I read a couple of interesting articles recently about data centres and managing their energy use. In an article in the Environmentalist (which unfortunately is not open access) Intel claims that an esitimated 7.5% of the power going into datacentres actually does what it’s intended to do. That leaves a staggering 92.5% to be picked up through efficiency and design changes. Furthermore, 60% of the total energy bill is for cooling! So it was encouraging to see that an operator based in Wales claims to be the first in Europe to run a facility on 100 percent renewable energy.
See also Greenpeace’s report on make IT green.
Amazing article in the New York Times. During my first proper job when I left university I was involved in a study looking at the transfer of commensal bacteria populations in isolated communities (on the British Antarctic Survey base station) and this topic has always fascinated me.
“Dr. Khoruts decided his patient needed a transplant. But he didn’t give her a piece of someone else’s intestines, or a stomach, or any other organ. Instead, he gave her some of her husband’s bacteria.”
So, as my first post, I’ve recently become interested in the possible applications of 2D barcodes in environmental informatics. More thoughts to come but as a start here’s a QR Code for this blog.
2D Barcode for nmorrison.info
School of Computer Science,
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University of Manchester,
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Manchester, UK
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E-mail: norman@nmorrison.info (preferred)
E-mail: norman.morrison@manchester.ac.uk (official)
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 0646, Fax: +44 (0)161 275 6236
Skype: morrisonnorman
