| My Thoughts On Earth Hour |
[29 Mar 2009|03:33pm] |
|
http://thelovebug.livejournal.com/555124.html You know, I’ve been seeing a number of people posting how they switched all of their power off for an hour between 20:30 and 21:30 yesterday. This has attracted a mixed reaction from a number of quarters: some saying that it’s an amazing idea and that everyone should do it, others saying how it will put immense strain on the power grids once everyone switches everything back on again at the end of the hour.
You know what I think?
I think that Earth Hour, whilst being a great idea, is really nothing more than an idle gesture in its current format. I believe that one hour a year (or so the Wiki article suggests) will have virtually no impact versus the other 8,765 hours in a year. This represents only 0.011% of the year, although I appreciate the actual percentage, compared against actual power usage at that particular time of day, would be higher.
I think that the main problem with Earth Hour is what happened at 21:30 - when everyone probably did switch all of their electrical devices - lights, TVs, PCs, kettles, mobile phone charges, etc - back on again. At that moment, it’s entirely possible that most people were thinking, “Wow, I’ve really made a difference to the world,” and then immediately gone back to their usual power usage habits.
No, what needs to happen here is we need to change the way that we use and respect the power services that enter our homes, schools and offices. I’m in support of the concept of Earth Hour, but only if it makes a difference to the way that people think about how they use power. If all of these people that participated in Earth Hour (I didn’t, by the way, and I’ll explain more in a bit) suddenly realised that they could do without electricity (and any other energy form) for one hour in a given day, maybe they could see clear to doing it every day or, where that isn’t practical, making changes to their energy usage that would give a very good equivalent.
As I just hinted, I did not partake in Earth Hour for these very reasons. I’ve already gone through our house and replaced (at considerable expense, I should point out) the majority of the light bulbs in our house with energy-saving equivalents, resulting in a long-term drop in power usage, particularly during the evening hours, rendering my participation in Earth Hour almost pointless. I would like to think that my “green” contribution in a day would be worth more than an hour of no power.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not trying to say that my contribution is better than anyone elses. Hell, no. My point here is that we need to do things that give more long-term benefits than simply suspending our usual power usage for an hour a year. Oh yeah, I’ll be at the front of the queue to tell everyone that Earth Hour made a difference, because I do honestly believe that it did.
... but we can do so much more.
|
|
| My thoughts on Microsoft Tag... |
[29 Mar 2009|03:58pm] |
|
http://thelovebug.livejournal.com/555390.html No, this isn’t going to be a Microsoft-bashing post. Ok, I’m not the greatest fan of Microsoft, but they have made (or acquired) some amazing products. However, they always seem to be late to the party, and Microsoft Tag is no exception.
Microsoft Tag is a service by which you can create a barcode, which you can use to convey a URL, a free-text message or contact details. You then use a piece of software on your mobile phone to read this tag, and it will either visit that URL, display the message, or show you the contact details.
This is an example of a Microsoft Tag:
And by scanning this barcode (using software from Microsoft that only reads Microsoft Tag barcodes, and is the only software that can) it will take you to the Microsoft Tag website.
This is the equivalent barcode in the Datamatrix format:
This is the equivalent barcode in the Quick Response format:
Quick Response codes, incidentally, have been seen recently on the side of Pepsi cans in a recent promotion.
But my question is this: Why, when there are already established standards for 2D barcodes, has Microsoft come along and created a brand new one that is a) not as easy to create, b) not as easy to use and c) closed-standard.
This is yet another example of Microsoft wanting to get in to an existing market by redefining the existing standards. Yes, I know that’s what an open market is, allowing anyone to compete with anyone at any level, but why are they playing catch-up now? Why didn’t they either come in to the party when everyone else did, or at least make it as easy to use as the other standards?
As it stands, you need Microsoft software and a Microsoft Live ID to be able to generate and read these codes, plus they only output the codes in PDF, WMF or XPS format... hardly web-friendly! What I will say in support of Microsoft Tag, is that the codes are in colour, and the software works on a lot of mobile phone platforms!!
At least with QR and Datamatrix, there are open sites where you can create these barcodes, and even generate them on the fly through parameters in a URL... this is what I did on my own website. And there are many software packages for many mobile phone platforms that will read both of these code standards, and more!
Have a go and see how easy it is to create your own codes:
QR Code creator
Datamatrix creator
|
|
