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Power saving advice from Microsoft
If you’re not interested in getting the latest graphics cards and/or power supplies then the amount of power used by your computer is probably not uppermost in your thoughts. The closest I normally get is trying to get the most life out of my notebook battery on the train.
You can worry about power from a environmental point of view or the amount of damage it’s doing to you bank account via electricity bills. Monte Enbysk has covered some of the myths about turning a computer off at night. Screensavers don’t save energy and the only way to get the power consumption of the computer to zero is to unplug it from the wall.
There are some other ideas in the Greening your PC article. They range from another suggestion to turn the thing off to using alternative energy sources. Collecting enough electricity for running a normal desktop via solar power is probably not that realistic unless you have very deep pockets but there are plenty of more realistic alternatives like the Power Traveller Solargorilla or a solar powered Bluetooth headset.
Green biking
Great post from the Instructables about how to add a gadget charger to a bike. I often wondered whether this was possible with an exercise bike but the problem is always that you have to do an awful lot of pedalling to generate enough electricity.
This is best illustrated by a comment early on when they are describing how they thought they would make the device for runners using the innards of one of those shake to charge torches:
However, when we calculated how much energy we would be able to get from a run, we determined that it would take a 50-mile run to get enough energy to charge one AA battery. This was unreasonable so we changed our project to the bike system.
That means that if I ran to work, instead of catching the train, I would probably be able to keep in iPod charged. Maybe not.
Cebit 2009, Hannover: Day One
Hannover's Cebit is the world's largest technology fair, and the place where manufacturers from the world over come to show off their latest and greatest products. Computeractive is there too, and today started trekking between the 26 (yes, 26 - our feet hurt already) exhibition halls of the Hannover Messe to find the latest and greatest products. Over the next few days we'll show you what to expect over the coming six months.
One of the most striking stands at the show belongs to Asus. The company is showing off a vast selection of Eee PC notebooks and Eee desktops, not all of which will be available in the UK. A few in particular caught our eye, though. First, the Eee PC 1000HE:
This looks similar to the Eee 1000, but with a new Macbook-like keyboard and a battery that, Asus claims, will run for 9.5 hours - perfect for a full day's work, a long flight or just if you tend to forget to plug your laptop in. It'll arrive in the UK in March, at a price yet to be confirmed.
Other interesting Eee laptops included a tablet:
And this newer, shinier, thinner netbook:
Aside from the mini laptops, Asus was showing off its Lamborghini notebook range - now available in a rather nice ivory white as well as gaudy yellow - and the Eee Keyboard, first shown at CES and now, unfortunately, locked safely away in a cupboard when we attempted to find and photograph it.
We spoke to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, who suggested an interesting future for the Eee computers encompassing both low-cost netbooks and more powerful and featured products.
"We will try to provide more value", he told us. "In the future, when the Eee Top, Eee Box and Eee Keyboard become more popular we will try to separate into two markets".
He denied, though, that the more powerful computers might outgrow the Eee name, saying that "the most important thing for the Eee is "easy"... ease of use is still the key. We still want to keep the soul of the Eee" [in the more featured computers].
One major focus of Cebit 2009 is the environnment, and one of the biggest displays in the "green" hall belongs to Fujitsu-Siemens computers, here to demonstrate its "zero watt PC" - a computer that, unlike most, draws zero watts of power when turned off. A demo unit was on display, complete with power meters for us to examine:
We switched it on and off a few times and, as you can see, it seems to work quite well - that's the PC power meter in the middle. The zero watt PC will be available from July, in two versions - a desktop and a small form factor PC - at prices to be announced.
Away from computers, we spotted a few other interesting products. Synology, makers of network storage devices, were showing off this tiny NAS, designed to hold up to four laptop-sized hard disks:
That's the DS409 Slim, available in the UK from April. And finally for today, we caught up with Absolute Software. It'll be launching its laptop recovery system, LoJack for Laptops, in the UK in the next few months - it'll initially be sold online. The software buries itself in the computer's BIOS, calling home periodically and, if you report the laptop stolen, either wiping its contents or attempting to pass its location back to the company, and so to the police: Absolute told us it has a 75% recovery rate for stolen equipment using its business Computrace product.
We'll bring you more from the show over the next few days.
Windows Vista, CPUs and power management
One of the oddities of computing is that even though your computer is never fast enough, the CPU spends most of it’s time hanging around waiting for something to happen.
That presents a problem because the CPU is then wasting power so there are all kinds of clever tricks for slowing them down or reducing the voltage to save electricity. You might think this is only of interest to notebook users, but remember that this could have a reasonable impact on your electricity bill.
Following a tip from a reader (thanks Ashley), I did a bit of digging into the power plans on Windows Vista. I have to admit that I’ve never really paid that much attention apart from making sure that Power Saving is selected when I’m running off batteries.
What I discovered was the difference between the Full and Balanced power schemes. I’d flitted between them but hadn’t noticed any difference.
It turns out that Balanced mode scales the CPU speed (or frequency) depending on how busy it is. If there is nothing going on it runs at half speed and gets progressively faster as the work load increases. It’s impressively dynamic, compared to the slow/fast that I’ve seen in Ubuntu with the CPU frequency utility.
There’s some interesting analysis over at The Metaverse showing how the CPU frequency is automatically throttled in Balanced mode. But I decided to do some of my own.
There’s a lot of boring figures but the upshot is that in the PC Mark tests we ran there was no performance drop when using Balanced over Full Performance.
Given that power consumption should be reduced with the CPU speed reduction, I’m struggling to think of when Full Performance would be a good idea.
At last, a way of being green with no drawbacks!
Standards for standards
Maybe the recession has forced vendors to appreciate the value of a grown up attitude to standards. Panasonic's approach to an industry-wide standard for 3D high-definition video belies the new reality facing manufacturers of luxury electrical goods and service providers.
Consumers now demand more than ever ease of use. The ability to get smething working out of the box without having to mess about is an inherent aspect of good value now. Proprietary standards, sockets, plugs, menus and media are the antithesis of the easy life. Adapters, and anything that gives the feel of an adapted technology, are like bandages for a scab that the electronics industry couldn't stop picking at.
Until now, the one thing that the industry really couldn't bear the thought of was competiton. It requires intensive R&D and information gathering, none of which protects vendors from the threat that someone else has the better idea, bigger budget or loudest voice.
Standards mean that companies have to differentiate on quality and added value, giving us the ability to pick, mix and match. It will be interesting to see how the new approach works out. This could be the start of a better and more coopertaive strategy in electronics - or the closing of a door by an elite handful of companies that recognise there's plenty to go around for all if they play their unwritten part.
Retiring a computer
The Microsoft Security for Home Computer newsletter had a link to an interesting article, Retire that computer more safely. Hopefully Santa will be treating many of us to a new computer and that always presents the problem of what to do with the old one.
I'm not going to have to worry for a while as a new PC isn't on my list but disposing of old equipment can be quite a headache. Firstly you're not supposed to put any of these gadgets and PCs in the normal waste bin. It's not without reason; there are lots of nasty chemicals in them. So do batteries*. Your local tip should be able to dispose of the computers properly.
The other concern is security. All the personal information on hard disks would be of great interest to identity thieves, so don't just take the computer down to the tip. We recommend Eraser for deleting files and making sure they can't be retrieved. Be prepared for quite a wait though.
Assuming the computer isn't too old (Pentium III or later), there are charities that can donate the computer to the developing world. One such is Computer Aid. One concern is that the problem of disposing of the computers once they no longer work is left to the poorer nation, but at least the computer is used for longer.
Alternatively there are other uses for old computers, including file storage with a quick hard disk upgrade.
*There were plans to create battery recycling points, you can find your nearest at BatteryBack. Don't forget to consider your local tip, which is where I take my batteries, as they have collection points. BatteryBack didn't include this when I did a search.
Where does all the lithium come from?
A small note of concern I have had about some of the greener electric cars is the environmental impact of their batteries, both construction and disposal. And if I'm to be even handed, that concern has to extend to my notebook, mobile phone, PDA, in fact just about anything with batteries.
This hasn't really been eased by a story on EcoGeek about where the lithium used in most modern batteries actually come from.
South America is the answer, and it would appear at some considerable environmental cost. Oh, and the supplies are limited. I'm suggesting a panic buy of batteries but demand could far outstrip supply if electric cars really take off.
I don't really know what I can do about this but I think I will start taking better care of my batteries and make sure they go in the proper recycling bins (at the local tip) when I'm done with them.
YoYo Powered iPhone charger
To counteract the seriousness of the last post, here is something a little more lighthearted courtesy of Ecogeek, an iPhone charger that generates its electricity by being bounced up and down as a yoyo, the iYo dreamed up by a man called Peter Thuvander.
One potential fear I had was relieved by the comment that it has a battery built in, so there's no need to yoyo while connected to the iPhone.
I'm not sure if I want one (no iPhone) but I would love to see crowds of people using them while waiting for the train.
Small tip, if you visit Peter's site click on the link '2' underneath the iYo description for an excellent video.
Review: Cyber Clean
Cyber Clean looks and feels like silly putty (and even comes in a similar small plastic pot), but it's the product's smell that gives it away - the faint whiff of (non-drinkable) alcohol means it must be a cleaning product.
In this case, it's a keyboard cleaner - any kind of keyboard, in theory, can be cleaned with this stuff. The way it works is that you remove it from the pot and press it flat and hard against the surface to be cleaned. Leave it there for a few seconds, then lift it away and with it will come all the dust and dirt that's built up between or under the keys.
We tried it on a variety of keyboards including several desktop and notebook models, as well as mobile and standard telephones. It worked reasonably well in that a certain amount of dust and particles were brought up each time. You can fold the substance over and use it again quite easily because the dust and dirt is absorbed into the material itself.
But it does feel a bit... funny, lifting away all that dirt and simply folding it into the putty, then using the same (now dirty-ish) putty again. But it continued to work and, the manufacturers claim, adds a layer of bacterial protection as well (obviously, it's harder to test that bit). It gets progressively murkier in colour the more it's used, and there's a handy colour chart on the side of the pot to tell you when it needs to be replaced.
The product still left a bit of dirt under most of our test keyboards, although on the very dustiest it got rid of a fair amount of the dust in the first couple of presses. This is a good alternative to the other easy cleaning option (using a compressed air spray to blast the dirt out), but it isn't as thorough as the best (dismantling the whole thing and putting it in the dishwasher). Clearly, it has its benefits in terms of time and effort, although at £20 for four pots, it isn't cheap.
What to do with old printer cartridges
I do my best to recycle old printer cartridges. That is to say, I have a big bag full of them that I will get round to giving to a recycle point someday. But I have occasionally wondered what happens to them. Many will no doubt be refilled and end up on a shop shelf again. This seems like a good idea; the intricacies of the modern cartridge seem far to high tech to throw away after just one use.
Well, it seems that there is another use for old cartridges that just can't print any more, making building material.
According to Ecogeek, Lexmark has been turning old cartridges into eLumber, a replacement for wood in buildings. Unfortunately it costs 20% more than ordinary wood, but it's a good idea. And building your house out it is perhaps the ultimate in dedication to technology.
