The Raging Tech

Florida Says Green Energy Sources are ‘Keys’ to Success

Back before the writer’s strike, lots of TV shows were starting to air episodes with themes about being more environmentally friendly, or going “green.” This blog, in fact, is hosted on a “green” web site host. I didn’t even know web site hosts did much polluting - but apparently they’ve purchased credits to make them carbon-neutral. More and more, people are starting to suspect that we’re destroying this Earth.

Environmentally-conscious Floridians can rejoice - there’s even florida alternative energy. Non-profit environmental project Keys Hydro Power uses clean power from tidal water on turbines. This clean energy resource is not only efficient, but also renewable.

Need a Vacation? Take a Walk in Ireland

I’m not normally one to think of a walk as a good idea for a vacation. I think that’s because I’m pretty lazy. But if there’s good motivation, sure, I’ll go for a walk. For example, if a beautiful woman wanted to go, I’d totally be up for it. If there was a beautiful sight to be seen along the walk, that might get me going. If there’s free stuff at the destination, I’m almost definitely in.

Glendalough, Wicklow, is a beautiful piece of scenery in Ireland founded by St. Kevin. He studied under three holy men, and later went to live in Glendalough and supposedly lived in the “hollow of a tree.” Forming a monastery where the two rivers joined, he gained many followers who lauded him as a holy man, and after he died the area continued to flourish with lush history.

While walking through Glendalough, you can visit what remains of the monastery and see buildings that date between the 10th and 12th centuries. You’ll also want to check out the Gateway, the Glendalough Round Tower, the Cathedral, the Priests’ House, the “Kitchen,” St. Kieran’s Church, Our Lady’s Church, and St. Saviour’s Church.

Ireland is such a beautiful place, and if you get a chance to go, don’t pass up visiting Glendalough.

Download This!: Shop BOB for eBooks

If you’ve purchased one of Amazon’s new Kindle e-Book readers, you’re probably looking in places other than just Amazon for e-Books for your new device. Or maybe you’ve got a nifty new PDA or smart phone for Christmas this year, and you’ll need some place to stock up on reading material. You could go scour the internet and look for free or public domain books, but what fun is that?

BooksOnBoard.com is a huge e-tailer of e-books: they believe in offering the biggest selection of titles and competitive pricing. BOB carries all sorts of formats of e-Books, so if you’ve got a different e-Book reader, no worries! They carry PDF files, Mobipocket, Microsoft reader, and Palm / e-reader format files. You’ll find over 190,000 e-Books from major publishers as well as small publishers. Guys might find their favorite horror authors and the ladies might find some Romance Authors that they like. Check it out, and save some trees by reading e-Books!

Teach An Old Router New Tricks

One of the coolest things I’ve seen in computer equipment is the re-purposing or re-using of old network equipment. What used to be a corporation’s prized technology often gets thrown out like yesterday’s garbage in order for them to replace it with newer, more expensive equipment to impress customers. This is entirely to your advantage.

Like driving a car off a lot, purchasing new equipment seems like a huge folly, because you’re paying the depreciation that someone else is going to benefit from one day. Conversely, buying used but functional equipment is a smart investment because someone’s already taken the hit for you.

Old Cisco routers and switches, for example, can be re-purposed for all sorts of geeky stuff. You can get used cisco equipment cheaply online, and then use it for things like sharing your internet with multiple computers, internet telephony, firewalls, or even authentication servers. You can also get accessories pretty cheaply, like power supplies and racks.

These older pieces of equipment are more likely to be familiar to repair services if they break, and finding setup guides, how-to guides, and firmware patches will be easier for legacy devices. Cisco is a name brand, so you’re more likely to have a greater resale value when you decide to upgrade.

Have a Green Holiday: Use LED Rope Light to Decorate

Aside from being enviro-friendly, LED rope light is pretty nifty, and can come in an assortment of colors. While you might think of LED rope lights as the kind of thing you’d find in bars, as step lighting, in movie theaters, store windows, decks, patios, boats and RVs, I tend to think with some red and green and white LED rope lights you could easily decorate your house for Christmas.

LED rope lights use only about .47 watts of power per foot. Compare that to the power-hungry incandescent rope lighting, and you’re looking at about 6 watts of power per foot. Even better for your wallet, LED rope lighting will last about 50,000 hours, so it needs replacement less often. A big concern for the holiday season is safety - and since the LED lights only put out a very small heat signature, they’re a lot safer than conventional decorative lighting.