Technology

Illegal Software No Longer Necessary

- Adam Clare 3 Comments

Linux, which is a free and open computer operating system can be used instead of more popular options like Apple and Microsoft Windows. We already know that Windows is a big polluter, and Apple has been criticized creatively for their lack of green policies. The alternative to these polluters is linux (my favourite linux version is Ubuntu).

To make computing even easier, a blogger has put up a list of software that is commonly pirated with a list of free and open alternatives. For example, no need to buy Microsoft Office when you can use Open Office.

Urban Farming NYC Style

- Adam Clare

In the city of the future will be cows, and grass, and clean air! Urban farming is not a new idea as there are already plenty of community gardens in urban centers. The scale that is being suggested by a professor at Columbia University has not been tried before – farming in skyscrapers.

Imagine a cluster of 30-story towers on Governors Island or in Hudson Yards producing fruit, vegetables, and grains while also generating clean energy and purifying wastewater. Roughly 150 such buildings, Despommier estimates, could feed the entire city of New York for a year. Using current green building systems, a vertical farm could be self-sustaining and even produce a net output of clean water and energy.

Via TreeHugger

Blogs for Empowerment

- Adam Clare

Information technology can be used for more than spam and this is a perfect example. Blogs for African Women uses blogging to communicate ideas and share resources with women to empower them.

Nine young women, activists in non-governmental organisations or community programmes in Lagos, will come together online and face-to-face to gain technical skills in blogging, podcasting and wikis over the next six months. Networking for Success is geared towards women who are already looking for ways that technology can help their work, who want to reach out to other organisations and collaborate more effectively.

Reuse Your Obsolete Technology

- Adam Clare

Old disks, keys from keyboards, and hard drives can all be used to make useful and fashionable things you can use! EcoGeek has the lowdown on a man who has created a business converting old geek trash into crafts that he sells locally. Ingenious!

There is no longer any use for a 3.5 inch floppy disk let alone a 5.25′. many a coastered CD never finds another home. And keyboard keys, well, they may be beautiful, but there’s nothing you can do with them after you (I) spilled that beer.

Urban Wi-Fi

- sohorobin

I think it may be good news that some urban centres worldwide are developing wi-fi but time will tell. I have a sense of hope though. Comment on this item and let everyone know what you think about this issue.  I wonder if there’s any way that the Tragedy of The Commons can be applied – perhaps not.  Perhaps this is an example of such a notion being transcended by the Info Age?

“The common good is back in fashion. Across North America, from San Francisco to Fredericton, more than 200 crusading cities are building municipal Wi-Fi networks. Boosting business, providing Web access for poorer citizens, creating communal communications infrastructures: different cities have different missions driving their Wi-Fi projects.”

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