Low power
Posted on December 25, 2003 @ 00:47 in Tech
It's christmas already, I'm still kind of ill from a nasty case of the flu, and I'm writing in with something techy. There is a nice thread on Slashdot about what you would or could do about your computing needs in a really remote place that is off the power grid. Think Santa Claus, Alaska, snow, log cabin. The guy wants to keep an electronic log on all the people who deserve a present, but he's clued in about environmental issues, so he's not about to start burning diesel to power his appliances. He needs a low power solution. There is talk about whether to get a laptop or to build a low power workstation, mention of solar panels, the realisation that it's really wasteful to convert 12 or 24 Volts DC to 120 Volts AC only to have the laptop's powerbrick to convert it back to 12 Volts DC, so why not get a DC/DC PSU, and warnings of tech-hungry grizzlies. Most of the time electricity is just there, but it's good to sometimes be reminded that right now, we're spending big gobs of it rather wastefully. In a few decades, I hope to be reading a book or the Net in a very energy efficient solar and/or fuel cell powered house. Maybe I will be re-reading The Lord of the Rings again, as I am now.
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