As I sit typing this post, I’m listening to the Tragically Hip, downloading a 24 lecture series on Science to my iPod and I just listened to an inspiring speech by William McDonough (I highly recommend him as THE resource for environmental design). So I cant help but think of all the positive changes computers have brought around.
To add one more to the list check out climateprediction.net. Its a distributed software that uses idle computing capacity to predict the climate in the 21st centuary.
Building green has been mentioned here before, and now there are buildings that are green and move. Buildings can be a lot more efficient and sustainable with this new technology, decreasing energy consumption.
“Shape-changing envelopes offer architects the ability to produce buildings that condition themselves in very simple, natural and sustainable ways,” says Sterk. “They enable buildings to be conceived of as systems that change shape to improve the way people live.”
Sterk said there are other advantages. Imagine a high-rise tower that braces itself against sudden strong winds by distributing stresses. Or a home that shakes the snow from its roof.
ThingsAreGood is proud to announce a new team on the World Community Grid!
The world community grid helps you make use of your computer’s unused processing time. Let your computer crunch numbers for social good when you’re not surfing the web, playing games, or hard at work.
From the www.worldcommunitygrid.com website:
World Community Grid’s mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals – like you – collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor.
To join the ThingsAreGood team, simply create an account at www.worldcommunitygrid.com.
People tend to use a lot of paper, we can do a lot by lessening how much paper we use. Currently we can buy 100% post-consumer paper and print double-sided. But what if we can go one step further?
Recycled paper mixed with a slurry of sheep poo can make more paper! The amount of jokes that can be made here are endless, but see how it’s made.
Xerox has created a kind of paper that will erase itself. Not only can reduce the amount of paper we use, we can reuse it as well!
“This offers the prospect of reusable paper in the sense that the content is automatically erased after a period of time, ready for fresh printing. Inspired by the fact that many print outs have a life-span of a few hours (think of the emails you may print out just to read, or the content you proof read on the train journey back home), the specially prepared paper will preserve its content for up to 16 hours.”
The GPL is designed to let people modify the code for almost any purpose. Every so often the GPL is modified to reflect our changing needs and wants of software.
Right now there is a debate whether or not to include Isaac Asimov’s first law of robotics:
“A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.”
I hope this is included into the GPL even if it isn’t really enforceable.