Archive for Environment

2010 Consumer Electronics Show – Post Wrap Comments

January 20, 2010 Environment, General, Random Musings, Technology Comments Off on 2010 Consumer Electronics Show – Post Wrap Comments

This year I once again went to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. I took my lovely friend Vanessa as my date for the 3 days I was there. It was SO much fun. I don think she quite well knew what to expect. Needless to say Vanessa went hog wild!

The highlights of the 2010 CES was the fact that 3D TV’s are getting more standardized than what prototypes we saw last year. Still there is a lot of flux. The active/passive camp is going to fight it out for quite a bit. Samsung had some interesting demonstrations and I think their technology will prevail. Still the CEA group is expecting to raise the sales of new plasma/lcd tvs with 3D technology to continue capturing the market in the coming years.

I also was quite fascinated by the new wireless HDMI and wireless power transfer prototypes. I think they are quite fanciful that the bumbling village idiot will call it black magic!

On the Green Technology side, the stuff was just the same load of usual crap. However I was quite excited to see a T-8 LED fixture. I think that is has a lot of potential in the commercial energy conservation arena. I also found Ultralast with their new Green Power batteries (similar to Sanyo’s Enloop) and I look forward to testing them soon.

This years CES did not seem to have a lot of the prior years players. Not sure if the economy had something to do with it or not. Regardless it was a successful trade show and I look forward to following up with my contacts.

Seen at Walmart… Green but not so much…

October 3, 2008 Environment Comments Off on Seen at Walmart… Green but not so much…

These days everybody wants to “Go Green”. No longer is “Green” a symbol of money and the all mighty dollar, but it has also known to be associated with greed and environmentalism.

Well what do you get when you put those three together? Well corporate America’s next big cash cow. Why do I say corporate America’s next big cash cow. With the increasing awareness of environmental problems and Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” fresh on the minds of the public,  hearing the word ‘green’ and are being bombarded from every direction to be green and earth friendly has made the public more aware of what their impact to this world is.

Walmarts - Save Money, Live Better - Go Green for Earth Day

So it comes to me as a surprise that corporate america suddenly can start producing “green” products in such short time. Products  with labels & marketing that leaves good vibes and a feeling of elation that you have done something good for planet earth.

I ask, how green are these products. The answer is probably not as green as they would like you to think. A case and point “Earth Day 2008”. Retailers were in high gear promoting everything “Green”. I was walking in Walmart (yes not so green of me) and I noticed “tee shirts” that were on sale for a rather cheap price with a sign “Go Green in Style”. I was hey, finallWy almart is doing something good. However something looked funny, it did not feel like organic cotton and the price was way too cheap to be considered to be an organic cotton sourced material. Further more I do not believe they used “soy dye” for the printing either. In any case I had to snap a picture of the box that those tee shirts were put out on the sales floor.

The caption if you cant read it says “This product makes a difference. By using cotton from fields that are transitioning to Organic”. I dont know how that is going to be. From what I understand its not something you can transition to right away. Fields that have been used to grow commerical cotton cannot transition the next season to organic.

People who were buying these tee’s where all exicted that walmart is going green. I doubt this would be considered green under the eyes of the die hard environmentalists.

[Picture taken April 23, 2008]