Goin' bad, 'cause good is dumb.
(Credit: Wildstorm/Blizzard)Eric's finally going Horde. With Blizzard's recent announcement that it will allow faction changes in the World of Warcraft, Eric is seeing this as an opportunity to inject some excitement back into the game. Dong, of course, disagrees.
Then we awkwardly inject some technology into the episode with discussions about wireless router stress testing and GamutVision.
Finally, some dating advice for our loyal readers. Don't say we never did anything for you.
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On Wednesday, NRDC released a study claiming that video game consoles are wasting $1 billion per year. There's a lot of interesting research in the study, including the differences in power consumption between different games and how the PS3 is incredibly inefficient as a Blu-ray player compared to standalone models.
The headline-grabbing "$1 billion wasted" claim, however, seems hyped in our opinion. Digging into the report, we found that the one of the assumptions used in deriving this figure is that 50% of gamers leave their consoles on all the time--24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That seemed unbelievable, so we dug a little deeper to see how the NRDC came up with this number. Here's what we found:
While we are unaware of any user data revealing the percentage of users who turn off their consoles after use, we have found anecdotally that many users leave their consoles on all the time. Some turn off their televisions at the end of a session [...], while others keep their consoles on in order not to lose progress in a game.
I certainly used to leave my NES on to save my progress on Bubble Bobble, but with modern game consoles, saving is much easier, and I don't know anyone that leaves their console on to save their progress anymore. The study addresses the assumption again later on:
The lack of concrete information on usage cycles for video game consoles, and particularly consoles that can also function as DVD players, led us to develop usage scenarios in which 50 percent of users turn off their consoles when they are done playing a game or watching a movie, and 50 percent of users leave the device on continuously. Since we know the power use of the consoles by mode, we are able to estimate the annual energy use and operational costs to consumers for each of the major consoles on the market today.
... Read more
(Credit:
Beverly Ng)
Here's a lamp with a conscience. The Spark Lamp by designer Beverly Ng is a decorative LED lamp that can recharge itself by lying on its head. Which supposes that the solar panels are below and rather oddly placed (I would have placed the panels on the frame and stand for maximum exposure, but since I'm not Beverly, that's moot).
Here's the twist. The lamp is also Wi-Fi-capable and can tap the wireless to access your home's power usage information. When you hit the "on" switch, the lamp will flicker in different colors to signal what your power consumption is at the time, a cool way to constantly stay aware of your energy use. This is still just a spark of an idea, but it's one bright spark in Mother Earth's favor.
(Source: Crave Asia via Designzen)
Austin, Texas, wants to replace the cobra with solid state lighting.
(Credit:
LEDtronics)
The city, which has been experimenting with several green technologies and trying to encourage green companies to locate there, will evaluate the cost-effectiveness of replacing 250-watt high pressure sodium "Cobra-head" street lights with LED street lights, which consume far less energy. The city estimates it could save up to $500,000 a year in utility bills by inserting LEDs in 5,000 street lights alone.
Maintenance costs would also likely decline because LEDs last longer. Although LEDs cost more, advocates say that the total cost of ownership, particularly in public light figures, is lower.
The LED city program is being driven by--surprise, surprise--LED manufacturer Cree. The company has kicked off projects with Raleigh, N.C.; Toronto; and Ann Arbor, Mich. Raleigh, for instance, retrofitted a public parking garage with LEDs and now wants to expand to its other parking garages.
Last December, Austin inserted LED lighting into a parking garage. The city estimates that it will save $10,178 in utility and maintenance costs a year. Payback for the lights could come in 6.5 years, the city said. (In 2003, the city replaced 5,200 traffic signals and 3,700 pedestrian signals with LED fixtures.)
The public sector isn't the only one buying LED lights. AgiLight and LED Lighting Fixtures, which make LED fixtures, say they are seeing a growing business in replacing neon signs in Las Vegas and other cities with LED lookalikes. Restaurants and stores are also experimenting with LED fixtures.
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