looking for us but we geeks will find a way.
Got to eat, I’ll turning this monitor off after this. Need not say more for now, just check the ecogeek site when you can and let environmental concerns reverberate more in the geek world.
Again for a start “TURN THOSE GADGETS OFF WHEN YOU DON’T USE THEM”