global warming vs. local cooling

[Curt]

An extremely easy and very political correct way of saving energy has emerged from Uniblue: LocalCooling (XP only). Install the free program and save energy! According to the company it is quite a lot of energy 'we' are waisting.

Download the 100% Free LocalCooling Application and it automatically optimizes your PC's power consumption by using a more effective power save mode. You will be able to see your savings in real-time translated to more evironmental terms such as how many trees and gallons of oil you have saved.

Our goal is to introduce 100,000,000 PC users into the Local Cooling community. If just 100 million of us optimize the efficiency of our computers’ energy consumption, we could prevent over 300 billion kg of CO2 gas emissions, equivalent to over 1.8 billion gallons of oil, in just the first year alone.

LocalCooling.com is a non-commercial website and is not a selling platform. It is malware free, carries no advertising, political content or bias in any way. It has been developed specifically to help in the fight against global warming; to demonstrate that individuals can take action and make a real difference to an issue of global importance. By joining the LocalCooling.com Community, PC users can work together to bring about a positive, noticeable change to the future of our planet.

   

Direct download link - Beta version:

[jgpaiva]

Interesting!
And it makes the "estimated power usage" calculation that was asked for in recent posts.. Cool 

[f0dder]

Hmmm, "more effective power save mode"? I wonder what it can do that windows doesn't already do, if you use the "Power Options" control panel applet. The site doesn't have much info, but it uses phrases like "our advanced algorithms will predict". Advanced algorithms? Doing some time-keeping and multiplying with values from a database?

Now, the idea of tracking power usage and keeping a database of power consumption for various devices sound good, but it doesn't seem to me that the app does that much, it just looks pretty and has buzzwords. I wonder what their agenda is, and how they plan on making money.

EDIT: indeed it doesn't seem like it's actual power settings do anything, compared to the standard:
global warming vs. local cooling
...apart from being a bit more "accessible" for the... less gifted... users (it can be hard clicking start->settings->control panel->power options).

The LocalCooling UI looks pretty, but it does seem to confuse Screenshot Captor (alpha transparency). I do wonder if they take CRT vs. TFT power usage into account.
global warming vs. local cooling

Also, the UI's "snap to edge" feature means I can't move it to my secondary monitor. Yay for developers that don't think about multi-monitor setups >_< (which probably also means they don't do multi-mon power usage yet, either).

[Curt]

(...) The site doesn't have much info, (...)

-f0dder (February 20, 2007, 05:50 PM)

No; they don't tell a lot. In fact they tell very little with the frequent use of big words.

I wonder what their agenda is, and how they plan on making money.

-f0dder (February 20, 2007, 05:50 PM)

I imagine their agenda may be okay; to do something some will find important and honourable, but of course they may also want to promote their company, Uniblue. I can't test the program, sinse it is XP only, so I'm asking: Is there a link to at least one of Uniblue's other programs, inside LocalCooling??

[f0dder]

Is there a link to at least one of Uniblue's other programs, inside LocalCooling??

-Curt

I uninstalled it, but iirc there were links in the about box. Nothing blatant, though. So while I don't like the fluff on their website (it sounds a little too Gibson'ish), and don't find the app all to useful, it does seem like a cute little toy and not a scam.

[Curt]

... iirc there were links in the about box. Nothing blatant, though.

-f0dder (February 21, 2007, 03:30 AM)

No, they wouldn't need to do it a blatant way, would they, when their declared "goal is to introduce 100,000,000 PC users into the Local Cooling community." 100 million machines, each with a link to Uniblue - now that is Marketing, with a big m!

[f0dder]

Well, even if they only get 100.000 users and just 1% visit the "mothersite" and decide to buy one of their other products, that'd still be 1.000 new customers... that might be their plan with this app, anyway. And it's a good cause, helping build a nice and lovable company profile.

Okay, I'm a cynic

[Curt]

Okay, I'm a cynic

-f0dder (February 21, 2007, 08:46 AM)

Maybe not.

In Copenhagen we can address the power supplyer's office and borrow a divice to meassure any 230 Volt app's power consumption. But LocalCooling is XP only, so I cannot test if all this is a PR stunt only, or if it actually does what it says. But I sure am curious to know the answer.
 

[f0dder]

Yeah, I've been meaning to borrow (or purchase, if cheap enough) such a device myself. I think most power companies here in .dk have an offer like that?

As for LocalCooling "working", all it does wrt. actually saving power is the same stuff as the standard windows control panel applet does. I guess LocalCooling just measures how long the various power saving modes have been activated.

[iphigenie]

Maybe I am a cynic but does it actually do something? I saw that site and I thought it was a gimmick - something that would estimate the power saved by normal power saving features and then hopes to gather estimates on a website to be able to say "our users have saved XXX global warming" and therefore get lots of publicity...

Although i did try batterydoubler a while back and that did manage to save power, so things can be done. And even if all it does it set up the normal windows power saving options which most people never bother to set, it can be useful.

But it's a marketing gimmick. I think there's already a spoof site somewhere about how their members save more trees by turning their computer off when its not in use, instead of measuring what's saved when on idle