Apple named 'least green' tech company
Greenpeace report puts Apple at bottom of green league table due to reliance on coal at data centres
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Computers, GPS, 'Smart' 'Phones
Apple named 'least green' tech company
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Posted 13 years ago #
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Consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to global warming or future Fukushimas.
Do I? I'm glad that Greenpeace have cleared that up for me.
I presume CCE is hosted on a server entirely powered by bicycle generators otherwise I might have to seriously consider limiting my posting habits!
Posted 13 years ago # -
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Gary Cook, Greenpeace's IT policy analyst and lead author of the report, said: "Consumers want to know that when they upload a video or change their Facebook status that they are not contributing to global warming or future Fukushimas."
"The internet is of course one of the things that is just 'taken for granted'.
I know I (directly) use much less energy with laptops and smart 'phones than previously with desktops but have little idea how much electricity is involved in all the 'remote hosting' I do - Flickr etc.
It doesn't surprise me that Apple (and presumably most other data company) use electricity that has been generated by coal and nuclear.
I at least hope that the 'waste' heat is being collected and used for domestic and greenhouse use but in North Carolina I somehow doubt it.
There have been various proposals for 'data farms' in Scotland - where using the heat would be more likely and there would be better prospects of the electricity coming from some form of 'renewables' - but they (one at least) seem to have stalled.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Good to see they're lumping nuclear and coal power together... cos it's really that simple, innit.
With wind-genned data farms would they have to invent a new 404?
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It's probably not windy enough, try again in a wee while.Posted 13 years ago # -
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Cromary, Forth, Malin, Hebrides Southwest 1, Good.(PS,i know it's tidal, not wave power, but it's a joke!)
Posted 13 years ago # -
"It's probably not windy enough, try again in a wee while."
Don't think this forum is quite the place for long debates on the merits/sustainability (or not) of wind/wave/solar etc., but this does all highlight some of the assumptions about the 'need to keep the lights (tellies, internet etc.) on'.
It's (slightly) analogous to people who want more roads/bridge to keep up with their desire(s) to drive more/further/faster.
How much is enough??
It's not that long since there were no mobile 'phones, direct dial ('long distance') ordinary 'phones, mains electricity 'everywhere' etc. etc.
I don't know if the lights in the UK will always stay on, but I'm pretty sure that the entire population of the World will never be part of two car families!
Of course if the internet does go down on calm days how many of 'us' will be looking for a politician to blame for 'lack of planning' and how many will go for a nice wind-free ride??
Posted 13 years ago # -
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It's probablynot windy enoughtoo windy, try again in a wee while.Posted 13 years ago # -
but have little idea how much electricity is involved in all the 'remote hosting' I do - Flickr etc.
Estimates vary, this value is widely quoted a typical search generates about 7g of CO2 Boiling a kettle generates about 15g.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Whitelee wind farm has showers for cyclists.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Whitelee - that is where the Strathclyde Police Inspector had cycled to and then was killed in the RTA?
Apple know where you have been
Posted 13 years ago # -
He was on that road but I don't know if that's where he had been. It's fun on a road bike if you're going north.
There are dotted line cycle lanes from Eaglesham to the A77. It's not very busy since the southern orbital between EK and the M77 opened.
Microsoft have no idea where you are or where they are going but they are trying.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Indeed I often look out when being driven on M77 and imagine myself cycling the old A77 around Newton Mearns, back roads over to Eagalsham, down to Fenwick and Kilmaurs.Tea rooms a plenty etc No idea if it would be good route but always seems preferable to the drive on the M77
Posted 13 years ago # -
"Microsoft have no idea where you are or where they are going but they are trying."
Not sure if MS know where they are going these days - Zune, Nokia...
Posted 13 years ago # -
Tea rooms? Stick some bananas and macaroons in your pocket.
I've found MS trying for years. I did an OU computing degree on a Linux machine even though all the software they supplied was for Windows. There was the odd thing I couldn't get round so I used VPC. I think the Smalltalk SDK was the main problem. Borland made a free Java for Linux.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I'll stick up for Win Pho 7, it's really lovely to use and the Zune bit that the media player is based on kinda nice.
I like well designed textual stuff though, and it's very like that rather than the shiny buttons of 'droid and iOs. (Although I'm not really an apple person, hate not being able to tinker round the edges :) ).
Posted 13 years ago # -
There is a piece on Slashdot which says the iPhone isn't really tracking you as the data is fairly poor and having the GPS on all the time would hammer the battery. It seems like it's just keeping track of radio towers which it has seen before and using them as a look up table. It also appears to be a feature of Android phones too but that's not newsworthy.
Cheap-o Nokia here. When it breaks I'll get another cheap-o phone. Sometimes I don't turn it on for weeks.
Posted 13 years ago # -
You can tinker with OS X.
B*, wedding on the "news" again.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Yeh, but then Steve Jobs comes round and tells you you're holding it wrong :P
Posted 13 years ago # -
I don't have an iPhone and I've never held one in any way, OS X is the system on Macs. It's UNIX.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Does android store you're location history like the iphone? I'd love to get my hands on my data to play with.
Scottish renewables were really pushing whiteleas at the bike show, I was polite enough to listen for a couple of minutes before stealing a waterbottle
Posted 13 years ago # -
Ah ken, was only kidding. Funny how many iOS elements are making their way into OSX. Next version of windows is picking up the metro elements from WinPho too.
Best thing about Macs is that it's one system designed to run on one fairly limited set of elements, and it just runs perfect on them.
Think one of the miracles of windows/unix/linux et all and their main problems is that it has to run on all kind of mongrel machines and battle with all the crap that the PC makers put on there.
Posted 13 years ago # -
You can get software to dump the Andriod data here:
https://github.com/packetlss/android-locdump
I've not tried it. Number one son has an Android but he is welded onto it and probably wouldn't welcome futtzing with it.
Whitelee visitor center is OK and boys are agitating for a cycle trip there. That's either going to be old Brompton with Marathons or I'll ask Alastair to build a mountain bike back wheel. I'd need a threaded hub or have to replace the rest of the transmission.
Posted 13 years ago # -
I wasn't too interested in getting OS X Lion when it looked like they would just be making it more like IOS but they have released more info on some interesting things so I might save up a few bob and get it after all.
If they threw in a resolution independent GUI it would be a definite yes.
Posted 13 years ago # -
Posted 13 years ago #
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Apple have always been very good over the years at making us 'need' their products. I spent some time in the late 1980s in the Cog Sci dept at Ed Uni. The guys in there had linux for free, and Unix, Sun and various other high powered operating systems and machines. They despised Macintosh (name at the time). Slow and gimmicky. The writing was on the wall as I quite liked having The Grouch from Sesame Street coming out of the waste bin and singing to me Oh I Love Trash every time I deleted something. Sure enough we parted company by mutual agreement.
Flash forward - I am typing this on a I-mac one of the same Sun Workstation guys gave to me last year (in fairness -apple not so slow anymore). Fact is the triumph of style over content can get to all of us.
Resistance is useless but Dr Who is back tomorrow at 6pm Villain appears to be Leigh Bowery painted blue.
Posted 13 years ago # -
The GUI will look like a familiar old WIMP but under the hood your iMac uses UNIX which is what endeared Macs to a lot of UNIX beards who didn't use them before.
As well as OS X this one also has Ubuntu and Win XP Pro on it. My MacBook has Snow Leopard, Ubuntu, Win XP Pro and Win 7 on it. I don't use the other OS very often but they are there if I wanted to.
Posted 13 years ago #
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