ATAR Notes: Forum

General Discussion => General Discussion Boards => Other General Discussion => Topic started by: beezy4eva on January 10, 2008, 09:31:06 am

Title: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: beezy4eva on January 10, 2008, 09:31:06 am
not sure if any of you know about this site, but im sure a lot of you know about its sister site google:
http://www.blackle.com/
and the australian version http://au.blackle.com/
its like google but with a black backround to save energy. you get the exact same search results as you would from google.
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 03:33:26 pm
good incentive,

but i also heard that the amount of energy used to cool the google servers per day is enough to print every single page indexed on google......
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 03:40:31 pm
good incentive,

but i also heard that the amount of energy used to cool the google servers per day is enough to print every single page indexed on google......

Does printing use a lot of energy? Or do you mean the cost of energy versus the cost of printing (includes extra costs aside from energy costs)?

Anyway, a marginal gain is better than no marginal gain.
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 03:44:34 pm
no, the amount of energy, not cost...

no idea how much energy is consumed in printing, but google has a damn lot of pages, and however little energy printing consumes, the usage is still gonna be bloody enormous
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 03:46:29 pm
Oh well, might as well do your part and minimise the emissions caused by white screens (costs you less on your energy bill too!)... so, emo MySpace layouts do have a benefit. :(
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 03:47:42 pm
incentive for fsn? lets go black, do our part for the environment!
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 03:48:55 pm
They should have a black coloured theme. They haven't bothered to install themes yet. BTW, this idea does not work on LCD screens, so I'm not fussed at all: I will continue to use the main Google page and this SMF theme.
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 03:51:30 pm
BTW, this idea does not work on LCD screens
how come?
is it because the diode act as a resistor in case of black or something?
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 03:53:36 pm
BTW, this idea does not work on LCD screens
how come?
is it because the diode act as a resistor in case of black or something?

Dunno ???
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: sxcalexc on January 10, 2008, 03:55:30 pm
Turn computer off one minute earlier than normal - prob saves more than than using blackle does lol
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 03:58:45 pm
Turn computer off one minute earlier than normal - prob saves more than than using blackle does lol
actually turning on the computer uses the same amount of energy as 2 hrs of idle or thereabouts
and coming back from stand-by uses a quarter of energy used for turning on (no idea where i got this stat from)
so try sending your computer to sleep, instead of killing it then bringing it back to life ;D
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 04:04:23 pm
Yeah, I use sleep, but I never considered the energy costs (I don't pay them, so rationally I don't have an incentive to save energy). I use sleep because all my programs stay alive. I reboot every now and then, but I avoid it.

If it is a given that you're going to turn off your computer though, it is better to turn it off 1 minute earlier than turning it off 1 minute later (despite the 2 hour idle time cost). Think marginally god dammit!
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: excal on January 10, 2008, 04:17:23 pm
BTW, this idea does not work on LCD screens
how come?
is it because the diode act as a resistor in case of black or something?

Because the backlight is on, regardless of what colour mix the diodes make. Diodes, in themselves, don't consume much power.

CRTs on the other hand...that site could be handy :P
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: AppleXY on January 10, 2008, 05:24:06 pm
This site actually consumes more energy on some LCD screens. There is a minuscule gain on other LCD monitors, really 'blackle' is just for CRT screens, which are gradually becoming obsolete.  :)
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: beezy4eva on January 10, 2008, 08:00:59 pm
for those of us with parents who dont believe in updating technology and stick with the same stuff for like 6 years it should help save energy
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: beezy4eva on January 10, 2008, 08:07:06 pm
oh i 4got 2 post this site earlier as well:
http://www.freerice.com/
its like a vocabulary game and for each question u get right 20 grains of rice gets donated through united nations
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Mao on January 10, 2008, 08:49:35 pm
what? why cant they dont just donate the rice? i mean..... lol?

and i just realised that the benefit of blackle is fairly small, it's not even megawatts yet...

as economics ppl puts it, the marginal cost is higher than marginal gain... :( good incentive but it doesnt work...
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: Collin Li on January 10, 2008, 08:59:11 pm
as economics ppl puts it, the marginal cost is higher than marginal gain... :( good incentive but it doesnt work...

Sorry, but you don't understand us at all. What is the marginal cost?

And if the marginal cost is higher than the marginal gain, how is there a good incentive? Rational people would not do it because their is a disincentive to, if this were the case.

what? why cant they dont just donate the rice? i mean..... lol?

It is based on advertisments
Title: Re: enviromentally friendly google
Post by: droodles on January 11, 2008, 09:14:01 pm
oh i 4got 2 post this site earlier as well:
http://www.freerice.com/
its like a vocabulary game and for each question u get right 20 grains of rice gets donated through united nations

All I did was open up dictionary.com and played that, I ended up giving 200 grains of rice. I felt happier that day