here is a list of cool things, I've thought of lately
- if you are using XP, and like to cut the power at the surge protector without shutting down, you need to turn off autoupdate, unless you are looking to reinstall xp anyway, which a great housecleaning idea anyway, so instead select download updates automatically, but I will install myself, that way you need to shutdown normally and properly, so the system does not crash, after you update. Still you should back up all important files, because at any moment any of your drives could die for no reason.
- 22% and a few hundred coal plants could be taken offline if we switch to cfl's. In any case, they are the smartest gift this holiday I can think of. My relatives will get them from me, until they have replaced all of them. The cfl floodlights are now about 3.33 each, bought in 3pack, now is a good time to start buying those in bulk, also the 13watt spiral is the cheapest and best, they turn on quick, 8 for 12, 1.50 each, but the 11-14watt immitation incandescent is perfect on the eyes, if in sight, they are also 3.33
- low flow shower heads, also turn down that water heater to 120, only wash clothes in cold, not using the dryer is a no-look back for us too, but maybe your not ready for that, the others are all with nearly zero drawback, and turn off the water heater at the utility box before messing with it
- educational+blogging, and educational+vlogging makes for effective blogging, and the time is ripe for that, I think thats why desperate housewives does well, because it links related concept in a string, and acts as if they are part of a related theme of ideas. There is plenty of room for exciting new video content, esp compared to what has been uploaded to date.
- I think 24" lcds are the sweet spot right now, I love my 30" for coding, and the extra space is pretty, but I have it on lowest brightness, and turn off the monitor whenever not in use, on low brightness it uses about 40-60watts.
- I'm still waiting for a wireless electrical box, and a phone I can control power to everything in my home, hurry up android, my wireless internet i turn on and off with a $13 wireless outlet wall adaptor, so otherwise the linksys wireless router and motorola modem use 13watts, which means it costs $13dollars a year if left on, which means I'm saving about $13 a year by turning it off. Add up all the phantom enery in my house and you got 50-300$ per year saved, you can also always multiply that by 100million people, and you already got 30billion, I swear my heat and ac pump is using about 200watts phantom energy, that 200 a year, or 20 a month, what a waste of phantom energy, so I shut it off at the utility box, all, but when its 35 degrees outside, now the temperature in the house is floating around 63, obviously sometimes I cut the house heat, and heat a room only. when i visit the relatives, by car, safety first though, i will def. shutoff the water, the waterheater, but I gotta lets that heater run, maybe 55, or 50, I gotta research, what is too low. so planes do 1.1, cars .8 and trains .5, so if your flying all over the planet, thats up there with the heating and cooling a huge old house, get rid of your old refrigerator in the basement already, mom and dad, and people across the street, take off your screens, and open your blind during the day, I wish my house were facing the sun. To your credit though, when the sun is not shining, opening the blinds would take away a bit of insulation, and the sun weren't shining for 3-4 days, it is today.
- all this energy crap, your thinking, does it get more exciting, yes! think about it energy is a waste, and individual homes waste without any way to force people to become more efficient, we need a cultural change, as well as a project to go home to home, and make every home more energy responsible, require recycling already, you(city governments) know it pays. So my point was inefficiency and energy waste is the biggest and easily drain on the economy, that can be removed by growing the economy at the same time. Obviously its time to ban incandescents, and I think by 2020 we need 50% dirty-to-green tax, and by 2030 we need 100% tax, that means last month it was cold outside, but I still squeeked by with $40 house energy bill, so I would rather pay $80, how else can we get people to become more efficient??
- let me jump to web 2.0, how about an open-ebay, open garage sale.com , i could post a stream of photos of my old digital cam, we should all have a miniature shipping stating in our corner, so that no junk, goes unvalued, zwaggle, a smallsite uses zoints, bottom line , given all the constraints web20 inherently has, there is plenty of innovation to come as sites data can pass openly between more sites
- 3d worlds + webcam will be big, + motion detection too (think wii)
- THE LIST of near future revolutionary tools GOES ON, too bad the US, and a good chunk of its voting citizens are usually too busy funding death projects instead
- oh and, for now, remember, safety comes first
- thats probably why people dont blog, they never have a free chunk of time over 20min
