As the new year approaches, you may be formulating resolutions such as "save money," "be more eco-friendly" and "work off the five pounds of holiday cookies I ate." Luckily for you, we've done a little research and believe we've got you covered on all fronts.
You can start saving money and baby pandas right away (maybe not baby pandas specifically, but if you believe in the butterfly effect, it's not totally implausible) with these tips from PC World:
1) Take your battery out of your laptop when using outlet power-- batteries continue to consume electricity even when completely charged. Most notebooks can run on AC power without a battery; if yours falls in this category, you can save on electricity while prolonging your battery life (continuous charging reduces both longevity and overall charge-holding ability).
2) Reload old PCs and donate them to schools, senior centers, etc. instead of trashing them. Or, if your workstation or laptop is truly too ancient to perform even basic functions, recycle it. Some cities have electronics recycling facilities, and an increasing number of major retailers (such as Best Buy and Staples) also offer free or low-cost recycling programs for a variety of technology products, including phones, chargers, cameras, TVs, and ink cartridges. If hard drives are not accepted, or you are concerned about data security, you can still dispose of these in a safe and eco-friendly way by taking them to an industrial recycling company for destruction--locally, we recommend Chicago Shred Authority, which will shred and recycle old hard drives for a small fee.
3) Opt for online bill payment- save trees, postage, and gas by eliminating the middle (mail) man.
4) Use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones--this ends up being much cheaper than continuously buying new batteries, and also reduces waste (just make sure not to over-charge them--see tip #1 above).
And about those cookies--some quick comparison shopping showed the Nintendo Wii (of Wii Fit fame) to be about $100 to $150 cheaper (retail price $200) than the Xbox 360 ($350) and Playstation 3 ($300 - $350). Even better, according to the National Resources Defense Council,the Wii not only helps you burn calories, it also uses just 16 watts of power while in active mode, compared to Xbox 360's 119 and PlayStation 3's 150.
We hope these tips will help you keep your resolutions on track in 2010, but in the meantime, pass the cookies!
Happy holidays from SkyView, Technology, Inc. !
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