IBM predicts 5 tech changes in 5 years
Every year, IBM picks five technologies that it predicts are going to change our lives in the next five years. This year's crop of life changers includes efficient capture of renewable energy, proliferation of biometric identification to authenticate your identity, control of machines with your mind, elimination of the digital divide, and the end of spam.
Energy is everywhere --w here we walk, where our computers produce heat, where water travels through the pipes in our homes -- and in the next five years, we'll be more efficient at capturing that energy for personal use, IBM explained. "Advances in renewable energy technology will allow individuals to collect this kinetic energy, which now goes to waste, and use it to help power our homes, workplaces and cities," it predicted. Read more...
Google, data centers using less power than expected
Data centers have been using less electricity than you think ... or at least, compared with what they have in the past.
According to a study by Jonathan Koomey, a consulting professor at Stanford and a climate and energy researcher, data center energy use in the last five years rose only about 56 percent vs. doubling in the period between 2000 and 2005. And in the U.S., it rose only 36 percent instead of doubling.
Electricity used in global data centers in 2010 accounted for between 1.1 percent and 1.5 percent of total electricity use, the Koomey study found. For the U.S. that number was between 1.7 and 2.2 percent. Read more...