Andrew Donoghue – Grounded technology news and analysis
Despite atrocious weather in Budapest with howling wind and rain, I managed to finish the Budapest Marathon inside the 4.30 hours I was aiming for (4.26 actually!). Big thanks to the personal trainers who provided support and a motivational kick-in the pants over the last twelve weeks of training plus running with me most of the way around.
Would be great to raise some more sponsorship for Action For Children ahead of Byte Night – and anyone who wants to donate can do so here:
Big thanks to everyone who has sponsored me so far but I need to raise more money for Action For Children. I am going to be running the Budapest Marathon (tomorrow!) and also taking part in the charity sleep-out event Byte Night on 8 October. I know that times are tough financially for a lot of people right now but anything you can spare would make a big difference to the charity.
Each year, at least 75,000 children and young people experience homelessness. One in three attempt suicide and 1 in 7 young runaways are physically or sexually assaulted (this figure rises to almost 1 in 2 after a week).
With your support, not only can the charity help keep thousands of children and young people off the streets and away from the risk of physical and sexual assault, it will also help them build better lives with secure accommodation, education and training opportunities.
This is my latest article for Greenhotelier.org:
Installing an exercise bike connected to a generator in a hotel foyer so guests can pedal for their supper is one way to put green policies into action. But while this recent experiment at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Copenhagen Towers shows that guests are happy to expend energy to save the planet, there is still uncertainty about how far this commitment extends in fiscal terms.
Amid an unsteady economic recovery, and concerns over a potential double-dip recession, the hospitality sector along with other industries are looking for evidence that investment in sustainability makes business sense. Ultimately, everyone wants to know just how much customers care.
Finding an answer is not easy, though that hasn’t stopped plenty of organisations from trying. Consumer research specialists, such as Mintel and Ipsos Mori, have carried out numerous studies to track green spending, and the markets attempt to measure the financial performance of companies that meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards with the FTSE4Good Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI).
Fore more go to: Greenhotelier.org
The rise of Facebook has sometimes played out like some convoluted Hollywood script so the news that a movie based on Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to fame is nearing release won’t surprise many.
The official website of the film – which will be known as The Social Network – launched this week. The fact that the film doesn’t have the word Facebook in the title may mean that the filmmakers have had to take some artistic license with the source material to avoid any unwanted attention from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s lawyers.
Mark Zuckerberg
The film, due for release on 1 October, is based on Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding Of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. The film stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and former pop-sensation Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker – founder of Napster and one-time Facebook president.
But whatever deviations from reality emerge, the film appears to be in good hands when it comes to documenting political machinations thanks to a script developed by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin. The potential for irony in some of Zuckerberg’s pronouncements on privacy ishopefully too great to resist.
For more go to: eWEEK Europe UK
The UN has confirmed that it is considering a formal review of its Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) after a new report leveled fresh criticism at the high profile carbon offsetting scheme.
A coalition of green groups working under the banner CDM Watch yesterday tabled a formal request calling on the UN’s climate change secretariat to overhaul the CDM and crack down on alleged “gaming” of the system that has allowed some firms to benefit from increasing their greenhouse gas emissions.
The controversy surrounds companies which currently receive carbon credits for capturing and destroying the powerful greenhouse gas HFC-23 – a by product resulting from the production of the refrigerant gas HCFC-22.
CDM Watch has alleged the way the CDM is structured means that chemical gas manufacturers based in China and India and South and Central America have been incentivised to increase the production of HCFC-22 and HFC-23 as they can then earn Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) carbon credits, which can be sold into carbon markets such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
Lambert Schneider, a former member of the UN climate change secretariat’s Methodologies Panel and one of the original designers of the CDM system, has joined the ranks of its critics. “The amount of HCFC-22 production and HFC-23 generation appears to be mainly driven by the possibility to generate offset credits rather than other factors,” he said.
For more go to: BusinessGeen.com/The Guardian
After famously stating that the threat from climate change is graver than that posed by terrorism, former government chief scientist Sir David King has this week issued another stark warning, arguing that oil supplies could peak far sooner than anticipated by politicians and businesses.
Speaking this week in his role as director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (SSEE) at the University of Oxford, King accused governments around the world of having their “heads in the sand” over the risks associated with their continued dependence on fossil fuels.
Smith made the comments at a press conference ahead of the Smith School’s World Forum, which is being held in Oxford from 27-29 June. He warned that the problem was particularly concerning in the UK because any economic recovery would result in increased reliance on imported oil.
“For the UK, a growing dependence on oil imports creates a new challenge as oil prices begin to rise again following the current economic downturn,” he said.
Outlining an argument familiar to those who believe oil supplies could peak within the next decade, Smith said that he expected oil demand to outstrip supply by 2015.
He added that oil companies were consistently overstating the scale of their reserves and accused politicians of being too ready to believe predictions that “oil will be squeezed out of the ground pretty much forever”.
According to Smith, the government should act now to promote low carbon transport and accelerate the development of an economy that is less dependent on fossil fuels. “Our transport sector is hugely dependent on fossil fuels and it is down to the Government to steer us towards a de-fossilised economy using the regulatory and financial incentives available,” he said.
He argued that viable low carbon alternatives already exist but that governments must do more in terms of subsidies to encourage their uptake. “We need to incentivise the private sector to deliver these solutions to the market place,” he said.
For more go to: BusinessGreen.com
Over reliance on fossil fuels is driving companies to take unnecessary environmental risks as typified by the recent oil disaster in the Gulf Of Mexico.
That is the conclusion of a major new report from insurance giant Lloyd’s and UK think tank Chatham House, which argues that a rapid shift towards low carbon energy sources represents the only way of tackling the energy industry’s soaring risk profile.
The report, titled Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business, highlights how the risks faced by the oil industry have increased as it has been forced to shift its focus from relatively “easy” reserves to deep sea drilling sites, such as the one at the centre of the ongoing BP disaster.
The report cites a recent article from Canadian newspaper commentator Jeff Rubins, which predicts that the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig will affect the oil industry in a manner comparable to the nuclear incident at Three-Mile Island in the US, which effectively put an end to the building of new nuclear plans for a generation.
“The real legacy of Three Mile Island wasn’t what happened back in 1979, but rather what happened – or more precisely didn’t happen – over the course of the next 40 years in the US,” Rubins noted. “Literally overnight, the near-meltdown of the reactor core changed public acceptance of nuclear power plants. No company in the US has built a new one since.”
Commenting on the report, Richard Ward, Lloyd’s chief executive, said that the environmental and economic costs of fossil fuels are simply too high to justify on-going investments.
“The current generation of business leaders need to rethink their approach to energy risks or be left behind as energy becomes less reliable and more expensive,” he said. “We need a long-term plan to reduce consumption and diversify our energy sources.”
According to the Lloyd’s report, up to $500bn (£346.5bn) a year needs to be invested in low carbon energy sources by 2050 in order to enable the shift away from fossil fuels, a transition that is likely to lead to significant business risks and opportunities.
“Businesses across the board need to make a serious assessment of their vulnerability to change and volatility on the energy scene,” said Bernice Lee, research director at Chatham House. “There are huge opportunities as energy systems evolve to include users and increase resilience and efficiency. There is also the potential for heavy or even catastrophic financial and environmental losses.”
For more go to BusinessGreen.com
Apple iMac 24″, Apple Wireless Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Wired Keyboard, Apple iPhone 3G, Apple iPod Shuffle, Apple iPod 30G, Asus Eee Netbook, Seagate External Drive, HP Photosmart Printer/Scanner/Photocopier LG 50″ Plasma TV, XBbox 360, PSP, M-Audio Speakers, Canon PowerShot S5IS, Sony Wireless Headphones, Bose headphones, Sennheiser headphones, and a Logitech Squeeze Box.
My name is Andrew and I am a technology addict. The list above is proof. The really worrying thing is that most of that has been bought in the last couple of years. It doesn’t include the myriad gadgets and other tech toys accumulated and discarded over the last ten years or so.
But eventually you have to say enough is enough. And that is what I am doing today. Writing about green issues and technology leaves you wide open for accusations of hypocrisy and I have to hold my hands up to being guilty on all charges. Shooting holes in the tech policies of companies such as Apple, Dell and HP while also continuing to happily consume a good chunk of the new products they churn out is pretty shameful.
So from today I have decided to draw a line. I am going to take my own advice, and that of numerous environmental experts, and sweat my tech assets. No new tech unless it’s replacing something broken. Citing the claim in numerous articles that 75 percent of the environmental impact of new tech is incurred during manufacture but continuing to buy new kit on a regular basis cannot continue.
Why now you ask? Well my epiphany came during Steve Job’s latest sermon. Despite knowing all about Jobs’s infamous reality distortion field, the environmental costs of creating and disposing of tech, not to mention the shocking series of suicides at one of Apple’s main manufacturers in China, I felt myself being sucked in – again. I felt that nagging little voice in the back of head whispering that my old iphone is looking a bit tired and the new one is so lovely and shiny. So shiny and precious. I have turned into a tech Gollum without realising it.
Yes, the iPhone 4 does have some genuine new features. Better battery-life for one is a fantastic improvement. And so is the idea of video-calling. As a new father I was shamefully sucked in by the saccharine promotional video from Apple which shows some road-warrior Daddy gazing lovingly at his wife and child via an iPhone video chat.
For more go to eWEEK Europe UK
What is going to be the main motivation for people moving off Windows XP? Faster apps? Improved efficiency? Exciting functionality? No. Companies will abandon XP because Microsoft and its partners will stop supporting the platform by 2014.
That appears to be the conclusion from analyst Gartner at least, which released a research note this week urging companies to consider moving off XP in the next 12 months. True, Windows 7 has been getting some “positive reviews” the analyst concedes but the real issue is not embracing the wonders of Microsoft’s latest OS but jumping clear of the Windows XP boat before Microsoft sinks it.
“With Windows XP getting older and Windows 8 nowhere in sight, organisations need to be planning their migrations to Windows 7,” advises Michael Silver, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.
Now, Gartner probably believes it is just being pragmatic with its latest missive. Windows XP is pretty ancient in software terms. The supposed PC refresh cycle for most enterprises was supposed to be three years but Windows XP has been hanging around since August 2001. If Gartner is accurate in its report that 80 percent of respondents skipped Vista and are still using XP then that means swathes of machines are running software conceived nearly a decade ago.
So it makes sense to abandon the clunky old platform and embrace the future which is Windows 7, right? Windows XP is dead, long live Windows 7. That would be true if this was still 2001 but a lot has changed in the last ten years. The rise of Linux, a resurgent Apple, and most importantly the era of cloud computing ushered in by Google. All these factors combined with some hairy economic conditions of late have conspired to make Windows XP a much more permanent fixture than anyone – least of all Microsoft – imagined.
There are other factors at play here. Not least the turkey that was Vista. But the failure of Microsoft’s last baby to take hold was as much to do with the environment it was born into as the functionality – or lack of it – of the operating system itself. Vista was clunky and annoying but if there had been a real impetus to adopt it then more businesses probably would have. The single biggest factor in Vista’s demise was probably the fact that Windows XP works so well. Actually, that should probably be clarified. Windows XP worked well enough and well enough is all most people want – certainly in the business world.
For more go to: eWEEK Europe UK
(from eWEEK Europe UK)
When I first used my iPhone, I actually smiled. Recent events connected with the device may change that.
Smilling at the iPhone might sound like a sad admission but it’s probably a common reaction. Apple has worked hard to make sure that the user has a very special relationship with the device. It’s all about what the company leaves out, rather than what it includes. Too much functionality actually detracts from usability, according to iPhone guru Jonathan Ive.
Just as an expert Radio DJ can give his audience the impression he is speaking to them alone, Apple has worked the same magic with its handset. You might be surrounded by other iPhone users, but it still feels as if the device was made specifically for you.
So It is blackly ironic that a device that engenders so much positivity in its users has been linked to negativity of the worst kind amongst the people who produce it.
The latest in a spate of apparent suicides at Taiwanese technology manufacturer Foxconn was reported this week, when a man fell to his death from a building on the company’s campus. The incident is the eighth death by falling this year and there have been a further two cases in which the victims survived. This so-called suicide cluster has resulted in unwanted media attention on the facility and the compaies which it serves including Apple, Dell and HP.
The tech industry has always been dogged by reports of poor working conditions in the facilities that actually produce the technology. Companies such as Apple, Intel and IBM are keen to appropriate the images associated with manufacturing tech – engineers in white coats and those trade-mark Intel bunny suits – but the Foxconn incident and others of its kind highlight the reality of high-tech manufacturing. It’s not happy bearded techies tinkering with soldering irons in some Californian campus but thousands of low-skilled foreign workers being cycled through de-humanising Asian mega-factories.
For more go to: eWEEK Europe UK
EARTHED-TECH 
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