Beware the Power Drain of Technology

It's very interesting how a little casual conversation can bring to light an issue that is generally less than obvious to most of us, but which really is a great cause for concern to us all. Let me explain.

In the midst of having a quiet gathering with a few nice friends, we had turned down the lights so we could better see out the window to the beautifully lit trees across the street. It really was a great sight, which added a wonderful ambiance to the atmosphere of the holiday season.

Inside, sitting around a small table in the dim light of a single candle, we began to talk about how quiet our surroundings seem to get whenever electrical items are turned off. For more than a few moments we were all drawn back to the memory of the almost deafening silence of the "Great Blackout" of 2003, when not a single hum from a fan, nor the lulling vibration of a motor or pump, nor a single white noise or light existed.

Most of us are very much aware that in this day and age we rely very heavily, not only on technology and its myriad of devices, but also on the electricity needed to power them. In fact we almost take it for granted, day in and day out, until we experience that instance of clarity which gives us reason to pause and think for more than a fleeting moment - and so we should!

Ironically, this issue was recently related to by one of the largest consumers of electricity in the technology industry today - GOOGLE! A recent article sited an engineer at Google who warned that "if the performance per watt of today's computers doesn't improve, the electrical costs of running them could end up far greater than the initial hardware price tag." Let's look at an example.

Only a few years back the typical home computer system had only a 150-200 watt power supply. Today power supplies are available in up to at least 680 watts (a 450% increase), with the average size being 400 watts in a typical pre-built computer system. Faster and more powerful processors, more fans to cool those processors, higher maximum memory configurations, faster CD/DVD drives for burning, nearly unlimited USB ports for external device connections (drawing their own power) and expansion cards like those used for high-end graphics, have all been contributing to this power drain.

If Moore's Law were to be applied to this inevitable growth and expansion of computer components, it would hardly be undeniable that the warning of Google's engineer should be heeded seriously, and within the next few years. Not only is there a "performance per watt" concern here, but more important is the environmental impact that carries a social responsibility.

I've always firmly believed in educating the public, and even though there are some technological advancements and new technologies in development that promise to address this power draining "crisis", they are not yet widespread enough within the mainstream media to have had much affect on the social conscience of the world's technology users. As computing power consumption grows, the awareness of its consequences dwindle into near obscurity. This has to change, and this change needs to start now.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently is the controversial "should I leave my computer turned on all the time?" My answer is simply "no". Why? Well, in the past there was the sound argument that turning your computer on and off frequently kept repeating the cycle of heating and cooling the computer into a short circuit. Computer chips, cooling devices and temperature controls have all advanced quite far since this school of thinking existed, and though it may still be an issue, the bigger picture today is that leaving a computer on all the time simply uses up electricity. With the increasing growth of computers into every home, consuming much more power each year, the hydro bill has become THE mitigating factor over the years.

It is almost an optical illusion that keeps the awareness of this power drain problem hidden from many of us. Over the years computers have gotten smaller, more powerful, faster, and capable of connecting to many more devices, but smaller does not always mean lower power consumption. In fact, the combined advances of technology going into home computers have conyinued to increase their power consumption, and so to should our understanding of this illusion.

Please Power Off!

Regards,

Troy Roach
OnSite Technology
519-40-GEEKS
519-404-3357
www.onsitetechnology.ca

758/2571

"e" is for Everything

Certainly everyone has heard of "eBooks". If you have not, they are digitally published texts that you can read right on your computer screen. Well, up until recently, I had only ever thought that ebooks were digital copies of books that existed in print which you would find in a local book store or library...I was wrong.

A few weeks ago I discovered that many internet marketers create their own ebooks to offer to anyone interested in hearing about their success, secrets, strategys and tips. Well the digital text does not stop there.

While searching on eBay today for an inexpensive alternative for business forms, I came across some ebooks in my search results. One or two peaked my interest and before I knew it I was deep in the vault of ebook-dom. There was a book here, and another one there, and yet another one again. Every click seemed to turn up more and more ebooks on more and more topics.

I began to wonder if there was no limit to these available topics. Then I came across listings offering "bulk" ebooks, dozens or hundreds of different ebooks for mere dollars...and they even came with resell rights so that I could create my own listing, auction, or webpage to sell them too.

This got me curious, and I clicked some more, finding more and more "libraries"... 2,000 ebooks... 6,000 ebooks... 8,000 ebooks... WOW! I could not contain the interest anymore.
I had to purchase one of these libraries and see for myself. Why not? It was only an investment of a few dollars, and I would get the library nearly instantly.

So I made the purchase and I got the library. I opened it up and then... I got overwhelmed. Information overload, or certainly a potential case for it. While skimming some of the titles, and some of the other web sites linked to several titles, and skimming some more, I discovered that there are titles that exist on practically every topic imaginable.

Not only was there internet and auction marketing, but there was love & life, health & beauty, new age & occult, religious & spiritual, arts & crafts, etc., etc. Now I know that these available topics are not surprising, but keep in mind most of these type of ebooks are not "published" works. Essentially anyone can be digitally published. Anyone can write an ebook. Hopefully these writers have some sort of insight, experience, knowledge, education, or training, but the choices seem endless.

Some of the titles and topics that surprised me were "Become an Instant Chef", and "Dream Psychology by Freud", or Reincarnation Vedanta Philosophy", and "Helping Your Children Learn Geography". I know there never is a shortage of topics for books in a library, and certainly in a book store, but now it has reached to the digital world.

One of my personal long time favourite writers, Jeff Harrow of The Harrow Group, who writes "The Harrow Technology Report" for his website each month and for other publications such as Future Brief, sited a quotation from Spectrum Online entitled "Eternal Bits" which had this to say about the world's current state of digital data storage and creation:

"It took two centuries to fill the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. with more than 29 million books and periodicals, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, and 57 million manuscripts. Today it takes about 15 minutes for the world to churn out an equivalent amount of new digital information. It does so about 100 times every day, for a grand total of five exabytes annually. That's an amount equal to all the words ever spoken by humans, according to Roy Williams, who heads the Center for Advanced Computing Research at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena."

Jeff goes on to say "For example, in 2003 we generated enough data to fill a half-million Libraries of Congress -- that's five-million terabytes, or 5 exabytes. In just one year!"

WOW! Who has time to read any of that, even 1/10th of 1% of it. We are inundated with information everyday, and even more of it, exabytes more, and are available to us literally at our fingertips at any time we need or want it.

Once Google is able to move ahead with their print service, that amount of data will grow exponentially. The good thing is that books, documents and other texts in print which are old and at risk of deteriorating from existence (and which are limited in their availability and access) will be preserved and be much more accessible... by everyone.

The bad news... how long can this data be stored electronically before it deteriorates, or before the media we use today becomes obsolete and has to be transferred to a newer media in the future. It will be a huge task to maintain this data, and a huge industry surrounding it.

At the risk of perpetuating the very phenomenon I am discussing, I will end this blog post here, leaving you to your thoughts. Please feel free to add your comments at any time.

Thanks for reading, and please remember to visit my website at http://www.onsitetechnology.ca/ for great deals, articles, information and links, or my eBay consignment shop at http://www.udropcanada.com/.


Troy Roach
OnSite Technology
Stratford, Ontario
519-404-3357
519-40-GEEKS
http://www.onsitetechnology.ca/

889/1792