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Think before you print

Filed Under: Random, Technology by jacy — Leave a comment
January 18, 2012

Server room example (photo cred: camknows-Flickr)

Have you ever wondered if not printing an e-mail is really saving the planet? Are the little “think before you print” messages making a dent in our efforts to go green? In my opinion, saving an e-mail in your inbox is just as harmful.

For a long time, I have been an advocate of conserving paper when possible. I try to re-use scraps if I can, and cram more than one memo on a sticky note. And then I had a flash back to the days I worked at Go Daddy and remember the massive server rooms I was required to check and log every hour. If you’ve never been in a server room, you should try to check one out sometime. They are usually massive, empty rooms with special floors and are temperature controlled. Racks and racks of servers line the aisles in special cages all connected with wires and monitors and so on… They’re usually spotless. The memory of these gigantic rooms of racks (get your mind out of the gutter) makes me wonder if printing an e-mail is really that harmful. I would love to find information about the energy consumption of a server room vs. the cost of printing an e-mail. Is it really worth it to save your e-mail in a file? I can’t imagine it would be since we’re looking at the costs of all the server components to build and maintain, the labor required to ensure 24-hour operation and the production of things needed to run them.

So, next time you see an e-mail that says “think before you print” spend some time wondering where on earth that server is located with your message and how much it’s costing someone to store it.

PS- Interesting fact found in Brian Christian’s The Most Human Human:

“the unavoidable presence of spam in the twenty-first century not only clogs the in-boxes and bandwidth of the world (roughly 97 percent of all email messages are spam—we are talking tens of billions a day; you could literally power a small nation* with the amount of electricity it takes to process the world’s daily spam), but does something arguably worse—it erodes our sense of trust.”

*Say, Ireland.

 

 

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Meet Dylan

Filed Under: Uncategorized by jacy — Leave a comment
September 26, 2011

I was out wandering around Chase Field Saturday night waiting for the game to start. Downtown Phoenix is full of a lot of really talented people, so it’s hard for me to connect with everyone. However, every once in awhile, something catches my ear that I just can’t pass up. It happened once before with Courtney Marie Andrews while I was strolling First Friday. As I was walking down the sidewalk admiring all the motorcycles, I walked by this kid jamming out on his guitar. There were a few people passing by and some even stopped to listen. After he finished, I asked a few questions:

Me: “Hi, what’s your name?”

Kid: “Dylan.”

Me: “It’s nice to meet you, Dylan. You’re pretty good. How long have you been playing?”

Kid: “Thanks. 3 years.”

Me: “How old are you?”

Kid: “11.”

Me: “Is your mom or dad around?”

Kid: “My dad is over there.”

I walked over to meet his dad and ask if it was OK to put this up on the net. We had a short, but heart-warming conversation about music and kids. He said Dylan plays to save money for a new guitar and he tries to keep him in music lessons as much as possible despite being on the 4-kid budget. He also mentioned that Dylan really wants to play the national anthem at a big event. I agreed that it would be awesome.

My quick encounter pretty much made my night. My dad and I have chatted and voiced our concerns about the lack of music programs in schools. It’s sad that they’re going away or one of the first programs to get axed because of the budget. I admire Dylan for playing out in front of Chase Field. For that, he is my hero.

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Video ads coming to Facebook?

Filed Under: Social Media, Technology by jacy — Leave a comment
August 23, 2011

I spotted a Facebook ad on my screen today with a small play button in the bottom left hand corner. Facebook must be gearing up to launch video ads sometime soon. After I clicked on the ad, the clip enlarged- in a jQuery-type fashion- and I was watching a whole new type of ad take place on my screen. Social ads! After the clip finished, I had options to play it again, share it and like the video. I could also like the page and video from the controls while it was playing. This goes far beyond the typical functions of online advertising and would allow videos a magnified strength to go viral.

I checked the ad builder on Facebook and there are no video options yet, so my guess is that they are only working with big names for now.

This should make things interesting…

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Is social media conditioning our attention span?

Filed Under: Uncategorized by jacy — Leave a comment
August 14, 2011

 

After a recent conversation with a friend, I’ve been contemplating the long-term effects of the use of social media. Social networking intrigues me beyond any other advancing communication technology because of its broad use and versatility. However, I have also been thinking about the practices we have been conditioning our brains to accept over the last few years. Is it healthy or beneficial to receive information in 140 characters or less, or are we shortening our attention span too much?

Throughout history, human beings have always utilized short versions of communication. From hieroglyphics to Morse Code, and various forms of shorthand in between, language has been modified for thousands of years in a way that systems to decode them must also be created. Social networking sites are no different in this aspect. We are forced to reduce thoughts to a certain character limit and have created URL shorteners to go with it if we have anything more to say! Then again, we also condition our children to adhere to the same practices. Toys with flashy lights and jingles are usually on a timer that plays for a few minutes and then they shut off. Thus, conditioning the attention span into clips of mental focus is how we choose to spend the most crucial developmental times in life.

Do you think social media and social networking are harmful to the attention span or is history just repeating itself?

 

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Playground rules: Rebuilding our elementary economy

Filed Under: Random, Sociology, Technology by jacy — Leave a comment
May 31, 2011

News sources are saying that Arizona is out of the recession. If that’s true, now what?

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the future. How did America get so far off from the tiny “ecosystem” we used to be? In all honesty I don’t think anyone would have even guessed that global outsourcing was a possibility when she or he developed the foundations of a capitalist society. Global trade? Yes. Global outsourcing? No. Information technology has bridged the gaps of the trade routes that were, at one point, only reachable by ships. So, instead of information taking months to transfer, it now takes seconds. The transfer of technology in today’s society is crazy. Think about it…

Right now we are in dire need of people that are willing and able to pull us out of this bear market funk our economy is currently experiencing. We need innovators and technologists to reinvent our system. We need you. What can you do to help? Well… let’s see.

Our situation has lead me to think about elementary school and all of the basic foundational things we all learned. Things like “sharing is caring” and learning to take turns with playground equipment could potentially be applied to building such a fragile economy. You might think I’m crazy but why can’t we apply these same things to rebuild our economy? I’ve put together a few steps we could all take to better our situation.

Recess! The best things about elementary school was surely recess. Now at our jobs we get a 30-minute break that isn’t even paid by most companies. Lame.

1. If someone is already using a piece of equipment find something else to do. Translated to business terms: If you spend all of your time chasing after something that everyone else has you will only get caught in a viscous cycle of no income. There is plenty of work out there for everyone. You just have to go look for the thing that no one is using.

2. If you have too many things to do during recess pass some of it along to others that are bored. I don’t like hearing from people that run small firms that they may have to shut down if things don’t change. I understand that it’s the way capitalism works and you are ultimately responsible for making a name for yourself. However, in a gloomy time such as now I would like to think that in order for you to keep competition around you need to share. If the smaller businesses go away who is going to work with start-ups entering the market to make more jobs? Most start-ups can’t afford big fancy marketing packages and fancy websites. They have to start somewhere… Why not a smaller business that can position them for an upgrade down the road?

3. After recess you have to go back in the classroom. Many experts says that the best time to continue education or learn new skills is during a recession. Go on now! What have you got to lose? If things aren’t going your way, or your losing money where you’re at, why not branch out and try something new? We need new inventions and innovations to kick start the economy. The things we have now just aren’t working.

These are just some ideas we can apply to build our fragile economy. Invest in the things that are sustainable in today’s day and age so we can build a better tomorrow.

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