Seagate announced their new Savvio 15K.2 hard drives, and I have to say, I’m impressed.

Not by the 115 per cent performance improvement over 3.5 inch 15,000 RPM drives.  Not by making a 15K RPM drive in a 2.5 inch form factor that works so well.  (And is that much easier to cool.)  Not even by the 6GB/s transfer rate and SAS2.0 feature set.

Nope.  Not by any of these mightily impressive things.

But by the 70 per cent less power usage vs. typical 3.5 inch 15K drives.

Because this is thinking smart.  Less power.  Less heat.  Less size.  Better performance.  It’s everything a good server needs.  It’s green computing.  Good job Seagate!

Now if only there were affordable equivalents for the mainstream desktop market…

It was an innovative if not naive idea: the paperless office.  A world where paper was no longer needed to do day-to-day tasks.  Only, it never happened.  People tried.  All that it lead to were less pre-made forms to fill out, and more use of printers to print everything out.  It was hardly paperless.  In fact, with the loss of the pre-made forms people forgot the usefulness of carbon paper, and soon the paperless office actually created more work.

But then there was an invention that would revolutionize the world: electronic paper!  It would allow devices to be created which could keep a page displayed on the screen without using electricity.  And it gave paper’s wonderful readability instead of the glowing and eye-hurting electronic glow of screens like LCDs and OLEDs.

Only, it never caught on.  Even today, you almost can’t even find an electronic paper display.  I’m not even sure how companies like E Ink manage to stay in business.

And the reason, I think, is that the typical electronic paper device is simply useless.  It’s just an e-book.  You load a file.  You read the file.  End of story.  Great if you can find a lot of books converted into files for you to read.  Not so great if you can’t.  And utterly useless for anything else.

Like the PDA, the limitations of the device hindered its uptake.

Now everyone wants these lost features on their cell phones.  And maybe, just maybe, there’s a point in there somewhere.

Maybe the scope of using e-paper for just e-books is a little too narrow.  Maybe there should be more to e-paper than that.

Imagine, if you will, an inexpensive tablet PC -like device.  Not a fully functional tablet PC.  More like an overgrown PDA.  With easy to use wireless networking, and a nice big electronic paper display, with an integrated touchscreen.  You have a company meeting.  Now instead of everyone printing out dozens upon dozens of reports to read along with the presentation, everyone can simply grab their e-paper tablet and open the report file on the company share.  Or the meeting organizer can email everyone the report and you just open that email up on your tablet.  Information is meant to be shared.  Why print something only to throw it away an hour later when we have the technology to do much better?

Which, to be useful, means that the electronic paper tablet needs the ability to open (and edit) any office document.  It needs email.  It needs file sharing.  It needs so much more than just simple reading of e-book file formats.  And it needs energy-conserving internals to match the e-paper display for a long battery life.

What about e-paper cell phones?  Instead of light-up and then darken on inactivity screens, you can have constantly vibrant screens.  You could have a “closed display” as large as the phone itself instead of just being a tiny window.

What about laptops?  Wouldn’t it be awfully neat if your laptop’s lid actually had an e-paper display on the back, so that even when it was closed you could have a changable display?  You could make it display a company logo.  You could design the laptop to still check email once every ten minutes while in sleep mode and display an email icon on the closed lid.  You could do all sorts of interesting and wonderful things.  And while the e-paper image doesn’t change, the e-paper display doesn’t use electricity.  So it has a minimal impact on your battery life.  Imagine how neat that would be!

The idea of a totally paperless office may be a fairy tale.  But the uses for electronic paper are not.  They can go far beyond the simplicity of electronic books.  They can offer some very neat tools to increase our productivity and the wow factor in everyday devices.  And they can do a lot to conserve paper and electricity to help save the environment.

Okay, so I’m sick of this.  GM is notoriously bad.  But now even the high-end auto manufacturers are getting in on the stupidity.  I’ve just got to rant.  So let me make this one thing clear:

MAKING A CAR A HYBRID DOES NOT MAKE IT GREEN!!!!!

Say what?

Yes, you read that right.  Just because it has a hybrid logo on it, just because it has part electric power, does NOT make it green.  It does not by default make it fuel efficient.  It does not by default mean it has low emissions.

For example, here are some average gas mileage ratings of cars that actually get a high enough efficiency rating to be considered green:

Now, these cars all get above 30MPG in real-world driving, according to hybridCARS.  It is by no means an extensive list.  There are many others as well.  (And then there are the super-green cars like plug-in hybrids and electrics.)  And you’ll note that there are even diesel and normal everyday fuel cars in that list.  They don’t have to be hybrid to have a good fuel efficiency.

Now, here are some hybrids which are not green:

So I say again, just because it has a hybrid logo on it, does not make it green.

What makes a car green is that it does something for the environment.  It uses less gas.  It puts out less emissions.  There is no “in its class” beating around the bush.  Either it is green, or it isn’t.  The term “hybrid” is not some carte blanche to feel good about yourself by pretending that you care about the environment.  Slapping a “hybrid” logo onto a car does not suddenly make everything okay.

It’s a Sunday.  The afternoon sun is shining.  The birds are singing.  The cicadas are buzzing.  What a perfect day to mow the lawn, right?

I pull out my man-powered push mower that runs on neither gas nor electricity, but simply the power of my muscles.  (Because I’m so green … and because I can get away with it with such a tiny lawn.)  I’ve had this particular 20″ blade Task Force lawnmower for over a year now.  It’s not exactly the most fun I’ve ever had mowing a lawn (considering my last lawnmower was a powerhouse push mower with a powerful 6.5hp four-cycle engine) but I’ve only got a small yard now, and I’m being green.

It starts out like any other mow.  Only I’m halfway through now and I think I’m feeling something odd.  Only I’m not sure.

I’m three quarters of the way through the yard and I’m definitely feeling something odd.  The blades are spun by the wheels being pushed forward.  The blades spin free when the wheels move backward.  It’s a simple and nifty way to spin the blades by sheer manpower.  The force of the push spins up the blades.  But as I push forward now, the blades seem to kind of klang a bit before the spin. I’m sure of it now.

As I push the mower towards my shed so that I can take a look at it, it gives one last klang.  And now I just hear the gentle click-click-click of the freespin.  Only I’m pushing fowards, not backwards.  The blade no longer powers up when I push.  My lawnmower is dead.

Well drat!  That ain’t good!

Green proponents or just people with small yards may be quite familiar with this lawnmower.  It seems to be a popular one.  Until it broke on me, I didn’t entirely dislike it myself.  (What can I say? It’s a lot of work pushing a people-powered mower.)  I always kind of thought of it as the cream of the bad crop.

And as you look at the design, it looks built to last.  Except for the wheels and the handle tighteners and grip, it’s all metal.  It holds up well. … So I thought.

Then I get the wheel assembly apart.  It’s as simple as slipping a C clip.

On the inside of the wheel is gear toothing.  Which turns that black sprocket you see there.  That black sprocket is designed to move only in one direction.  When the wheels move forward, it grips, allowing the blade to spin up.  When the wheel doesn’t move, or moves backwards, it slips, allowing the blade to free-spin.  This way the blades don’t slow down just because you do.  And you can’t jerk moving blades to a grinding halt by moving backwards.

But wait.  What’s this?  While everything else important is made of metal, the sprocket that does all of this is made of plastic!

A quick examination of this cheap plastic sprocket, the heart of the blade spinning operation, the part that takes the most abuse, reveals the problem.  The inside metal catch that free spins one way and grips the other has torn this cheap piece of plastic to shreds!

I don’t care how any marketing guru cares to try to spin this one.  The most important part of this lawnmower, the part that takes the most stress and abuse per square meter of surface area, is made of plastic.

IT WAS DESIGNED TO FAIL!

And so the bad lawnmower has been thoroughly FUBARed by an intentional design by the manufacturer for it to break down.  There’s simply no other way to explain using a cheap plastic part at this most important juncture.

Is it even worth trying to get this thing repaired under warranty?  They’re just going to replace that god awful little plastic sprocket with another plastic sprocket.  The lawnmower is just going to fail again.  There is no “if”.  There is no question.  It’s only a matter of time.  It’s designed to fail.

If I were a blacksmith or a machinist I might try to die cast or machine out a new sprocket from metal that would last for years and years.  But I’m not.  I’m a tech geek.  I don’t have neat toys like that in my basement.  And frankly, if I were going to do anything to this lawnmower at this point, it’d be to strap a motor and a car battery to the bugger and make that sucker electric!  But I don’t have the R&D budget for that kind of tinkering, and frankly, the blade really isn’t so good at catching all of the types of grass and weeds in my not-so-perfect yard.

It’s time for something better.

Say hello to my little friend: The Black & Decker Lawn Hog 19″ corded electric lawnmower!

It’s my new best friend.  It’s the green lawnmower I always wanted.

Okay, so electric isn’t quite as green as human-powered.  It’s still a lot better than gas, so cut me some slack.  I could have spent like $450 (give or take) on a hearty battery mower.  Or $350 give or take on a severely underpowered battery mower.  But why spend that kind of money when I can get the el-cheapo electric that uses a cord instead of a battery?

I’ve already taken the new mower out for a spin.  Man is it so much better than that stupid man-powered mower.  Now mowing the lawn is literally as easy as, say, using a vacuum.  Really!  That sucker is light!  It just glides across the lawn.  Never have I felt a lawnmower push so easily.  Even my last gas hog, a self-propelled push model, didn’t move this easy.

And starting it is a breeze!  No more yanking a cord.  No problem starts.  It just whirrs right up!

As I pushed it to its knees, I found that you also can’t kill it.  You just can’t.  Electric motors may spin down, but unlike gas motors, they don’t stall if you push them too hard.

There are only two problems I’ve seen with this mower.  The first is true of any corded mower: the cord.  What happens when you run over a cord?  I don’t want to know.  I really really don’t.  Fortunately you literally just plug in an extension cord into the mower, so if you run over the cord you can easily replace it should you be squeemish about splicing it.  (Call me squeemish.  I tried that once as a child, and it wasn’t pretty when I plugged the spliced cord back in.  I’ve been leery of electricity ever since.)

The other problem is the mulcher.  The blade on this sucker is like half fan blade,  half lawnmower blade.  It really sucks up the grass.  Which means that, of course, it’s constantly trying to push the motor to its knees because it’s constantly trying to dice up way more grass than it should at one time.  Now the solution is simple - use the bag in the back instead of mulch - or whenever you hear it struggle, just lift the nose of the lawnmower up a smidge to break the vacuum so that grass can escape.  Both are fine solutions to such a simple problem.  But it’s still a minor nuicanse.

But hey, if those are the worst two things I have to deal with to use such a great and green lawnmower?  No worries, mate!  I’m so very sold.

My only ponderance at this point is whether or not the battery-powered mowers are as smooth as this corded mower.  Battery devices run at slower speeds to save energy.  That might suck.  Worse though, a battery for a device with that much of a motor has got to have some weight to it.  Will a battery version push as effortlessly?  I don’t know.  It’s so lightweight that it’s almost ridiculous.  It’s great!  I’d hate to see that feature lost by adding a battery.

So, thanks to a judicious expendeture of money and a great company like Black& Decker, my lawn has never been so easy to mow.  And I still don’t use gas!  In a way, I’m actually almost glad that the Task Force mower was designed to break, because now I’ve found something infinitely better.

So if you’re in the least bit green and simultaneously a car nut, you’ve probably heard by now of the Tesla Roadster. It’s a purely electric sports car. What do I mean by sports car? Well, how does 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds sound? Yeah. It can move.

But the one thing about electric cars is what do you do when the battery goes dry? When you run out of gas in a normal car, you just go to a gas station and fill ‘er up. No biggie. In and out in minutes.

But when you run out of juice in an electric car, you plug it in, and wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. Not very convenient for long distance trips.

Until now!

Introducing the Lightning, UK’s hot new electric sports car!

Built along similar lines, the Lightning is an all-electric road-eating monster. The performance can put most sports cars to shame. And since electric motors are so incredibly simple compared to an engine in something like a Ferrari, it’s also a lot easier to maintain. But again, there’s that whole long long wait to recharge the thing, right? Wrong!

At least in theory…

The Lightning uses a new battery technology. Unlike the lithium-ion batteries and lead-acid batteries traditionally used in electric cars, the Lightning uses NanoSafe™ batteries. These are lithium-titanate batteries manufactured with nano titanate particles instead of lithium-ion’s use of graphite. They’re supposedly a lot faster to recharge, are more stable at extreme temperatures (something batteries just don’t like), and contain no toxins or heavy metals.

And if you noticed, yes, in there were the words “a lot faster to recharge”. Something which Lightning hopes to take advantage of. In theory the Lightning’s batteries can be recharged to 80 per cent in just three minutes.

In practice however, this requires a three-phase industrial power line, something your typical home (and even a lot of businesses) just don’t have.

Yet.

Perhaps one day, in a world where alternative fuels catch on, you can drive up to your “filling station” and get a tank of petrol, a tank of ethanol, a tank of bio-diesel, a tank of hydrogen, or even a quick charge of your batteries from an industrial power line, all in one nice convenient station.

In the mean time however, Lightning owners will have to live with the fact that while they recharge their nifty sports car from their home line, the recharge time is really not much different than that of any other electric car. And they’re still screwed if they want to travel beyond the range of their batteries.

Something where hybrid cars, like the Toyota Prius, still reign supreme in that they still can just top off their tank of gas from any old gas station and keep truckin’ all night long.

Still, if anything interesting comes from this, it’s that cars are no longer necessarily held down by the crappy battery technologies that we’ve been using since the dawn of time (lead acid) or by those used in the last few decades (lithium-ion). We’ve got something new: lithium-titanate AKA NanoSafe™. Hopefully we’ll be seeing these used in new cars. And just as hopefully, the industry will continue to research and develop even newer and better battery technologies to vault the electric car into the twenty-first century.

And maybe one day, we’ll even have the ultimate green-hybrid. A flexible-fuel hybrid that can take petrol or ethanol to power either a normal car engine (like a Prius hybrid has) or perhaps some sort of electric generator, has a hydrogen tank for filling up a hydrogen fuel cell powered electric motor, and even has some NanoSafe™ batteries for also powering the electric motor and operating as a recharge point for regenerative braking. It’d be the ultimate hybrid. Who knows? It could happen.