pointing out the obvious

In a previous post discussing carbon neutral, Peter raised a valid question about the replacement of old technology with new technology, knowing that new technology will have a lesser net effect on the environment (and your wallet).

To describe this through an example:  A new, environmentally efficient, low water consuming laundry machine requires a huge amount of raw materials to build and ship to your home prior to saving you water and energy.  However, using the old washer uses twice as much water, and twice as much power.  So, the question is, when does it make sense to replace an older appliance with a newer one.

In other words, when does….

cost of running the technology + cost of removing old technology
EQUAL
cost of running new technology + cost of producing new technology
????

Where cost is the environmental cost.

Of course, this is next to impossible to determine.  Why?  Probably because the economy wants you to continue purchasing - it keeps them in business.  The same way 3 years from now, a new and improved laundry machine will be introduced, which everyone MUST have.  Thus the cycle continues.

Of course, I’m quite guilty of this myself, but I’m trying hard to consider this when making unnecessary purchases - like cameras.

Listening to TWIP on my ttc commute into work today, I had photography on my mind.  Apart from still thinking about selling my Canon XTi (400D) and purchasing a Canon T1i (500D) to play with video, which is something that fascinates me, I saw a great picture appear right infront of me.

Of course I didn’t take the shot, but if I had, it would have been important to give a copy of the picture to the subject.  Which made me think about polaroid cameras, and how they were great for that kind of thing.  But they’re gone, and digital has become mainstream and we no longer have anything like that.

I suppose (if I had taken the shot), I could have written down my website address, so they can find it later, but that seems impersonal.  Without being able to print out the shot right then and there, it’s hard to get that instant gratification.  Or is it?

Almost everyone has a ‘gadget’.  Most of those gadgets can display photos, or receive photos via sms (mms?).  Maybe the polaroid of the future is a DSLR shooting pictures that you can MMS to someone’s handheld device.

Instant gratification, no?

(i’m still chewing on peter’s comment from the last post… )

Everyone has heard of no impact, zero footprint and carbon neutral - but do you have any idea what that means?  It doesn’t mean buying recycled paper, or products in recycled packaging, or hybrid automobiles.

It means making due with what you have, not purchasing something new if at all possible.  Purchasing something ‘new’ means raw materials, pollution, and sometimes throwing something perfectly useful into a landfill.

This is a difficult concept to swallow for most.  Why?  Because most do not see the impact of their lifestyle on the environment - myself included.  The secondary problem is the economy - it’s based on consumption, which means not purchasing is not contributing.

So… what do you do?

Interesting dilemma - consuming helps the big machine (economy) go round and round.  However, consuming is what makes our lifestyles unsustainable.  Have you ever really thought about where that coffee really came from, and where the disposable cup goes once you’re done?

Most of us don’t think about our daily purchases, and what impact that might have on both the economy and the environment.  If you want to support the economy, you might focus your spending on locally sourced goods - most of us don’t.  If you want to reduce your impact on the environment, you would curb the unessential spending - which sounds crazy.

So, we’re stuck buying foreign made ‘green’ products that end up in a landfill.

Ever get frustrated trying to clear a level on the wii, ps3, xbox 360, whatever?  Wouldn’t it be awesome if you could pay $1 to clear a level, so you’re no longer stuck?  I would.  I’m guessing others would.  The game makers already have most of the infrastructure setup, they just need to build a game that way.
Facebook charges $1 per icon.  They have no value other than ‘fun’.  People buy them (by the millions).

How about paying $1 to unlock an awesome car in GT4?  $1!!  For a dollar each, I’d unlock the coolest cars and pay off the licensing board to make sure I finally passed my international drivers test.  That thing is nuts.

I realize that I have become a bit of a ‘public transit’ pusher. Everywhere I go, I want to take transit over taxis, or driving. While the TTC has it’s own set of problems, I believe it to be the better way. Maybe not the nicest way, but the better way all things considered.

So much so, that I might invest in a TTC Metropass at full price (I used to get a discount) to make it that much easier.

.

It should be ridiculously easy to log everything I have listened to on my ipod touch, into my last.fm profile. Unfortunately, this is not the case. It doesn’t matter what version of last.fm, or scrobbler I use, they all can’t seem to figure it out.

While I’m thinking about it, I’ve read that if you do get the ipod touch / last.fm thing working, tracks within a podcast are not tracked. I recall last.fm mentioning that podcast id3 tags are less reliable than single song id3 tags. Surprising. Aren’t both user generated?

If and when I get my cbc radio 3 podcasts properly logged in my last.fm profile, I’ll ask the next question - why aren’t the last.fm recommendations very good? I thought collaborative filtering would work better than this…

I might get the chance to think about this problem a little more at work.

This personalized experience makes me feel cold and alone.

So.. a 1% reduction in GST instead of passing the money on to the cities.

I guess this means a savings of $15 per month for me - 3 more mocha fraps (liquid cheeseburgers) - which really won’t affect my life. However, the $400 million or whatever that the city would have received from the 1% seems like it would make a difference.

Maybe I’m taking the $15 for granted. Would $15 make a difference to someone who is closer to the poverty line? Maybe. But someone closer to the poverty line likely has a higher dependence on social services than I do. So then the question becomes - is the $15 better utilized in social services funding or personal consumption?

For me, the extra $15 dollars really goes towards funding the TTC fare hikes. If they channeled 1% to social services, the TTC likely wouldn’t have to increase fares. So it’s a wash for me. But, I have the privilege of living close to the subway.

If I was in a lower income bracket, I would likely be living in a less accessible area, thus would be more reliant on TTC buses. As a result of the TTC budget crunch, I’m sure buses are less frequent, or even cancelled. So it’s a double whammy - increased fares, and decreased service.

This is just one example, by way of the TTC, but funding for social programs is important to everyone. I don’t like increasing taxes, but accept them if I agree with what they are used for. I HATE decreasing taxes, when we have so many gaps in funding.

Though, I don’t think it’s the lower income people asking for tax cuts. It seems like the rich people - you know, the ones with all the bling and gadgets, who don’t require social services but would rather have more bling - that want tax cuts.

Think about it objectively - how does the tax cut affect EVERYONE, not just you.

This is another reason I love living in Toronto - you see both ends of the spectrum, the ultra rich and the ultra poor, every day. It’s a constant reminder of what our city, province and country is made of.

I solved this problem by using a reusable travel mug, but for those who insist in using disposable cups, the little green plug will deal with those annoying coffee spill problems.  Great idea - a simple solution for an extremely common problem.
See it in action on youtube.

This time, I didn’t see a great usability decision made in a coffee shop. Instead, it was at the Queen St subway station.

If I am like most people, when you exit a subway train and climb the stairs to the main level of the station, you have no idea what direction you are facing. Without a sense of direction, you are faced with choosing from at least 2 different exits - each exit then branching into at least 2 (often 3) different staircases leading to street level. The signage in the station that describes these exits is usually hard to find or read, and requires a few seconds to process. A few more seconds than you have. If you ride the subway during rush hour, stopping to process the sign is like stopping to tie your shoes during the running of the bulls. So you blindly pick an exit, and hope for the best. After 5 trips to work, I figure it out, but non-regulars don’t have that kind of time.
So, what did I see this morning? Directly in front of where the turnstiles let thousands of people out of the station, in the centre of the station, on the floor - where most people are looking - is a large white arrow, in a black circle, with an N at the top. It looks just like one of those things on a map, that point north, so you know which way to hold it. Gosh Beav’, maybe it is one of those things.

Instantly, I knew exactly which direction I was facing, thus which exit to take, then which branching exit to follow. Brilliant. It probably cost all of $20, and might actually help someone.

I hope to see more where that came from.