Monday, June 15, 2009
Rick’s Short Circuit: Low-tech green, clunkers and lunkheads, HD and communication, Atom
Around the Web this weekend are stories on policy changes that support green technologies, criticism of cash for clunkers, men vs. women on HD, tech’s effect on politics, and Atom in an “ARM”s race.
Note: my posting last week was sparse because I was busy at the International Microwave Symposium. Here is some of what I saw.
In the Boston Globe, Tedd Saunders, president of Eco-Logical Solutions Inc. and co-owner of The Lenox Hotel, and David Newman, director of sustainability at Millipore, look at some relatively low-tech approaches to energy efficiency in the Bay State—ones that don’t necessarily require smart-grid technologies. “As summer beckons,” they write, “Massachusetts is poised to enter a new era in energy efficiency and conservation. It's not sexy, but it will save money. It's good news for businesses, residents, and the environment.”
They note that the promised results are dew to two policies: the Green Communities Act, which mandates that “utilities invest in low-cost energy efficiency first, before turning to more expensive sources of energy,” and, from a new Department of Public Utilities "’decoupling’ policy breaking the link between utility revenues and the amount of energy they deliver.”
They say that Millipore realized cost savings through partnerships with the utilities, working, for example, with NSTAR to install high-efficiency fluorescent lights with motion controls. Millipore split the $100,000 cost with NSTAR and achieved payback in five months.
At the Lenox Hotel, they report replacing incandescent bulbs, employing vending machines with “misers,” upgrading dishwashers to save water, and, in what might be the most high-tech effort they mention, installing LED exit signs.
Under the headline “Cash From Lunkheads,” the Wall Street Journal derides the "cash for clunkers" program, under which “…drivers would be offered vouchers of up to $4500 to swap their current wheels for a more environmentally correct set with better mileage.” The editorial says, “As columnist George Will recently observed, this isn't as insane as the New Deal policy of slaughtering pigs to raise pork prices, but it's close enough for government work.”
The article says the plan would have “the unintended consequence of taking inexpensive used cars and parts out of circulation, making it harder for financially pinched families to afford a car or keep an old one running.” The writers suspect that the “…proposal is really intended to help Detroit out of recession by subsidizing new car purchases,” but they doubt the plan would help consumers, “…either because they don't have a trade-in or because a new car is still out of reach even with the voucher.”
In the New York Times Magazine, Tom Vanderbilt takes a look inside the cloud—the “vast, dispersed network of interdependent data systems”—and gets a tour of Microsoft’s data center in Tukwila, WA. Michael Manos, who was Microsoft’s general manager of data-center services when Vanderbilt took the tour, tells him, “In reality, the cloud is giant buildings full of computers and diesel generators. There’s not really anything white or fluffy about it.”
Elsewhere in the Times, Maureen Dowd writes, “As an explosion of pixels hits our TV screens this weekend, with the digital and high-def revolution, my unscientific survey shows women are less excited about high-def than men.” Nevertheless, she writes, companies including Sephora and Armani seem to think women will be susceptible to promotions of high-definition makeup. She quotes an Armani spokeswoman as saying, “Obviously, if you are on HDTV, that’s great. But we’re of the mind that there’s no more true HD than real life.”
On a more serious note, Thomas Friedman says that the diffusion of technology is one of four factors signifying change in the Middle East: “The Internet, blogs, YouTube, and text messaging via cell phones, particularly among the young—70 percent of Iranians are under 30—is giving Middle Easterners cheap tools to communicate horizontally, to mobilize politically, and to criticize their leaders acerbically, outside of state control. It is also enabling them to monitor vote-rigging by posting observers with cell-phone cameras.”
The Mercury News says that “Intel's foray into new markets with its…Atom…is setting the stage for a semiconductor industry battle royal that could redefine the Santa Clara chip giant and give birth to a wide array of multifunctional consumer gadgets.” However, the article says, “…breaking into smart-phones, where Intel has been shut out so far, won't be easy. That business is now owned by such companies as Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, MediaTek and Infineon Technologies”—all purveyors of ARM-based chips. The article says Intel plans a lower power Atom—called Moorestown—in 2010, to be followed by Medfield in 2011.
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