Clare Townhill

Computer Clouds and Energy Hogs

It seems that all my recycling, composting, walking and general overall attempts not to rape and pillage the planet may well have been in vain. I was really shocked by an article I read last night in The Economist about the environmental effects of computer/internet habits, more specifically 'cloud computing'. 'Cloud' implies a weightlessness, an unconnectedness to the physical and resource-constrained world. In fact the opposite is true:

The corollary of more computing in the sky is more and bigger data centres on earth. These are warehouses packed with humming electronic gear, and in particular thousands of servers, the powerful computers that crunch and dish up data. The biggest facilities are the size of half a dozen football pitches and house as many as 80,000 servers. They are huge energy hogs: in America alone data centres already account for 1.5% of electricity consumption. This figure is growing. Globally, they are already responsible for more carbon-dioxide emissions per year than Argentina or the Netherlands.

I think I preferred blissful ignorance. One more thing to worry about. I'll add it to the list.
Economist: 'Buy our stuff, save the planet'

Social Networking Wars

Arcade: Stage One

New fun in a nascent stage at the BAC. I'm waiting for my slot in the Basement this Friday. Here was the first assignment to gain entry:

Dear (Codename)

Here are the asks we make of you to complete Stage One of the Arcade experiment.

* Please describe, with words and/or pictures, the first place - real or imagined - that comes into your mind when you read the phrase 'underground space'.
* Please create a digital image/photo of a childlike sketch of 'a house with a cellar beneath it'.

Please send these to [email protected] by midnight on Sunday 18th May. Stage Two of the Arcade will open on Monday 19th May.

For further explanation of these asks, please visit arcadestageone.wordpress.com

Thanking you

Edmund Speckle

The picture above and the following text are my rather hurried contributions:

‘Underground Space’
The first underground space I remember as such was encountered deep within two gnarled and ancient oak trees growing from a bank near the house of my grandmother. I pushed my way in between the roots and sat in the soft clay dust and dry leaves holding my favourite toy cat Henry, hiding from the rest of family walking up the lane behind me. The smell of dampness, earth, the feeling of concealment; the thrill of being unseen; hearing them call my name; amusement turning to faint panic. The sound of my own breath as I hugged myself into fierce invisibility.

Ear Hear

Amid the din of the nearby freeway, the technician plays a recording of ice cubes clinking into a glass. To the listener, the sound comes across as if it were through headphones, totally unlike a sound blaring from a distant speaker over oppressive car noise. Take two steps to the side, out of the sound beam, and you hear nothing at all. Step back in, and there it is ag

ain.

HSS is the acronym for HyperSonic Sound. HSS does for sound, what laser did for light: highly concentrated, highly targetted delivery. The potential for innovation and meaningful development of HSS into mainstream commercial use is really exciting. Full article here. Thanks to Rick for this.

Chart Topper

Spend on web advertising topped 21 billion dollars last year. Full report from the IAB here.

Consumers Have Internet Access Too

Heartbreaking.

Always in Beta

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David Armano's latest observations about interactions, digital channels, changing influence, convergence, and consumers. His greatest quality is clarity; this presentation is as much a lesson in the art of simplicity as it is a provider of brain fodder.

Baby Pirates

Good interview between TorrentFreak and 'Hannah' a 10 year old with a penchant for P2P piracy:

Like most publications, here at TorrentFreak we regularly interview adults. However, when a recent conversation with a child turned to file-sharing, we took the opportunity to give the P2P kids a voice. We had a little chat with a 9 year old girl who wants to be called “Hannah” (after Hannah Montana) and she talks to us about LimeWire, BEBO, YouTube and her perception of the rights and wrongs of copying - even her frustrations with DRM.

“Never work with children or animals” said WC Fields. TorrentFreak takes a chance:

TF. Hi Hannah! How old are you?

- I’m 10 in 12 days

TF. What sort of music are you listening to right now?

Sean Kingstone, Shayne Ward and High School Musical 2

TF. Where did you first get into music?

- On the music channels, on MTV.

TF. When did you get a PC?

- People had computers but I couldn’t go on them but my Dad bought me one last year. I have internet.

TF. What do you do on the internet?

- MSN, talking to friends and cousins, games and dressing-up games [dolls]

TF. When did you first start using the internet to get music?

- My cousin showed me YouTube and then LimeWire and I was like “whoa cool!”

TF. What was cool about it?

- Because you can put anything in and it will come up and you don’t actually pay for it. Well you have to pay for the internet and LimeWire comes with the internet but you have to pay for that so LimeWire isn’t really free.

TF. Ok…I see….Do you get music from anywhere else?

- My cousin gets it from BEBO. She copies it from other people’s pages and puts it on her own.

TF. Do you think it’s ok to copy the music?

- Yes it’s ok because she only does it to make her page better.

TF. So you’re sure that it’s ok to copy it? What do you think about copying?

- I suppose it’s not ok to copy but people copied it off her site so she just copies theirs. It’s like, you’re copying my t-shirt so i’m copying you on shoes.

TF. Ok, so a bit like copying school work?….Hmm….ok, let’s talk about copying on the computer again. When you started using LimeWire, did anyone ever mention that if you did certain things you might be breaking some laws?

- Why would they put it [music] on the internet and invent mp3 players if it was against the law?

TF. Confusing isn’t it?….You mentioned you like Sean Kingstone - what if I told you that Sean Kingstone’s boss might send you a letter asking for money because you shared his album on LimeWire? What would you say to him?

- W.E! [whatever!]

TF. Come on, play along with me. What would you say if he did?

- I’d say “tooooo strict!” and anyway he can’t make me do anything. He’s not the boss of me, he’s the boss of Sean Kingstone.

TF. What do you think might happen if you didn’t pay him?

- Nothing. I’m too young to be charged by the government so he can’t charge me.

TF. Would you carry on using LimeWire after he sent the letter?

- Yeah!

TF. Why?

- Because you can get good albums off there. Duh!! My CD’s don’t work in my mp3 player so LimeWire is the only way to do it. I bought High School Musical 2 on CD but it won’t go on my mp3 [player]

TF. How would you make LimeWire better?

- To speak to the person sending the music to make sure they send the right one, sometimes they send stuff that doesn’t even play.

TF. Do you know what a pirate is?

- They have parrots [effects 'arrrrr']

TF. Do you think its legal or illegal to copy a CD or DVD?

- Some men right, they sell you a DVD at the market but when you get home it doesn’t play, that’s illegal.

TF. Why is it illegal?

- Duh!! Because they tell you it works and when you get it home it’s rubbish and jumps in the middle and its a waste of money!

TF. Do you think you should be paying for stuff off LimeWire? You have to buy CD’s from the shop…

- You have to pay for CD’s because they’re actually on a disc not on the computer. My cousin, right, she uses LimeWire when she doesn’t have any money for CDs.

TF. Did you ever download anything by anybody and then go to see them?

- I got stuff by Lee Ryan and Simon Webbe and then I went to see Blue. Why don’t you ask me what my favorite hobby is?

TF. Ok, what’s your favorite hobby?

-  Dancing to music, it’s fun!!

Thankyou, Hannah. That’s it! Have a nice birthday!

Awww, or should that be argghhhh?