Palm | Kelapa Sawit

The Dell computer company has started packing their notebook computers with bamboo. Sounds a bit strange at first, I must admit. Are they shipping these computers to panda bears who will then have internet and a snack? The answer is obviously no. Have you seen a bears paw? I doubt it could fit on the keyboard...

I really love being right, how about you? This is why I watch shows like “MythBusters” and have www.snopes.com in my favorites list. I found great ways to use the information that we’ve been gathering in this class to make some changes and reduce the amount of energy we use in our household. There’s just this one little thing that’s been bugging me.

I read a blog posted earlier about using the smart-strip. I brought up the subject with my husband of getting power strips for all of the devices in our computer area (eg. printer, monitors, computer) and then flip the switch when we aren’t using these devices so that there will not be any unwanted power draw. My husband agreed with using the strip for the monitors and printer but disagreed with using it for the CPU itself. He claims that the computer actually needs a constant draw in order to recharge a battery that keeps the clock current.

In the articles that I’ve read on the subject some say use the strips with computers, but others specifically leave out using the strip with computers and only say to use it with computer monitors and printers. So, if there are any IT people out there that can settle this argument (hopefully with me being right) please leave a comment.

Posted by Catherine Martell-Straight

Blog posted by Jonathan Elliott

I've had an ongoing "debate" with my wife for some time about who wastes more electricity. Her habit is to leave the lights on, mine is to leave the computer on, and we've gone back and forth on this matter about who's habit is worse. Now, only recently did I ever take the time to investigate this, to settle once and for all the most offending culprit.

According to Michael Bluejay, leaving my laptop on in active mode could use up to as much as a 45 watt lightbulb, and leaving a desktop on could use up to as much as four or five 60 watt bulbs. So in theory, my usage of the laptop has worked in my favor these last few months (and I won't speak of how many years before that I was using my desktop, leaving it on all of the time).

But for those of you who are especially concerned, as we all should be, with this very prevalent and constant use of energy, there is a great little feature called the "sleep" mode. In actuality, there are several modes to this, depending on which OS, or even which version of windows you are running. Prior to Windows Vista, you could "standby", or go into full-on "hibernate". The problem with these was that the first method was often unreliable and still used some electricity, and the second method would cause rather serious hard drive fragmentation over time.

Well, Windows finally got on the right track (yes, Mac has been heading in the right direction for a while, I have to give them credit for that), and in Vista has combined the speed of standby, with more reliability, and the low power usage of hibernate. In the new "sleep" mode, the current state is written to RAM (and only if desired to the hard drive), and the only electricty then used is what it takes to keep the RAM powered enough to store that memory. This uses only 1 - 6 watts, a scarce fraction of what it used to.

While this is still wasted energy, it is a nice compromise for those of us who absolutely refuse to take the time every day to reboot the computer. It is a baby-step, if you will. A step in the direction of energy conservation, while losing us no time, since the startup from "sleep" mode is almost instantaneous.

Don't know how to recycle your electronics? Not convinced you should? Want to know how it's done? Check out these short clips.

Basic information on recycling computers:



"Electronic waste is the fastest growing kind of trash in America...":



Dangers of e-waste:



More data shows concern over chemicals in e-waste:



More corporations 'going green':



Computers aren't the only type of electronics you can recycle. Search Google for more important info. and instructions on how to recycle old electronic item(s) you want to get rid of. And your old cell phones are important too--instead of tossing them in the trash, consider donating cell phones to soldiers.

~Anna