If you haven’t noticed, there’s currently a spate of spam or PC intrusion attempts using emails disguised as ecard notifications. You know, the ones that say “you have received an ecard” with a link to click on. Which presumably then causes trojan horses and all sorts of other nasties to be installed on your PC.

This is so sad. Ecards were a great way to keep in touch with …

The ecoIron blog post Black Google inspired Blackle (ie Black Google).

The premise is interesting. In summary:
It takes less power (especially on CRTs) to display a predominantly black screen. Google, which has a predominantly white interface, is estimated to be running 550,000 hours daily worldwide. Making Google black could save 8.3 Megawatt-hours per day worldwide!

Check out the full details in the full post …

Ever wondered where all the old computers go? Natalie Behring’s photo essay on e-waste should make anyone think twice when upgrading.

This link was from Eco PC Review.

I was watching this digger at work whilst waiting for the train one day. Its movements were intriguing – digging, scraping, lifting, scooping, and levelling piles of rubble. As it switched tasks, it was deftly swapping its scoop attachment for others. To reposition itself in a tight corner, where its turning circle was too large, it even used its arm as a crutch to manoeuvre …

I hate dealing with People Telecom. Hate it.

Trying to speak to anyone on the phone has taken up to two hours of waiting (no exaggeration) on more than two occasions in the past. And they make promises they don’t or are not interested in keeping.

Recently, I got a new credit card (a new expiry date to be precise). As I am on an automated payment with People Telecom, …

Sharing information openly with customers empowers them to engage with your product or service in a more intimate way. It gives them more options such as self-service. It helps them understand your product and service. Consider this: the more secrets you keep, the more you alienate other people.

Lenovo is a great example. For every product they make, Lenovo freely provides a highly comprehensive Hardware Maintenance Manual. The …

A new approach to information management may very well be sharing as much of it around as possible. The more information we make available to the world (accounting for relevant privacy and security concerns of course), the more opportunities there are for us all, as a global community, to make meaning of it all.

Read Andrew Boyd’s full post The Permaculture Approach to Information

Global easy access to components (from low to high-tech) + global easy access to distributed intelligence and knowledge = build amazing stuff that would not have been as easily possible otherwise.

Example here.

What is the impact of this on our individual ability to change our world?
What happens when you no longer need the infrastructure and R&D of a large corporation to build stuff like this?

When I clicked on the Compare Products feature on the Sony site, this window popped up. It only took up a quarter of my screen. There is obviously quite a lot of content.

OK, I will make the window larger so I can better scan through the table and make the comparison. And … I get the annoying stupid result shown below….

The great pictures on this Creating Passionate Users blog post: Too many companies are like bad marriages reminded me powerfully of my personal experience with Apple years ago (my version of their pics above).

I started my business on a Mac Powerbook G3 in 1998. It was easily twice the price of a comparable Dell. Plus several thousand dollars of software. As a …