10 Things You Can Do At home to curb global warming

Do your part to ensure a healthy planet by incorporating these ten simple actions into your everyday life.

1) Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs). Look closely at labels when buying light bulbs. Those marked as CFLs last 10 times longer and use 66 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs while delivering the same light levels. As a result, CFLs accrue net savings between $30 and $45 over their lifetimes, depending on your cost of electricity, the wattage size of the CFL, and the lamp’s lifespan (manufacturers make CFLs that last 6,000, 8,000, or 10,000 hours). The return on investment is 15 times higher than leaving your money in a bank account or the average return on Dows-Jones stock investments. CFLs also reduce the release of greenhouse gas emissions and are safer because they burn at a lower temperature (160° F or less) than incandescent and halogen lights, which can burn at temperatures up to 500° F. 

2) Turn down the thermostat just three degrees in the winter and up three degrees in the summer. You can prevent the emission of nearly 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

3) Inflate your car tires. When walking or biking isn’t feasible, you can do something to better protect the Earth while driving. Take a step in the right direction by inflating your car tires. Pumping them up can improve your gas mileage by about 3.3 percent – a savings of about 7 cents per gallon. It’s the right thing to do for your wallet and the right thing to do for the Earth.

4) Turn down the hot water heater. Set your water heater to 130° F. While you’re at it, turn down your house thermostat during the winter to 55° F when you go to bed or leave home. These simple actions can have enormous positive consequences, preventing the emission of more than 1,100 pounds of carbon dioxide over the course of the year, while cutting your energy bill by more than 10 percent. And that’s just from you! Get your friends on board, and the benefits will multiply.

5) Choose your seafood wisely. We can’t afford to wait until 2008. The world’s seafood will be entirely depleted by 2048, according to an early November report in the journal Science. That means the moment to shape up is now. By buying and eating certain types of seafood, you can discourage harmful fishing practices and avoid the more depleted or threatened species. Take a look at Seafood Choices Alliance or Seafood Watch to make smart choices.

6) Purchase EnergyStar-labeled appliances. EnergyStar products are among the top 25 percent most efficient and can provide a 30 percent return or better through lower utility bills. 

7) Wash and rinse in cold water. If everyone in the United States alone switched to cold water with their washing machines, we could save about 30 million tons of carbon dioxide each year – and more than $3 billion in energy costs, collectively. And what’s more? Cold water cleans your laundry just as well as hot water.

Buy locally produced meats and produce. Sounds like a good idea, but you don’t know where to start? Just type in your zip code on Local Harvest’s website to see a list of farms and farmers’ markets close to home, as well as nearby restaurants committed to supporting their neighbors. Buying locally produced food cuts out the middlemen and the vast amounts of energy required to get your products onto store shelves. Most produce in U.S. supermarkets travels an average 1,500 miles before it is sold!

9) Drink more water from reusable glassware. It’s great for your bank account, your health, and your planet. The average American consumed more than 400 beverage bottles and cans in 2006, leaving behind wasted glass, plastic, steel, and aluminum. That adds up to excessive amounts of fossil fuels and hydropower for mining, processing, refining, shaping, shipping, storing, refrigerating, and disposing of those materials. Of course, changing your drinking habits both at home and at work is applicable to just about every other habit, as well. You’ve heard it before and you’ll hear it again: Reduce, reuse, and recycle.

10) Walk, bike, and carpool. In the United States, the car represents one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. However, you don’t have to give up your car for a healthier planet, just expand your transportation options. You can significantly reduce your emissions by commuting to work. Try combining trips to minimize emissions, which are greatest at the beginning of a journey before the engine has reached optimum temperature and efficiency. When purchasing your next car, make it a fuel-efficient one. Hybrid cars can get twice the fuel efficiency of the average new car, cut greenhouse gas emissions by half or more, and reduce urban air pollutants. Carpooling saves energy, cuts on additional pollution, and allows you to take a turn as a passenger instead of driving everyday. Car-sharing (not pooling) is available in numerous U.S. cities. Car-sharing enables you to rent a car just when you need it. Each car-share vehicle displaces four to eight privately held cars, requiring less parking area and creating less road congestion. If you live within an hour’s bicycle ride to the office (~10 miles), consider biking to work one or more days a week.

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10 Things You Can Do At the office to curb global Warming

Most of us spend a third of our day at the office – and that’s not counting the commute. Apply these energy-saving tips in the workplace to reduce stress on yourselves and on the planet.

1. Turn off the lights. Remember to hit the switch on your way out for that well- deserved lunch break. The energy savings from 10 million employees turning off unneeded lights for 30 minutes a day is enough to illuminate 50 million square feet of office space.

2. Get off mailing lists. The last thing you need is another office supply catalog or credit card offer on your desk. Before tossing out junk mail, call the company’s toll- free service number and ask that your name be removed from the mailing list. Have online retailers e-mail you instead. Almost half of all catalogs are never opened, yet nearly 62 million trees are destroyed and 28 billion gallons of water are used to produce them every year.

3. Put your monitor to sleep. Whether it shows off your vacation photos or a cool 3D animation, a computer screen saver is not at all designed for energy efficiency. It’s intended to save your screen from  “burn in,” not to save energy. Because monitors are responsible for more than one-third of a computer’s energy consumption – even with screen savers – the best way to conserve energy is to set the monitor to sleep or power off when you’re away for an extended period. If you’re gone for 5-10 minutes, enjoy one of CI’s screen savers. Any longer than that, put the monitor to sleep.

4. Use the stairs. Your brain gets exercise all day, why not exercise your body? Get your heart pumping by taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It’s good for your health, and it saves electricity.

5. Make your printer’s toner last. Being cheap is a first date no-no, but it’s okay to be frugal at the office. When printing rough drafts or documents for internal purposes, change the printer’s settings to economy mode and avoid color if possible. Econo-mode uses up to 50 percent less toner and prints twice as many pages as other higher quality settings. Duplex printing also uses half the amount of paper.

6. Provide incentives for commuters. Free food and a year-end bonus are nice perks, but to really make workers happy, help ease their daily commute. The government rewards businesses that encourage their staff to carpool, bicycle, or walk to work under the Commuter Choice Program. Telecommuting and flexible work hours can also save employers by reducing absences and job retention costs.

7. Recycle and reuse paper. Americans toss out about 35 million tons of paper each year. Buck the trend and start recycling – not only standard white printer paper, but all of the magazines, manila folders, and colored post-it notes that decorate your space. If it tears, it can be recycled. Recycled paper manufacturing generates 74 percent less air pollution, and saves trees, water, and energy. To salvage papers that are printed on one side only, flip them over and use for incoming faxes.

8. Purchase 100 percent post-consumer waste, chlorine-free paper. Take note when buying paper – the higher the percentage of post-consumer waste, the larger the amount of recycled material is contained in the paper stock. This means that 100 percent post-consumer waste paper is made entirely from recycled products. Also, chlorine used for bleaching is one of the biggest polluters in the paper-making process. Choose non-chlorinated paper, which has the same quality as the bleached variety.

9. Recycle and reuse office supplies. Do as Mom says and clean your plate, literally. Washing and reusing the plastic dishes and cutlery you get with take-away food is an easy way to cut down on waste at work. Better yet, pack your lunch in reusable containers and pocket your hard-earned dollars! Skip the paper (or worse, Styrofoam) cups and refill your travel mug at the nearby coffee shop instead. It may even get you a discount. Besides aluminum cans and glass bottles, there are many other supplies stashed in and around your desk that are recyclable, such as batteries, printer cartridges, DVDs, CDs, and more.

10. Curb phantom electricity. Many appliances still consume energy even when turned off. Items left plugged into the wall, such as a cell phone charger or laptop adapter, can leak more than 20 watts of power. In the United States alone, “phantom electricity” emits roughly 12 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Avoid this by plugging office equipment into a power strip and turning it off at night and on weekends.

How to dual boot your Vista PC with Windows XP

Another big question from readers as a follow-up to last week’s XP end-of-life post: How do I set up my Vista PC for dual booting with Windows XP?

For starters, it’s true that some new computers will not be able to run Windows XP. The issue is one of drivers and mainly affects laptops: Some vendors have jumped so wholly to Vista that they’re no longer making XP hardware drivers for their equipment. There’s no real way around this, so check to make sure you can get all the drivers you need for your computer before you embark on the road to try setting up two operating systems on your machine. (You’ll need them anyway.

Also, be aware that configuring your machine to run Vista and XP side by side isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It is certainly not overwhelmingly difficult, but if you aren’t completely comfortable installing Windows on a bare machine, you should avoid this process. Find a friend to help you if you need it.OK, so you’re determined to dual boot. Here’s how to do it.

1. Repartition – You need to make two partitions on your hard drive. One for Vista, one for XP. The Vista install DVD includes an app called DiskPart that lets you do this, or try GParted, which is a little friendlier but requires a little more effort on your part. Split your hard drive into two chunks, and make sure each is big enough for each OS (at least 20GB). Format the partition as NTFS. You can also use a second hard drive if you’re on a desktop.

2. Check Your BIOS – If you’re using a SATA hard drive (the standard for a couple of years now), you’ll need to tweak your BIOS so XP, which came out well before SATA did, can see it. Just go into your computer’s setup app and hunt around for the options for your hard drive, often under “AHCI.” You want “compatibility,” “AHCI off,” or “IDE emulation” mode… something along those lines. Don’t worry, this won’t impact Vista at all.

3. Boot from an XP Disc – Now you can just follow the usual installation procedure. Just make sure you’re installing on the correct drive: Vista will be on the C drive. Your new partition will be E, F, or another drive letter.

4. Repair the MBR – Installing XP after Vista prevents Vista from loading properly because it overwrites a critical file. Repair the Master Boot Record by booting from a Vista DVD and selecting “Repair your computer,” then “Startup Repair.”

5. Install a Boot Manager – After all this, you’ll boot into Vista. You now need a boot manager to deal with the two OSes. Install EasyBCD (download at that link), run it, and click “Add/Remove Entries.” Change the drive to whatever you used in step 3, and change its type to “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3.” Click Add Entry then Save. Any other boot manager will work, but EasyBCD is free.When you reboot you’ll now get to choose which OS to go into.Good luck! (If you need more help, just search the web for “dual boot Vista XP” and you’ll find even more tutorials. Everyone’s instructions are a little different, so keep that in mind.)

10 Ways to use LinkedIn

1. Increase your visibility.

   By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.

2. Improve your connectability.

   Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

   You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

   LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

   To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.

4. Enhance your search engine results.

   In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.

   If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.”

5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.

   LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.

   Companies will typically check your references before hiring you, but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to scope her out.

   You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.

   By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.

6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.

   Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work.

7. Make your interview go smoother.

   You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.”

8. Gauge the health of a company.

   Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s still on board.

9. Gauge the health of an industry.

   If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn to find people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees.

10. Track startups.

    You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startup.” Apply the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people closest to you first.

Onion Benefits and Uses

Benefits, Qualities and Uses of onionsVigour, lustre of the body and mental power increase with the use of onions. From medical point of view, white onions are more useful. White onions are stimulant, vitalizing, pungent, promoters of virility, heavy, refreshing, stimulative of gastric fire and lubricous. They produce cough. They increase strength and induce sleep. They are a remedy for tuberculosis, cardiac troubles, dyspepsia, leprosy, piles, swelling and blood impurities.The onion loses its vitamin C content when preserved for a long time.The onion has effective germicidal properties. On account of its content of a volatile oil, the onion is very useful in respiratory disorders.Onions are widely used in salads. But to get the maximum benefit of the onion, one should take two or three teaspoonfuls of onion-juice mixed with honey. White onions should be preferred for medicinal uses.In virile disorders, one should take onion-juice with honey daily in the morning for two to three weeks. This will increase one’s virility. The onion saves one from sunstroke. If one suffers from sunstroke, the onion relieves it. Eating onion in the morning and at bed-time is beneficial in jaundice.It is interesting to note that during the plague-epidemic in London, when the contagion spread everywhere, the owners of onion and garlic shops were the only persons who proved immune to the disease.It has been proved that onion-juice is a very effective vermifuge (substance which kills worms). Unlike many vermifuges, onion-juice is more harmless and free from side-effects.The onion dislodges mucous and prevents its fresh formation. The onion is beneficial to the aged. The onion is also beneficial in intestinal disorders. The use of onions stimulates the process of peristalsis (contraction and expansion) of the intestines and removes intestinal putrefaction and flatulence. It is also useful in indigestion and biliousness.The juice of the onion together with sugar is a capital remedy for bleeding piles.

Health Benefit of Watermelon – Watermelon Packs More Than We Think

Watermelon is a fruit that packs more than we may think, more in the way of nutritional value that is. Summer may be officially coming to an end soon, but there’s still plenty of this popular Summer fruit available. Many of us (this included me once upon a time), think that watermelon is high in calories,contains only sugar and water but, this sweet red fruit does pack more than we think! (June Lay, Lifestyle Columnist – HealthNewsDigest.com)Before we discuss the full value of watermelon, let’s look at just how much sugar and water it does contains. One cup of diced watermelon is about 90% water, and 50 calories (doesn’t sound too bad to me). Approximately 44 of these calories do come from sugar, but let me say that this is a natural, healthy fruit sugar. If we remember our “Sugar, Not an Enemy” tip, we will remember that sugar is a vital nutrient for fueling our energy, and it is the sole source of fuel for our brain. Along with water and sugar, watermelon also contains vitamin C, has just a trace of fat without cholesterol. Not a bad deal I think, but the best news is about its color.Watermelon contains the phytochemical lycopene, one of our colorful disease preventing cartenoids! Watermelon is red, because it contains nature’s chemicals in the form of red pigments just like the tomato. This time if we remember our “Tomato, a Superstar” tip, the tomato was the leading source of lycopene when cooked (so much for the raw diet all the time?). Lycopene appears to be released from the plant cell wall and used by our body (defined as bioavailable) when sources such as the tomato are cooked. Unfortunately, we don’t always eat tomato sauce, or heat processed tomato juice, do we? Now, we have evidence from a study although many of us are still unaware of it, that shows raw watermelon unlike the raw tomato, contains a source of bioavailable lycopene! Here is just a small quote from the Press Release from the USDA research agency titled “Watermelon Shows its Lycopene Stripes” which appeared in the June 2002 Agricultural Research Magazine.”Watermelon is fat free and is a source of vitamins A, B6, C, and thiamin. Studies have shown that a cup and a half of watermelon contains about 9 to 13 milligrams of lycopene. On average, watermelon has about 40 percent more lycopene than raw tomatoes. Red, ripe flesh is the best indicator of the sweetest and most nutritious watermelon, though it’s hard to choose the ripest melon when it’s uncut”.Do we need a quick refresher on the disease fighting merits of lycopene? Well, studies indicate that lycopene protects against cardiovascular disease, and certain types of cancer most notably prostate with some studies showing protective properties against breast, endometrium and lung cancers as well.So, Watermelon definitely packs more than sugar and water. It packs a lot of Lycopene even when it’s raw! Want to up your intake of lycopene and not eating spaghetti and meatballs tonight with tomato sauce? Try a cup of fresh sweet red watermelon!

Here’s to our Health!

How To Secure Your Wi-Fi Network?

Most wireless router you bought might have an installation CD by vendor, and the CD will walked you through setting up security on your router in a step by step guide or wizard. Probably you will never have to or by the way need to use it.Actually I never install those CD because I find these programs cumbersome and my main reason is to avoid having multiple management applications which has nothing to do with my network.So, my suggestion here’s how to set up security on your router without using a custom application.

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STEP 1 > Open a new browser.

STEP 2> you may now type in the IP address of the router in your browser. The step here is where you could access to management system of your router. Due to different vendors, you need to lookup on your router’s manual for the IP address (Usually its 192.168.0.1, 196.168.1.1 or 10.10.0.1 or something similar to those matches) and the default password for the router. Please bear in mind that every brand of router’s management GUI (Graphical User Interface) is different, I can’t show you every brand as I only have one brand here to work with, so I will just direct you towards those areas which you need to configure. Please take it easy and it’s not complicated, however you might need a bit of time to trial and error on your side. Try exploring around and find the appropriate section to manage. It’s usually quite simple.

STEP 3> You should never forget this step to set a new administrator password. It’s always a good first step to start with to prevent you from forgotten it later on. The step to set here is often not located in Security section; you will need to take a look at Utilities, System Settings or User Management area. Find it and change the password immediately for any user account which is available.

STEP 4> Enable wireless security. To turn on your encryption, look under Wireless Security or equivalent tagged. The step over here will need you to either use WPA or WPA-PSK, this will only appropriate if devices on your network supported it. Otherwise you will need to use 128-bit WEP (refer to picture above). For WPA or WPA-PSK, you’d have to type in your passphrase/password, else for WEP you’d need to hit the generate key. Please note that you will need to write down your passphrase/password into a piece of paper or copy it to notepad application and transfer to a thumb drive, so that you can type/copy that password into your client machines.

STEP 5> Change your SSID. You shouldn’t make your SSID sound like “hack me”, this will probably be a default SSID, normally those did not configured their SSID will have their router name such as “linksys”, “belkin”, “aztech” or “dlink”. Try changing it to something menacing which will be a threat for them to connect. Example likes “virusgeek”, “iamvirus”, “virusspreader” or “hackingyou”. Probably you can think of something better than this. Remember you’ll need this SSID when you browse through available wireless networks from your client machines. You’ll find this setting under a menu called Channel or SSID.

STEP 6> Save your configuration by hitting “Apply Changes” or “Save Changes” or “Save Settings”. You will need to save every change you make to the router in order to take effect. Probably you must reboot your router multiple times during this procedure to be safe and secure.Congratulation! You’ve covered the basics setting for you Wi-Fi network. If you would like to continue advanced up your wireless security, please go ahead and I think they’re more techie. If you are lost or paranoid, you could just turn off your SSID broadcasting. (Disabling SSID broadcasting will need you to manually type in the network name as it won’t show up in windows wireless network scan.) or alternatively you can turn on MAC address filtering which will only allow limits access to your network with a list of clients you specifically approve.

Africa

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How to Green Your Lighting

What’s the Big Deal?

How we light up the places we live and work makes a big impact on how we feel. It also makes a big impact on the environment. The kind of bulbs, the kind of fixtures, the kind of power, and the habits we keep can all add up to a very significant greening. Start with the fact that a conventional incandescent bulb turns only around five to ten percent of its consumed energy into light, the rest goes out as heat. From there, there’s no limit to how green your lighting can be.

Top 10 Tips

Here are 10 highly effective ways to go greener. Hit it.

1. CFL: The better bulb
Compact florescent bulbs (CFLs) are those swirley little guys that look like soft-serve ice cream cones. Actually, they come in a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and colors of light. Economically speaking, they’re a great deal, too. CFLs cost a bit more than an incandescent, but use about a quarter as much energy and last many times longer (usually around 10,000 hours). It is estimated that a CFL pays for its higher price after about 500 hours of use. After that, it’s money in your pocket.

Also, because CFLs release less heat, not only are they safer, but your cooling load is less in the summer. CFLs aren’t hard to find anymore, and many cities will give them away for free. Wal-Mart has plans to sell 100 million of them.

2. Get the LEDs out
LEDs are a definite TreeHugger favorite. LEDs, or light emitting diodes, are a technology that allows for extremely energy efficient and extremely long-lasting light bulbs. LEDs are just starting to hit the consumer market in a big (read affordable) way and still cost quite a bit more than even CFLs, but use even less energy and last even longer.

An LED light bulb can reduce energy consumption by 80-90% and last around 100,000 hours. They even light up faster than regular bulbs (which could save your life it there are LEDs in the brake lights of your car). They are almost always more expensive presently, but we have seen the cost go down steadily. It’s no coincidence that the Millennium Technology Prize went to the inventor of the LED.

Most LED lamps on the market have the bulbs built into them, so you buy the whole unit. For screw-in bulbs, check out Ledtronics, Mule, and Enlux. For desk lamps, check out a few affordable ones from Sylvania and Koncept. For more designer models, look at LEDs from Herman Miller and Knoll. Vessel rechargeable accent lamps represent some of the interesting new things LEDs can do as well.

3. Materials
Light isn’t all about the bulbs, though. Having eco-friendly lamps and light fixtures is key to greening your lighting. When scouting for new gear, keep your eyes out for lamps made with natural, recycled, or reused materials. Lights made from recycled materials include metal, glass, or plastic, and natural materials can include felt, cloth or wood. Interesting lamps that use reclaimed materials include these made from traffic signal lenses, and these made from wine bottles. Also, don’t be shy about borrowing ideas for reuse in your own projects (see DIY).

4. Disposabulb
Fluorescents last a long time, but when they’re dead, they have to be properly disposed of. CFLs, like all florescent bulbs, do contain a small amount of mercury, which means they definitely can’t be thrown in the trash. Every city has different services for recycling, so you’ll need to see what’s offered in your area. LEDs, to our knowledge, do not contain mercury, but the jury may still be out on how to best recycle them.

5. Wall warts
Power adaptors, or “wall warts” as they’re affectionately called, are those clunky things you find on many electrical cords, including those attached to lamps and some light fixtures. You’ll notice that they stay warm even when their device is turned off. This is because they in fact draw energy from the wall all the time. One way to green your lighting is to unplug their wall warts when not in use, attached lights to a power strip and turn off the whole switch when not in use, or get your hands on a “smart” power strip that knows when the devise is off.

6. Day-lighting
By far, the best source of light we know is (yes, you guessed it) the sun, which gives off free, full-spectrum light all day. Make the most of daylight by keeping your blinds open (sounds obvious but you might be surprised). If you want to go a little farther, put in some skylights, or, of you are designing a home or doing a renovation, put as many windows on the south-facing side of the house as possible (or north-facing if you live in the southern hemisphere). To take it even further, sunlight can be “piped” inside via fiber optics and other light channeling technologies.

7. Good habits
As efficient as your lighting equipment might be, it doesn’t make sense to have lights on when no one’s around. Turn out lights in rooms or parts of the house where no one is. Teach your family and friends about it too and it will become second nature. If you want to get a little more exact, follow these rules:
Standard incandescent: turn off even if you leave the room for just seconds. Compact fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 3 minutes. Standard fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 15 minutes.

8. Do it yourself
We’re always encouraging people to take matters into their own hands. So much great eco-innovation comes when people create the things they can’t find elsewhere. Lighting is an especially accessible and rewarding thing to tackle. For some inspiration, check out the Cholesterol lamp made from cast-off plastic egg cartons, and the recycled Tube Light. Strawbale building pioneer Glen Hunter made some LED fixtures when he couldn’t find any he liked on the market. Eurolite, the company from which he bought the lighting components, liked his designs so much they decided to sell them.

9. Dimmers and motion sensors
Motion sensors can be a good way to keep lights turned off when they’re not needed, and dimmers can give you just the right amount of life, and timers can be set to turn things on and off when needed.

10. Get green power
A great way to green your lighting is to buy green power. More and more electric utilities are offering customers a green power option on their bill. Signing up for green power usually means paying a few more dollars a month to support energy in the grid that comes from renewable sources like wind, solar, or biogas. For some more info on how to get green juice, look here, and for the greenest grids in the States, look here. More info is also available in How to Green Your Electricity.

What is OpenID?

OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites, simplifying your online experience.

You get to choose the OpenID Provider that best meets your needs and most importantly that you trust. At the same time, your OpenID can stay with you, no matter which Provider you move to. And best of all, the OpenID technology is not proprietary and is completely free.

For businesses, this means a lower cost of password and account management, while drawing new web traffic. OpenID lowers user frustration by letting users have control of their login.

For geeks, OpenID is an open, decentralized, free framework for user-centric digital identity. OpenID takes advantage of already existing internet technology (URI, HTTP, SSL, Diffie-Hellman) and realizes that people are already creating identities for themselves whether it be at their blog, photostream, profile page, etc. With OpenID you can easily transform one of these existing URIs into an account which can be used at sites which support OpenID logins.

OpenID is still in the adoption phase and is becoming more and more popular, as large organizations like AOL, Microsoft, Sun, Novell, etc. begin to accept and provide OpenIDs. Today it is estimated that there are over 160-million OpenID enabled URIs with nearly ten-thousand sites supporting OpenID logins.

Who Owns or Controls OpenID?

OpenID has arisen from the open source community to solve the problems that could not be easily solved by other existing technologies. OpenID is a lightweight method of identifying individuals that uses the same technology framework that is used to identify websites. As such, OpenID is not owned by anyone, nor should it be. Today, anyone can choose to be an OpenID user or an OpenID Provider for free without having to register or be approved by any organization.

The OpenID Foundation was formed to assist the open source model by providing a legal entity to be the steward for the community by providing needed infrastructure and generally helping to promote and support expanded adoption of OpenID.

As Brad Fitzpatrick (the father of OpenID) said, “Nobody should own this. Nobody’s planning on making any money from this. The goal is to release every part of this under the most liberal licenses possible, so there’s no money or licensing or registering required to play. It benefits the community as a whole if something like this exists, and we’re all a part of the community.”

This statement continues to resonate today within the OpenID community.