Bull Launches 'Green' Supercomputer

Bull has launched a new supercomputer called the bullx, a supercomputer that uses blade servers and water cooling to be green and fast. The bullx is a very sophisticated computer with many new additions and green technology. In the article the publisher explains one of the key green attributes to the bullx is its water cooling system, which is up to 75 percent more efficient than using air cooling. Experts also say the bullx comes with integrated protection against short bursts electrical power, which means customers don't need to use uninterruptible power supplies, that make their computers less energy efficient. The bullx is not for the faint hearted. The bullx targets high-performance computing in the government sector, at automotive and aerospace companies, at oil and gas companies, and in the financial services area.

Overall I believe the use of a green supercomputer is a great idea. If you think about it there are so many companies out there that use supercomputers and if you could start having them adopt the concept of "go green" then hopefully it would start to have an impact on the general public and lead to the beginning of a new era. As we all know we need to start trying to become more independent of oil and using other sources of energy. Hopefully these green supercomputers is a start of something big.  So lets start cleaning up this world and becoming more energy efficient.

 http://www.cio.com/article/495090/Bull_Launches_Green_Supercomputer?page=2&taxonomyId=1448

IBM Project Big Green

On May 10th IBM announced it will be spending over one billion dollars to increase IT energy efficiency for both itself and its clients. IBM also announced that they will be spending 86 million for the expansion of IBM headquarters in Bolder, CO. This expansion involves numerous additions such as the application of storage virtualization software, energy efficient power, and cooling systems. Vice president Rich Lenchner hopes to double its data center capacity by 2010 without increasing energy cost or carbon emissions. He claims this is about company growth and doing so in an eco-friendly way.

Its good to hear a vice president speak about the environment and reassuring to know that a company like IBM really cares about it. Big corporations like IBM need to be weary of the effects they have on the environment. Not like IBM directly impacts the eco system like an automobile or paper company would, but just the notion that they are taking steps to reduce emissions and energy cost tell us alot about the company's values. Finding new technologies that can be both safe for the environment and assits in a company's growth need to be a continuous trend. Creating innovative ways to protect the environment is a upcoming market for IT professionals. In conclusion, what IBM has invested into making their business more "green" will both save money and save face in the public perspective.

http://www.cio.com/article/121003/IBM_Going_ldquo_Green_rdquo_to_Build_Its_Largest_Data_Center

SmartCropTM

The article that I found is called "Company Expands ARS Technology to Save Water, Energy" and I found it on www.ars.usda.gov. This article talks about how the company Smartfield.Inc found a way to save water and energy by adding three instruments together. The system is called SmartCropTM and it is composed of SmartPump to figure out the pressure in subsurface drip systems, SmartWeather to detect the wind speed and sunshine and RainAlert to anticipate rain.

The system uses pole-mounted infrared thermometers to read leaf and air temperature, which are transmited to a computer wirelessly every 10 seconds. In case the temperature goes above the set limit the computer sends a text message saying that it is neccesary to turn on the irrigation system. Every plant grows the best at different temperatures and needs different amounts of water. SmartCropTM allows us to get the best out of every plant by figuring out when the plant produces the most. At the same time producers save water and energy because they already know the exact amounts of water and the exact temperature that the plants needs. SmartCropTM was used in Texas in 2008, and it saved about 7 millions gallons of water and $4000 of energy in a year. The amount of water saved is equal to the consumption of 44 homes in a year.

In my opinion SmartCropTM is one of the most important modern inovations in the irrigation system. I think that very soon SmartCropTm is going to be used all over the world because it could save a lots of water and energy and also increase the productivity of the plant. My only concern is that the article didn't say how expensive the system is, so it is hard to tell how profitable SmartCropTm is for a farmer.

Green Ink

The green technology that I found on InfoWorld.com deals with Xerox ink cartridges. The article was published on May 14, 2009 by Ted Samson. Here’s the link: http://infoworld.com/d/green-it/xerox-takes-wasteful-cartridges-out-print-picture-408

Most organizations such as governments, businesses, educational institutions, and households employ printers and similar machines for multiply reasons, ranging from the materialization of information to the embossment of memories. Without the ink printing is not possible. Although the methods of printing have changed since Gutenberg’s printing press, ink is the essential component. For modern printers, what happens when the ink runs out? It’s time to replace the ink cartridge. Before the new cartridge can be bought and installed in the printer, it goes through an arduous packaging process. By packaging I do not mean a nice shiny, colorful box. Simply, the ink is entombed in a plastic shell and includes devices to feed the ink through the printer onto the piece of paper. There is no doubt that these processes of manufacturing, distribution, and implementation of ink cartridges for the purpose of printing, use great amounts of materials and energy. This does not include the grave impact on the environment upon disposal of empty ink cartridges. Although it is viable to recycle the depleted cartridges, most are thrown away in the garbage, destined to reside in a landfill for 1000+ years.

To combat the cartridge problem, Xerox has introduced the ColorQube 9200 series of A3-size MFPs (Multi-Function Printers) which use solid ink sticks. “The ink comes in the form of small sticks, resembling fat pieces of chalk. You pop the sticks into the printer, and they're melted into the printhead, which jets the ink onto the print drum. Paper is passed between a roller and the print drum under pressure, and the image is transferred to the paper.” There is no cartridge to hold the ink. This saves a lot of resources from being used. “Printing 1 million pages on a laser printer would require the manufacturing of 965 pounds of various materials, including cartridges, fusers, and drums. Printing 1 million pages with ink sticks would require 272 pounds of materials.” That not only reduces the harm cause to the environment by the cartridges production, it reduces costs. The savings are then passed on to the buyer. For laser printers, it costs 8 cents to print a page with any color on it, even if the only color is from the logo. For the solid ink printer, it costs only 3 cents per page with an intermediate amount of color. One may say it’s only 5 cents, but it adds up. If one printed 1 million pages, it totals to a savings of $50,000. In this economy, it’s definitely worth the investment. Also, when the ink is used up, there is no cartridge to throw out. That means no added harm to the environment, and no guilt for not recycling.

Personally, I do not see any flaws to this product. It’s cheaper to print items. It’s more efficient, and it’s a environmentally healthy alternative to laser printer ink cartridges. However, there’s some hesitation. The article did not address the speed or quality. Xerox does offer a sample to those interested in the product.

Power To Change

On June 2, 2009, Hewlett Packard announced a campaign called Power To Change (http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090602xc.html).  The campaign encourages owners of personal computers to help support the environment by downloading a new desktop widget. The new desktop widget tracks the "cumulative energy savings associated with participants turning off idle PCs when not in use." The Power To Change campaign is being launched across all HP regions: Asia Pacific and Japan, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas. The widget will be available in five languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. 

The widget can be downloaded by individual or company and is even compatible with all PC computing platforms. The cool thing about the widget is that it enables users to actually "watch and explore the energy savings the campaign generates through the power of behavioral changes across individual and global users." An estimation by HP shows that if 100,000 users shut down their work computers at the end of each day, the energy savings could total more than 2,680 kilowatt hours. Also, carbon emissions reductions could total over 3,500 pounds per day - the equivalent of eliminating more than 105 cars from the road every day. 

America's sustainability executive at HP states, "Power To Change is the manifestation of HP's long-held philosophy that industry leadership is about an ongoing contribution to society. With Power To Change, individuals and organizations can make a small environmental commitment that has the potential for a large impact on addressing sustainability challenges today." 

Not only is HP offering the desktop widget as a means to help the environment, but they are making big additions to their Eco Solutions green IT program. In an article on GreenBizSite (http://www.greenercomputing.com/news/2009/06/02/hp-eco-solutions-additions) HP announced the new additions including, a new line of servers, printing hardware and software solutions, an upcoming "telepresence-lite" program and new company-wide environmental commitments. HP is aiming to save 40 percent in energy efficiency, equivalent to 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which could power a town of 90,000 people for a year. 

HP has begun unveiling new servers which are 50 percent more energy efficient than 2005's products. The servers are Proliant G6 servers which manage themselves to optimize their power usage. In other words the servers can "identify low-demand times of day and switch to low-power modes for those times." 

HP has begun a revolution in turning their company to being environmentally savvy. Their consistent products and additions have truly made them a remarkable company. The company is truly sustainable with keeping up with environmental concerns while remaining economically sound. Here is a video called, "HP Eco Solutions Discussion" which gives an inside look at HP environmental leaders discussing new technologies that will help consumers save money while reducing the impact on the environment: http://h30418.www3.hp.com/index.jsp?fr_story=a01b0b952fb2f635dc64a090b725f2ca21550768&rf=bm

New Iphone Apps Speed up Businesses

Since the introduction of the Apple iphone and itouch, thousands of new applications have emerged. Most recently, apple has designed and built various applications targeting business owners and their employees. These new applications are easily available through the app store which can easily be browsed using the iphone or itouch. Programs like Amigle keep business partners in touch and up-to-date on recent events, creating open lines of communication between businesses. Programs like iSugarCRM gives users quick access to SugarCRM records, including access to accounts, contacts, leads, opportunities, calls, and meetings. Each of these programs is designed to make running and operating a business much more efficient and convenient.

With these new advances in cellular technology, businesses can operate at a quicker pace than before. Something like looking up a file for a customer has wasted unnecessary time in the past but by downloading applications like SugarCRM, customer records can be retrieved in no time. These new applications are fairly cheap, making them very appealing to businesses that may benefit from their uses. Many new business applications are still being created and this has created a market for other businesses who work to invent these programs. These advances in technology have encouraged business to search for new technologies that may improve business while being very conveniently found on their personal cellular phone. In conclusion, the new applications available for the iphone and itouch have impacted the way men and women conduct business all through out the world.

http://www.cio.com/article/471863/New_iPhone_Apps_Target_Business_Users

NYPD looking at futuristic weapons technology

Cops shooting other cops. When you hear about a shooting and realize that two cops ended up shooting at each other because they didn’t know any better, you just ask your self how something like this could happen. With the introduction of futuristic weapons into the police force we could cut down on the number of avoidable police deaths.
In the article “NYPD looking at futuristic weapons technology” the New York police department is looking into a technology that will allow one officers gun to recognize another officers gun regardless of whether they are in a gun fight or at their desk. The NYPD is currently in talks with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on the possibility of adapting a technology like this. In order to adapt this technology officers guns would be implanted with a chip that would send a signal to another gun. In the article they give an incident that did not turn out very well for the NYPD. “On May 28 Officer Omar Edwards was chasing a burglary suspect with his weapon drawn when other officers in street clothes came across the scene. Edwards was fatally shot by an officer.”
In my opinion I believe this technology could be very successful in doing its job. The only thing I would change would be to install the chip into every police officers gun in the United States because why just protect cops in New York from friendly fire when you can protect all of them, I say we should have New York as the test dummy and then if it ends up working, then apply it to every Police Unit in the United States. My only concern with this new technology though is how expensive is it going to be and would they collect the entire police forces fire arms to upgrade them with the chip or are they going to issue everyone a new fire arm with the chip already in it?

(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jTDwGIskgrUHq10GSn0vu2ZvxFLAD98KL9TO0)