Due to the popularity of last weekend’s wallpaper remix, I figured I might try to make this a regular weekend task. Now we have all grown tired of the “bliss” wallpaper that was made famous with Windows XP - so here are a few similar (but better) wallpapers to decorate your desktops with.
Just click the wallpaper you want to go visit the download page for it:
Got a theme idea for next weekend’s wallpaper roundup?
I’ve got a lot of positive and negative feedback on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show podcast. The most interesting of the bunch is the debate over how usual “green” hosting really is. I know some hosts out there really want to do better by the environment, and feel like this is helping. After reviewing all the facts though I still feel like it is a three card monte-like scam. Here is a view from the other side of the fence from Jen L, one of the debaters…
We do it, and if it’s a scam, then so is my electric company regulated and overseen by the government.
At my home, I have the option to pay a premium for renewable energy, and I have lots of official stuff on my bill showing the higher price I pay with the guarantees that money got fed into the grid. My electric company releases the energy I pay for into the grid - they have to, or its illegal. Are the zaps coming into my house guaranteed to be clean?
No. Energy delivery is communal - but the higher premium I pay puts more clean energy into the grid that would not otherwise get there. If enough people chose to pay for the higher premium, a higher percentage of energy in the grid would be renewable. Does it come with the same ego boost as solar panels on the top of my house? No. Does it ensure that less pollution comes from me because I pay more than everyone else? Yes. It makes a difference.
It’s the same concept. Green Tags enable people that want to buy renewable energy but who don’t have it directly available to them to do so. If *everyone* did it no matter where they were, we could all be green in a short amount of time.
If you wonder if its a scam, ask to see the certificates that were issued (as we all get certificates saying precisely what we bought), and the report as to how they arrived at how much to offset. If they can’t give it to you, then yes, possibly, it’s a scam.
If they *can*, the place you are hosting is paying for their energy *twice*, once to keep the power on, and again in the same amount to feed that energy they used back into the grid as green energy so someone else doesn’t have to use dirty energy.
How someone voluntarily choosing to pay for their electricity twice can be considered “a scam” is beyond me.
Check out podcast 151 for yourself and join the debate. Is green hosting good or just another sales gimmick to get you in the door?
Was in search for a few new visual styles for my laptop computer, and ran across these the other day on Deviant Art. Now there are a lot of ugly visual styles out there meant to replace the candy coated Windows XP skin but these three are very sleek.
For help on getting them installed, check out my previous tutorial on installing your own visual styles on Windows XP. Also big thanks to the artist of all three of these themes, from lassekongo83 Deviant Art. Fabulous work!
There has been a lot of talk about green web hosting lately. I am all for saving the planet as much as the next guy - but I don’t think the practices that are going on are actually doing much for the environment. Instead it is one big PR game being played with the public - and many are falling for it hook, line and sinker.
I covered this topic (as it relates to web hosting) and a few others this week on the podcast.
For most people, green hosting is that kind that has been sitting in the back of the refrigerator a little too long. Pretty soon though I have a feeling that either by hook or crook we will all be impacted by in in one way or another in the future. I’ll talk about it, tell you what it is and let you know what you can do to help.
+ Download the MP3 of this Podcast!
It seems like if you have enough money you can buy yourself out of your problem and then you don’t actually have to worry about changing your day to day business or day to day life. As I talked about on this week’s edition of the Web Hosting Show - I think there’s something that smells funny about the whole green web hosting deal.
Well I just finished up a new green theme for HostingHoopla.com. You can select it in the top right corner of the screen (where the little green box is). If there are any other different color themes you’d like to see just let me know!
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