Easy Ways to Go Green with Your Computer
Not everyone can afford to install solar panels or get a new Prius this Earth Day, but there is one place you can go green without spending an arm and a leg or radically changing your lifestyle: your computer. Chances are you spend the majority of your day sitting in front of the keyboard, and a few small changes can go a long way toward reducing its negative impact on the environment. As an added bonus, doing your part for the environment will save you money, too. This Earth Day, we’ve rounded up a few simple ways you can go green with your computer.
Cankle Fetishists Rejoice Over AC Brick Spy Camera
This AC wall adapter is no ordinary AC wall adapter. It’s loaded with an A/V recorder that can save 66 hours of footage to its 2GB microSD card. And even if the wall socket is turned off, a built-in lithium ion battery will keep shooting for 3 hours of glorious, socket-height footage. Yes, that’s the extreme low angle stuff. We’re talking shoes. We’re talking you didn’t vacuum under that couch. It’s just more evidence piling up to an unavoidable fact. In the future, everyone will know what everyone else looks like naked. Or we’ll at least have some hot shots of one another’s bare feet.
Honda’s Assisted Walking Device Makes Grandma Strut Like Asimo
Honda has developed a gadget that they say could make walking easier for the elderly and others with weak leg muscles. The aptly named Walking Assist Device is a 6 lb. motorized belt with hip sensors that gauge how much help the wearer will need. The motor then gives the wearer an appropriate boost, lengthening his or her stride enough to make walking easier on the legs.
Cheap ‘n’ Snazzy Way to Give Old 2.5-Inch Drives a Second Chance
Sure there are other ways to enclose old 2.5″ drives, but have you ever seen a more elegant one for 29 bucks? The Addonics Snap-In ExDrive25 promises hot-swappable connections via USB 2.0 and eSATA (if your PC can support it). Since eSATA can’t power the drive via the bus—not yet anyway—you’d have to buy the $15 power adapter for that, or just try one of the ones you already have lying in a drawer somewhere. Jump for a detailed diagram of the product, including a shot of its backend.
Crafty Vendor Sells Solar-Roasted Chickens
Happy Earth Day everyone! Instead of urging you to recycle all those gadgets that will otherwise leak poison into our planet, we’d rather offer you a more positive, less obvious story to whet your Earth Day appetite. Sila Sutharat runs a Thai chicken stand outside of Bangkok. He roasts 50 chickens a day. And he does it completely through the sun.
EcoModo - The Best of Treehugger
This week at TreeHugger: In Ben Wilson’s Monowheel, you actually site inside the wheel. I wouldn’t want to ride through puddles… China’s biggest battery maker, BYD, has decided to get into the electric car market: The E6 Crossover electric car is its third announcement just this year. Watch out Detroit! And finally, meet Voltzilla. An awesome DIY electric motorcycle made from forklift parts!
Asus Gives Reviewers Different Batteries Than Consumers, Considers Free Upgrade
According to DigiTimes, recent Hong Kong purchasers of the new Asus Eee PC 900 (it’s that Eee with the bigger screen) found that their batteries weren’t as nice as those given to reviewers. Speaking from experience, that sort of thing happens all the time. Real world testing is always more rigorous than reviewer testing. But in this case, consumers were not talking about battery life itself, but a straight-up battery capacity rating. Then, in a turn for the even loopier, Asus actually admitted to giving different batteries to reviewers and consumers. What??? Yeah.