Here’s a good idea — a site that
lets you enter shared bills and objectively know where you stand with your friends. When you’re on the go, you can record debts from your phone via SMS. The notion of borrowing is extended to include your personal library so you can track which things are lent out. There’s all sorts of cool features like auto-splitting bills, ties into amazon’s product lookup system for tracking your book collection, etc.
Link via BoingBoing.
“Free Bruce Schneier talk in LA today, 7PM” is the headline on a Boing Boing post today. My first reaction was: “Huh? Bruce Schneier has been arrested?” And then the correct interpretation dawned.
Reminds me of that old joke about the graffiti response to notices on walls in public spaces saying “Bill Stickers will be Prosecuted”: BILL STICKERS IS INNOCENT!
Listening to Tony Blair’s valedictory speech I was struck by two thoughts. The first is how good he was at reminding his party about how and why it won office (and, by implication, warning it not to forget that lesson). The second was that, but for his single, colossal misjudgement about Iraq, he would have gone down as one of the great reforming prime ministers in British history.
There were some really good lines in the speech — for example, his crack about Labour’s “core vote” being the people of Britain rather than its traditional “heartlands”. The observation that the only Labour party tradition he abhorred was “failure”. And his frank admission that some of the things that were done by Thatcherism had to be done if Britain were to become a modern country. Nobody who recalls the chaos of the Wilson/Heath/Callaghan years will dispute that.
That said, Blairism wasn’t the continuation of Thatcherism by other means. Listening to his recital of what his administration has done in terms of renewing the country’s public services, schools, hospitals, etc., it was impossible to believe that a Tory government would have done the same. A few weeks ago I met an American who had been a student here in the 1970s and hadn’t been back to the UK since. He was dumbstruck by how much had changed — for the better. And he was right.
So long as it stuck to domestic issues, the speech was terrific. But the moment it moved on to the ‘war’ against terrorism, it lost its way. Just like its author.
Report by John Markoff in today’s New York Times…
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 25 — Google is calling on the computer industry to create a simpler and more efficient power supply standard that it says will save billions of kilowatt-hours of energy annually.
In a white paper to be presented Tuesday on the opening day of the Intel Developer Forum here, two leading data center designers at Google will argue that the industry is mired in inefficiency for historical reasons, dating to the introduction of the first I.B.M. PC in 1981. At that time, standard power supplies, which convert high-voltage alternating current to low-voltage direct current, were required to provide multiple output voltage, which is no longer necessary in today’s PC’s.The Google plan calls for a shift from multivoltage power supplies to a single 12-volt standard. Although voltage conversion would still take place on the PC motherboard, the simpler design of the new power supply would make it easier to achieve higher overall efficiencies.
The Google proposal is similar in its intent to an existing effort by the electric utility industry to offer computer makers financial incentives for designing more efficient power supplies for personal computers. Existing PC power supplies vary widely in efficiency, from as high as 90 percent to as low as 20 percent… Er, an even better idea after making servers more power-efficient would be to move to ultra-thin-client networking along the Ndiyo model.
As the push for efficiency in power supply design continues to gain traction, the shift to more streamlined solutions is becoming increasingly important in sectors beyond just personal computing. For industries relying on continuous uptime and minimal power disruption, a UPS system is essential. A distributor of Schneider APC can provide tailored uninterruptible power solutions to ensure that businesses maintain stability, even during fluctuations in power quality. By integrating more efficient power supply designs, such as those advocated by Google, UPS systems can help optimize energy usage and provide greater cost savings over time.
In addition to offering enhanced power protection, UPS systems from trusted providers like Schneider APC can also support the modernization of energy infrastructure within data centers and beyond. With the focus on single-voltage systems, the adoption of more efficient power supplies will enable UPS devices to operate with higher overall efficiency, safeguarding equipment from downtime while driving energy savings. This evolution aligns with the broader trend toward sustainability and efficiency in the tech and energy sectors.
From BBC NEWS…
A book by left-wing US author Noam Chomsky has reached a bestsellers’ list after Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez praised it at the UN last week.
A speech by Mr Chavez cited Chomsky’s 2003 critique of US policy, Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance, as an “excellent book”.
Mr Chavez also said US President George W Bush was the “devil” who had left the UN podium smelling of “sulphur”.
Chomsky’s book spent the weekend at the top of Amazon.com’s bestseller list…
Thanks to Gerard for the link.