Blackle.com creator Toby Heap is earning thousands of dollars per day with his purported energy saving “black Google”. Does it matter if his calculations are wrong?

Blackle, a search engine powered by Google, was launched following a blog post by environmentalist Mark Ontkush, who conducted research to show that monitors draw more power to display white than black. Because the highest trafficked site on the web, search giant Google, is an all-white design, Heap decided to create a black Google, which would save an estimated 750 Megawatt hours per year.

Since then, Heap has been criticised by the media for cashing in on “eco-guilt” (he makes money from AdSense ads displayed on his site) and techies who argue that black draws more power for modern LCD monitors, and has a negligible effect on older CRT monitors. Read the rest of this entry »

With March just around the corner, the weather is starting to warm, plants are starting to bloom, and spring training is in full swing. What could be next? Allergy season - are you ready?

We blogged earlier this winter about a do-it-yourself cure for a tickly throat, to many positive reviews (it is our most-visited post to date). Well here’s another great treatment for you: Oasis Nasal Spray, a safe for kids, natural, non-addictive nasal spray for the treatment of sinusitis and allergies.

Oasis Nasal Spray is made from purified Dead Sea salt. The world’s most saline lake, the Dead Sea has been the subject of numerous studies, and its waters and salts have proven effective in the treatment of a variety of ailments, including psoriasis and asthma.

Oasis Nasal Spray provides the healing powers of the Dead Sea. It works by flushing allergens and sinus toxins from the nose, and the Dead Sea salts inhibit the inflammatory response, which means you can relieve your symptoms without any irritation. Read the rest of this entry »

Everybody has a website now, and gone are the days of glitter text, animated GIFs and MIDI files playing in the background. A quality website is no longer just a “homepage” but a multi-million dollar corporate marketing campaign available, at the click of a button, to a global audience.

Everyone wants that low-cost professional edge - but they don’t need it to be delivered in the same way. “Corporate” websites are fine for accountants, law firms and - dare we say - large corporations. However, not everyone needs this uber-professional presentation; it just doesn’t represent most industries. In fact, it doesn’t represent most industries.

Here are our Top 5 Signs Your Website is “Too Corporate”: Read the rest of this entry »

Society has become tuned in to the effects of global warming in recent years, but green computers remain a relatively unknown concept in mainstream society. There may not be an Oscar-winning documentary or famous global summit to educate the public, but green computing is a massive emerging issue in our climate-conscious society.

A lot of fuss is made over the impact of airplanes and cars on carbon emissions, but a recent study found that electronic devices such as computers are responsible for 2% of all carbon emissions - the same as airlines.

This is a huge chunk of unnecessary waste going up into our atmosphere, and for all the flak given to the airline industry, the computer industry has emerged relatively unscathed. Thankfully, IT giants like Google, Microsoft and Intel have, in recent years, been proactive on the issue and vowed to make green computing a priority. Read the rest of this entry »

Baltimore City - not to mention the Internet - is abuzz this week over video footage of a police officer reprimanding a skateboarder, which ended up on YouTube. The video has divided all those who see it, from the “Way to go! Kids shouldn’t talk back,” crowd to those who think his brutality and reactions were way out of line, especially when dealing with a 14-year old.

What has emerged as a secondary issue from the incident is the posting of the video on YouTube. The confrontation occurred sometime last summer but has only recently become public via the popular video-sharing service. In the span of that half year, the parents of the teenager in question never pressed charges, the police officer continued to do his job, and nobody seemed harmed by the situation.

Now that it’s a public spectacle, however, the officer has been suspended from duty and there’s been fruitless scrambling in the media to locate the person who shot the video. Read the rest of this entry »