Did you know about the concerted energy saving challenge put to the British public that took place between 6pm yesterday and 6pm today? You’re not alone apparently. There are a lot of big names supporting E-day but it would seem that it has been an epic fail. Energy consumption was actually up. Admittedly by only 0.1% but up all the same. Not the result that was hoped for I expect.
Monthly Archive for February, 2008
This year has already started to see the blurring of the edges between online Web 2.0 and traditional desktop applications. The traditional downside to this software as a service (SaaS) has been what to do when there is no connection to the Internet. There are various technologies now available from the big players (Adobe AIR, Google Gears, Microsoft Silverlight, Mozilla Prism and Sun with JavaFX). These all allow developers to keep your data in sync when you don’t have Internet access to their applications.
Another obstacle is changing attitudes to software. You will no longer own the software that you use but instead be charged either on a pay-as-you-go tariff or, more likely, on a monthly subscription basis.
There is also a gathering trend toward smaller, more portable computing devices with limited hard drive capacity like the Asus Eee PC. New solid state Flash drives offering a reasonable amount of storage are still expensive but these drives offer better battery performance and allow for smaller footprints.
Couple these new machines with a wireless connection, offline synchronisation and advancing online applications and you’re not a million miles away from the thin client model of computing in the 1970s. The major difference I can see between the aged dumb terminals and the new emerging way is a matter of the public perception of security and trust online. Throw in reliability (or lack thereof) issues, encryption bottlenecks and the economics of dealing with a serious amount of bandwidth into the mix and it’s clear than there is still a lot of progress to be made.
Earlier this week our electricity meter was replaced as it had reached the “maximum permitted age by law”. Out of curiosity I inquired as to just how old that was. 30 years was the answer. The new meter looks just like the old one and doesn’t seem to do anything more advanced like submitting automatic readings to the power company.
For the first time that I can remember I was mildly upset by the fact that I am older than something that is legally decrepit.
Giving blood is one of the few things that is totally altruistic these days and is it’s own reward (apart from a chocolate biscuit and cup of tea afterwards that is). Most people don’t do it and this annoys me. Fair enough if you have a genuine phobia of needles but if you try and tell me that you’re simply “just too busy” and you really can’t spare a maximum of two hours a year to maybe help save somebody’s life then I’m sorry, I don’t believe you.
This evening I wasn’t allowed to donate blood for the first time in the eight years that I’ve been giving blood regularly (at least three times a year since 2000). My iron level was 12.4 apparently, which is borderline acceptable but still too low to donate and a sample has now been sent off for further testing. The level is rightly set quite high for donors own safety. I’m now not allowed to donate for six months which I think is somewhat excessive.
I was given a leaflet on what foods I should be eating in order to raise my iron level and it basically just listed my diet: oily fish, eggs, pulses, brown rice, wholewheat pasta, wholegrain rice and green leafy vegetables. I also easily get my five portions of fruit and vegetables in each day too. I guess I’m just tired.
It was also recommended that I drink more red wine and Guinness which I plan to adhere to rigorously!
Yesterday Toshiba all but threw in the towel on the ultimately redundant next generation movie format battle between their own HD-DVD offering and rival Blu-ray from Sony. Shares in Toshiba went up by five per cent after these rumours. Sony shares rose by only one per cent.
Sure enough, Toshiba today confirmed that they will stop production of HD-DVDs.
Maybe I’m missing something again, but since when did losing become something that inspires confidence in a company? I don’t seem to remember the failing of any number of the bespoke formats (UMD for example) that Sony are so keen on having the same effect on their market value.
I’ve just this moment realised that Sony appear to have actually garnered widespread industry support for their own technology.
For me the winner has always been clear-cut: it may be more expensive but “Blu-ray” just sounds so much cooler. Well, that and the fact that the porn industry decided the winner a couple of years ago.
