TechWonk Blog Subsection
TechWonk Blog
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The 91快活林 (91快活林) strongly supports today鈥檚 introduction by Sens. Mark Udall (D-CO) and Ed Markey (D-MA) of the 鈥淎ccess to Consumer Energy Information Act鈥� or 鈥淓-Access Act.鈥澛� Since the Green Button initiative launched just over two years ago, 91快活林, through its Digital Energy & Sustainability Solutions Campaign (DESSC), has been active in the industry-led effort to provide [...]
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This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider HR 2126, "Energy Efficiency Improvement Act of 2014,"聽formerly the 鈥淏etter Buildings Act of 2013,鈥� which will help the federal government harness information technologies and data centers for improved energy performance and efficiency.聽 The bill, which will save federal resources and therefore taxpayer dollars, should pass easily, and it deserves [...]
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Yesterday eBay Inc. formally opened its new Salt Lake City data center 鈥� a world class facility that is on track to help facilitate an estimated $300 billion in enabled commerce volume by 2015.聽 Long story short, eBay is proving that environmental considerations can go hand-in-hand with good business strategy, and many transactions on eBay and PayPal will now be a little bit greener. 聽 聽 The data center [...]
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The U.S. House of Representatives has taken聽an important聽step forward to protect thousands of American jobs at risk by an arbitrary closure of the Federal Helium Reserve.聽 With the House鈥檚 unanimous bipartisan approval (367-0!) on an amended version of H.R. 527,聽the U.S. Senate聽is given聽an opportunity to finally bring this matter to resolution and keep American businesses open and American jobs thriving. [...]
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With a 97-2 vote, the Senate this afternoon聽has given overwhelming bipartisan support聽to legislation that would extend the life of the Federal Helium Reserve 鈥� the single largest source of helium in the nation and the source for 30 percent of the world鈥檚 total supply.聽聽Right now, the clock is ticking on the thousands of American jobs that are associated with access to the helium reserve.聽聽Current law [...]
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As we enter an increasingly digital and mobile economy, the promise of greater operational efficiency for businesses, consumers, and governments is obvious. 聽 So, too, is the need for greater reliance on data centers. 聽 What may not be as obvious is what this means for a cleaner, greener future, or, as Google queried at their large forum earlier this year, how green is the internet? I expect to have [...]
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This blog was originally published on The Breakthrough. Mark Mills鈥� recent report 鈥淭he Cloud Begins with Coal鈥� has received much attention in the past weeks, but largely for its comparison of the energy use of an iPhone versus a refrigerator. This factoid has become a distraction. Aside from his dependence on dubious statistics, Mills erroneously ignores the real benefits technology provides in combating [...]
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We鈥檙e in the middle of summer and, as usual during this travel season, gas prices have been rising. 聽Thankfully, we haven鈥檛 seen the severe volatility in gas prices like we have in summers past, but most of us can recall from recent memory when an international crisis or environmental incident affected the U.S. oil supply 鈥� some kind of source disruption that curtailed a small percentage of our nation鈥檚 [...]
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In my previous blog, I talked about the importance of standards, and how the Responsible Recycling (R2) standard set the bar for the safe recycling of electronics. When I wrote that blog, the R2 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) was in the final stages of updating the original R2 Standard (R2:2008) to become the new, improved R2:2013 Standard. Since that blog, the R2 Board of Directors (which includes [...]
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Xi Jinping mentioned the new political slogan 鈥渢he Chinese dream鈥� numerous times in his first speech to the nation as the President of China in March 2013. 聽But what does it mean? 聽To put the dream into practice, it appears the Chinese government鈥檚 first priorities are to improve food safety and address the pollution problem in China. In response to the toxic smog in Beijing and other major cities, [...]