Category Archives: Technology

Day 162- If It’s Too Loud, Then You Are Too Old

May 19, 2009 – 12:02 pm

I bought a music CD for the first time in quite a long time. I average about one CD per year. There just aren’t that many groups out there that I would freely part with $11.99 of my hard earned money. Back in college, before the digital age, a good collection would easily top 100 CDs—at a minimum. Well, most of the jewel cases were empty either lost to the car CD player or to your sketchy friends who would love to “borrow” them.

Just about all of my friends joined the CD club where you taped a penny to an information card and in six to eight weeks, you would get a dozen or so of your favorite CDs. Some even sent them to the neighbors’ house with a fake name and somehow got away with it. I was always afraid of getting caught for some sort of mail fraud. I even felt bad about borrowing the CD. I did though look for the double albums that counted as one selection. I felt as though I was getting away with something.

After many years, I broke down and bought a first generation 30 gig video iPod. It literally took me a few weeks to get all of my discs to my iTunes library. It turns out that I had more music that I thought. Most of it is junk that I skip (like some old rave stuff, movie soundtracks and I have no idea how I got the best of John Denver), but sometimes I will hear something in my library that is a hidden gem in a sea of over 2,500 songs.

As I sit here listening to my new CD, I got to thinking of the ecological footprint of my music. Where did this CD come from? How much energy was used in producing it and shipping it to my local big box store? How much energy am I spending on charging up my iPod and computer to play this music? Would it have been better to download it (legally)? What if I downloaded it then made a CD copy of it?

These are all real sticky questions, but there are some common sense answers in how to green your music. Although buying a few CDs per year will not necessarily wipe out the remaining polar bears, it is better to download your music only if you are going to keep it digital and not burn a copy. It is better to buy the copy from the store, or get it mailed to you, because you can then sell it to your music store giving it a new life when you are done with your hair band stage.

Keeping your player in top shape and not buying a new one every time the next big thing comes out is another way to green up your music. It was such a pain for me to move into the digital age, I would hate to see what I would need to do when I get a new player. I also charge mine in the car on the way to and from work.

I am interested in hearing about your thoughts and tips. Have you ever thought of how to green your music? If so, how have you done it.

Rock on

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $ Amount Varies, Automobile, Cost, Electronics, Music, Other, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (1)

Day 160- Cell Phones for Soldiers

May 6, 2009 – 8:39 am

Each year, millions of cell phones are retired but I found statistics that say less than 1% of these phones are recycled. Granted I have only had three phones in my life. I more than likely would still have my last one if I didn’t drop it so I have not had many opportunities to experience the recycling of my phones.

The last time that I went to a retail store, I overheard many conversations of the salesperson asking if they could recycle their old phone. I have also seen a couple of drop off boxes in a few other retail stores as well as recycling information in the manual–but who reads that anyway? So I am a bit skeptical about the number of phones being recycled.

Either way, recycling your phone is always a good idea. If you don’t give it back to your provider, there are many different organizations that hold recycling events. The couple that I know of off hand are the battered womens shelter and Cell Phones for Soldiers.

Cell phones for soldiers takes Donated cell phones and sells them to a company that recycles them. The money received from recycling the cell phones is used to purchase calling cards that are sent to troops in need.

Do you know of any more organizations that recycle cell phones? What have you done with your old cell phone?

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Cell Phones, Cost, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Trash | Comments (3)

Day 154- Free Office Supplies

April 6, 2009 – 2:59 pm

No matter where you work, there is always a supply closet or area. Some are organized and are controlled by an overprotective employee; while others can be an inventory nightmare and have just about everything you don’t want, but rarely something that you need.

If you eventually get around to cleaning out the supply closet, don’t just haphazardly throw things away. The last company that I worked for brought in a big trash bin and just threw away a lot of old stuff. Much of it could have had a new life. Although some of us went through it and “rescued” some stuff, I felt bad that a lot of it went to the trash.

I ran across a great idea while reading through my company newsletter. Instead of just throwing away unwanted supplies, an enterprising supply administrator took the time to list out the things that they no longer need and put them up on an internal webpage. It is kind of like free cycle but for internal departments and only for office supplies.

Although this takes some effort and web know-how, a much easier way would be to send out an e-mail to a few key people of the stuff that you have that you no longer need.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $ Amount Varies, Cost, Electronics, Other, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Work | Comments (1)

Day 151- Monitor your Monitor

March 8, 2009 – 7:18 am

Let me first apologize for being a little lazy on this project. I recently picked up a new full time writing position. This one has a paycheck attached to it–and can you believe health insurance? Who knew writers could get health insurance without paying a million dollars a month out of pocket going from contract to contract? For those of you who follow me on a regular basis, you know that I am not here to sell you anything, I don’t have any advertising or have search things that give me a penny when someone clicks on them.

So, since I have a few months under my belt and have gotten into the swing of things there, I am trying to commit once again for more than a few posts every here and there.

Anyway, my day job brings me to a fairly large campus with well over 2,000 other employees spread over two large buildings. Much of my day is spent in and out of conference rooms. There are many days that I am rarely at my desk, which is pretty cool, but sometimes it makes it tough to get things done. I enjoy coming in early in the morning. The office is located approximately 25 miles away via the Interstate. It’s amazing what five minutes can do to traffic.

I am in anywhere between 7 and 7:30, but the majority of the center runs on shifts. My workspace is located on the third floor way in the corner from the security door, so I get a chance to pass a lot of other peoples desks. It drives me absolutely bonkers to see that many monitors are powered on and in that welcome screen mode. If we all just turned off the monitor when we took a break, went in for that two hour meeting, and left for the evening we could be saving a bunch of power and money in the long run–not only in electricity costs, but in replacement of monitors.

Check with your system administrator if you want to set it to turn off after a certain amount of time, but for the past few large companies that I have worked for, these settings have been blocked for some reason. The power button works just as well and you don’t need system access or even have any technical knowledge. I suppose that you have to locate the power button, but that’s about it.

We have all heard of stories of people going around and turning off other peoples monitors when they are away and when they came back to work, they thought that their computer was broken. I’m not too sure how true those stories are, but it sure is a bit funny. So for right now, turn off your own monitor and remind your co-workers to do the same. You can even make up little “remember to turn off your monitor” business cards and leave them on their keyboard, but you have to be in the right setting for that kind of thing to work.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Electronics, Reduce, Work | Comments (0)

Day 137- Testing, Testing, 1, 2……3

December 2, 2008 – 6:58 am

It seems that we put up our Holiday decorations earlier each year. About five B.C. (before kids), I was just happy to get a small potted Norfolk Pine tree with a couple of ribbons. My wife kindly reminded me that it looked like the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but what would a 22 year old have in terms of lights and decorations anyway? Definitely not all the stuff that we put out this year.

We also have a lot of those things that when you squeeze their hand, they do a little dance or song. It is pretty annoying when the girls go around and set them all off at the same time, but they genuinely love it and dance around. I can put up with it for a couple of months.

After sitting in the attic for 10 months, we often times need to change the batteries in the toy. I am still in the process of changing everything to rechargeable batteries and still have some of the non rechargeable ones that need to be used. Instead of replacing all the batteries, I use a battery tester to see how much energy is left in each one.

I am pretty shocked to see that two batteries may be dead or very low, but usually one of them is still pretty much full. When they are completely dead, I put them in a small shoe box to be brought up to the local recycling center. But, if they still have some power left, I classify my used batteries by percentage that they are full. It is not too sophisticated, I just classify them in small boxes of “full”, “about half” and “dead”. That is one less wasted battery that goes in the singing snowman.

It is a good idea to use batteries that have approximately the same power left. You don’t want to mix a new battery in with old ones. It is not dangerous, but it can impact the performance of your electronic equipment.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $1- $99, Cost, Electronics, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)

Day 117- ‘Cause All She Wants to do is Dance

October 16, 2008 – 1:15 pm

Many of us have seen and heard of gyms that use their machines to generate electricity, but have you heard about a dance club that uses the dance floor to generate electricity for itself? According to Sustainabledanceclub.com, the “Sustainable Dance Floor converts the movement of the dancing crowd into electricity and uses the power to change the appearance of the floor’s surface.”

“It is SDC’s ambition to reduce energy consumption by 30% and water consumption and waste production by 50%…. The savings on water consumption, for example, are achieved with a rainwater flush system for toilets, waterless urinals, water-saving taps and central glass cleaning spots behind all the bars. Energy will be saved with the use of renewable energy sources and LED lighting.”

Although I am a bit too old to be in a dance club, I think that this technology can possibly be used in other high foot traffic areas. Airport security lines, large skyscraper entrances and arena entrances are just a few potential possibilities. Other applications could be train tracks or it could even be built into the road itself. Check out this video from You Tube.

***Fun fact you should know: I was trained to teach ballroom dance at Fred Astaire Dance Studio.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Alternative Energy, Events, Lighting, Music, Other, Play, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse, Water | Comments (0)

Day 111- Where Did the Music Go?

October 8, 2008 – 8:07 am

Technology in the music business has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. Just in my lifetime, I have personally been through albums, cassettes, 8 tracks, Digital Tape, Cd’s and now music files.

I still remember sticking little pieces of paper in the top holes of a cassette so that you can record on it. We used to trade cassettes all the time back in the day. Who else remembers making a mix tape for their boyfriend/girlfriend? Back then, making a mix tape took time and effort. Do kids make just make play lists now?

I also remember when Cd’s first came out. They used to come in long cardboard boxes. I am sure it had to do with anti theft, but looking back on it, man what a terrible waste. They later changed to plastic versions–I wonder what happened to those as well.

As we leap forward into the digital age and digitize our old tapes, records and Cd’s–do your best to not just throw them away. There are many collectors and stores out there that specialize in old records and tapes. Many people trade online now since it is becoming more expensive to run a store in this economy. A lot of club DJs still use records as well. Who knows, you may have a collectors item on your hands somewhere.

Downloading music or streaming music does reduce the carbon footprint of music, but make sure that you download and share music legally. I still can’t believe that my entire music catalog of literally thousands of songs fits on my i-Pod.

Oh yeah, that is a personalized album to me from Meatloaf. My dad brought me to the mall to an album signing when that came out back in 1977. So heed the words of the mighty Meat Loaf and “Rockon”.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $ Amount Varies, Music, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse | Comments (0)

Day 100- Are You Talkin’ To Me?

September 15, 2008 – 2:40 pm

If I had a nickel for every time that I have answered someone using a Bluetooth headset, I would be a multi-millionaire. It is a bit awkward at times, but honestly who talks to people on the phone in the bathroom anyway. Apparently a lot of people.

I also have a tendency of waving to people who are waving to somebody obviously somewhere behind me or somewhere a block away and then I try to play it off by pretending to scratch my head or something. But lets leave that our little secret.

Anyway, headsets are great (and in some states mandatory) when you are in the car but not walking down the street and definitely not in the bathroom. Most telephones come with their own wired headsets, so buying another wireless one really does not make sense. Just between you and me, I think that the wireless headsets make you look silly.

Many of these wireless headsets use batteries or are yet another gadget that needs to be charged. The batteries can contain lead, mercury and zinc and I really have enough invisible waves going through my body at this time. I don’t terribly feel comfortable adding any more.

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free, Cell Phones, Reuse | Tagged | Comments (0)

Day 97- And It’s Not Even April 1st

September 8, 2008 – 9:35 am

I like April Fools Day. I don’t play any gags myself, but I enjoy watching everyone else doing it. I especially like fake newspaper articles and crazy headlines. I had to check the date again after I read this story.

Scientists are actually trying to smash protons and neutrons in a way that could potentially destroy the Earth. Let me take that back, they are trying to smash even smaller particles called quarks and gluons. To educate the lay person, they also have produced a comic book about the process. Are you kidding me? A comic book?????

I am surprised they did not use Marvin the Martian. That’s all I think of when I think of laser beams destroying the planet. I am a pretty smart person, but not that smart. Hopefully the people in charge of this thing know what they are doing.

What do you call a person who went to medical school and got all C’s? Doctor.

Someone had to be last in the class. I am sure the same thing happens in the world of this type of science as well.

There are risks to most every choice you make and a lot of times those risks are over-exaggerated to a point where the act itself is over-shadowed by a cloud of controversy. I have seen knock down, drag out arguments on discussion boards about if we should turn off the water when brushing our teeth.

How about we add creating black holes to destroy the Earth to the scary list of things that is already floating around out there.

I am not an alarmist, but didn’t we figure out that this is not a good idea when we were messing with blowing up atoms 60 years ago?

By Greg Anderson | Also posted in $0- Free | Comments (1)