Climate Change

There are still some who contend that climate change is a natural phase that the Earth is going through. That may be true. But man has in his quest to control his surroundings has hastened it all to a critical point.

For several thousand years mankind has made huge strides in controlling his environment, to the point that it seems nothing is impossible. Farms and cities took the place of nomadic hunting and gathering. Civilizations were built on ever hastening movement. It's said that our ancestors walked land bridges that once connected our continents. Today we bridge those continents with air planes, cruise ships and the internet. All of these advances have come at the cost of the environment. Our cities are burgeoning to a point so far greater than what the land could sustain. It's a far cry from the times when hunter-gatherers would take what they needed to survive then move on, allowing nature time to replenish itself. Our constant need to move people, food and supplies to and from urban centers has caused pollution to the air we breathe. Our need to food alone has made it necessary that we demand more from the earth we till.

Yet, for all the powerful change man has caused, it has all been for his own gain. All is not lost. If man can cause so much damage, he can also help heal it. We only need to act together to help the Earth be a sustainable place to live in. If we conserve our resources and use them wisely, we can slow climate change.

Yet Another Green Discovery

Oh, yes. Surprises never seem to end when you just plain know how to use Google. While looking for other small low-powered PCs, I found this video of the Via Artigo. As opposed to the options that I outlined in a previous blog post (on my tech blog), the Artigo is a builder's kit. It comes with almost everything you need, but you put it together yourself. That is in direct contrast to the PCs I mentioned in my other blog, that are shipped completely built up.

It's already available for ordering online and it's supposed to be available in several large retailers in the US and UK (including Fry's Electronics, Logic Supply). It's already listed ready to order from LogicSupply for $279 US but will only ship after January 7. That just means they're not stocked up yet, but are expecting enough to fill initial demand. This would be a great machine to play around with. The price isn't that lower than the Zonbu or Koolu that sell for $299 each and both present better value for money by including system memory (RAM) and storage. But then again, for me there's nothing better than building a PC with your own hands, even if it does come in a kit.

And just to prove how tiny it is, watch this video. You'll be amazed at how small this thing is:

Via has announced that they are preparing for CES2008 in this announcement on their official site.

News articles seem to indicate that they are going to announce the launch of two new products in the event to highlight the push for power-efficient computing devices. One of them, the Via Nanobook (dubbed the Everex Cloudbook in recent months) is finally getting launched 6 months after it was first revealed to the press, Engadget being one of the first to break the story.

Press reports reveal that Via will also launch the much anticipated vmpc vm7700 during the event. More on both porducts and Via's CES2008 plans from news sites TMCNet and PCStats.com

Low-Power "Cloudbook"

Just as I was almost resolved that the Asus Eee PC would be the best solution for a low-power solution for the home, news of a new Everex notebook slowly filtered into the Net. Here's an article from LinuxDevices.com: http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6962839488.html

Here're a couple of pics:



This tiny notebook will have a 7-inch screen much like the Asus Eee. It will be powered by a Via C7 ultra-low voltage processor and will come outfitted with 512MB of memory. It will differ with the Eee in that it will have a 30GB hard drive instead of the Eee's 4GB solid state disk. Power consumption seems to be almost at par with the Asus Eee's 18 watts, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 watts.

Those spec will make it more flexible than the Eee when it comes to what you can load onto the disk. More space will mean more options.

More on Green PC's

I've just posted an entry on my tech blog about the "green" PC's I've found online. I really am looking for a low-power alternative to my desktop and would like to replace it in the near future.

For more on my search for a "greener" PC, read this post from my other blog : More "Green" PC's