Microsoft has been bragging about the energy saving features of its new operating system. But this article explains how Microsoft’s lack of concern for energy saving features led their XP operating system to waste $25 billion in energy of the past five years.

The working assumption of a hundred computers per human being was given a safety margin, and the final estimate to be used in developing an addressing specification was 1 quadrillion (10¹⁵) computers connected by 1 trillion (10¹²) networks. The designers took into account the inefficiencies in address assignment and came to the conclusion that new addresses should be somewhere between 57 and 68 bits in size. Source

Meanwhile, Apple is bragging about being green, but it stands in the way of progress on some fronts. I bought some expensive solar power equipment so I could power my laptop and a few other things on the sun, but I find that I’m obliged to convert from DC->AC->DC in order to power a MacBookPro because Apple is not permitting anyone to make a 12V adapter with the patented MagSafe plug. This means losing energy to heat in the conversion process.

Before Apple gets too cocky about it’s heat generating 85W Mac Book Pro, Apple engineers may want to have a look at the Beagleboard, which can run on solar power.

HSBC is making a pitch that it is environmentally responsible. But one can question whether giving coupons for online shopping is eco-conscious, regardless of what products are on sale. Conservationists have heavily criticized HSBC for helping to sell pounds 870m worth of Chinese government bonds, saying the money will be used to build vast new dams in breach of global environmental agreements. Ecologists claim the move raises serious doubts about public promises from the banking giant’s chairman, Sir John Bond, to put environmental and social responsibility at the heart of its investment and lending policies. Beside other major investment houses, such as Goldman Sachs and UBS, HSBC has been hired by the China Development Bank to help raise EUR 500m (pounds 330m) from within Europe and by the Chinese Export Import Bank (CEIB) to place a further $1bn (pounds 540m) worth of bonds worldwide (The Independent, July 25, 2004).

Even so, HSBC’s website does have a carbon use calculator, and they have begun offering flourescent bulbs to people
who may very well have none. So it’s not clear cut that they are cynically using the environment. It would be reasonable to say that
they are not consistent or deeply engaged.