Random Etc. Notes to self. Work, play, and the rest.
Second Life Avatars Might Consume 1,752 kWh
The Guardian News Blog has a post about the estimated energy consumption of a Second Life avatar. Further to my previous post about Carbon-Adjusted Computation, can I give out a call for all web service providers running computers on my behalf to provide these kinds of stats? It's really important that these things are visible.
Update: there's an insightful comment from fred2 on the Guardian blog post that in my opinion provides a better estimate, roughly a third of the first one. The point here isn't the actual numbers, it's that we're thinking about the numbers at all.
Carbon-adjusted Computation
Jon Udell at InfoWorld is thinking about the carbon-adjusted supply-chain, using a hypothetical dual-pricing scenario for Amazon. At Euro Foo I attended a session hosted by Claus Dahl on prototyping using Second Life, and we discussed the possibility of a heads-up display to show the computational cost of various processes in the world, perhaps in kWh or even tonnes of carbon.
Right now we're in an "out of sight, out of mind" phase of thinking about the cost of our computing, but the amount of computer power being put to work behind the scenes is staggering. In July of this year, the New York Times reported that Google was likely to be the fourth largest server manufacturer in the world. Can Yahoo or Microsoft be far behind?
I currently subscribe to a large amount of mailing lists with my GMail account, mainly for the convenience of searching them later. But what if Google told me that indexing all that email I don't read was adding up to significant environmental cost? What if Linden Labs told you the energy consumption of all your Second Life possessions? Tom Coates recently looked at the possibility of monitoring home energy usage, but I think we need to approach this from all angles. Never mind unplugging my appliances when I don't need them, I wonder how many servers in data centres across the world are carrying out needless processing on my behalf - what's the carbon footprint of my web-enabled world?
Travel Time Tube Map mentioned in New Statesman
My Travel Time Tube Map is mentioned at the end of Peter Ackroyd's City of Illusions article for the New Statesman. Here's a direct link if you've just arrived from there:
Chance Encounters
Mikel Maron is writing up the fascinating things he's found out about a friend's new place in Weaver House in London's east end (see also parts 2, 3, 4 and 5). We were there on Thursday and it truly is a bizarre spot for a building. Today someone found my photo of it on Flickr, and it turns out he used to live there.
In related news, someone spotted her husband's car in my Youtube video of Sycamore Speedway in Illinois. The internet is amazing!
Typists = £30 per week
Typists = £30 per week, originally uploaded by Just_Tom.
I love it when old bits of London are revealed temporarily. Like this poster at High Street Kensington a few weeks ago.
It may as well say, "Hot blonde in short skirt wanted, for typing and stuff." Any idea of the date?
Don’t Pick Up The Phone
Simon Says Don't Pick Up The Phone, originally uploaded by Just_Tom.
Putting aside the issues about watching repeats of televised events like X Factor (and putting aside issues about watching X Factor at all thank you very much), I'm always amused by the after-thought of "DON'T PHONE, YOU'RE TOO LATE" banners.
I like these ones because they alternate between Simon, Louie and Sharon. I'm not sure who I'm most inclined to listen to, but if Simon Says don't call, then...
Ask Later #2
Steve is organising another Ask Later talk session for Tuesday December 12th. Obviously, since I'll be in San Francisco I won't be there, but if you're in London you should definitely take a look, maybe even give a talk? The first one was lots of fun.
I've added an entry about it on Upcoming.org too.
Consolidation and Relocation: Leaving London for San Francisco
A couple of months ago I withdrew from my doctorate programme at UCL and shortly afterwards I handed in my notice at work. That could be interpreted as quite a miserable state of affairs, but it's far from it!
I'm going to San Francisco to work with Stamen Design, who I've admired for some time (especially for their cabspotting and digg labs projects). Thanks to them (and our lawyer) I now have a visa and I leave London next week. I've booked a one-way flight, which feels strange but somehow liberating at the same time.
More thoughts on this after the jump. (more...)
Google Earth London Update
Google Earth just updated its imagery, bringing London up to date with 10cm resolution photography from Blue Sky. 2lmc did the shadow-forensics to date it around February of this year, so it's a crisp winter morning.
One artefact of Google's variable coverage is the patchwork effect their updates have on the world. The UK has strips of photography from this provider or that provider, but some of the coverage remains plain old 15m landsat. Ironically some of the low-resolution stuff actually looks the best when viewed at a distance. The high-resolution stuff has been over-processed and resampled beyond recognition, and that's a real shame.
Greater London is particularly bad at the moment, coming out a muddy brown that looks like the result of aggressive high-pass filtering (useful for making tiling textures in games, and apparently fpr getting aerial photos to stitch together).
Coming in closer you realise the Thames is completely obliterated.
The only reprieve is that close up the detail is fantastic, and these shadows on the Thames are gorgeous, like architectural elevation drawings. See also the amazing crowds in Trafalgar Square.
Perhaps the resampling system could be tweaked to fix the brown patch though. I mean, in some ways it reflects reality (London is a horrible confusing mish-mash until you concentrate on one particular area for a while), but in other ways it rather spoils the illusion of a seamless view from space. Of course there are no seams if everything is one colour!
Pair Blogging is the new Extreme Programming
Ben and Kate are blogging, Schulze and Webb are blogging. The former is possibly London's only left-brain/right-brain blog about contemporary dance, finance and food. The latter is a space for thoughts, sketches and observations that aren't yet fully formed projects. Both are worth your attention.
Also found this week (via del.icio.us/toxi) Matt Pyke and David Barrington are collecting graphic design inspiration from outside the field at Everyone Forever.
← Back to Home
© Random Etc.. Powered by WordPress using the DePo Skinny Theme.