saving the earth through sheer laziness

as a level zero tech geek, i’ve been seriously torn between buying new gadgets and not contributing to the nasty crap that gets discarded in our (asia’s) backyards when i throw my old stuff away. that’s why i’m feeling last year’s model. it’s basically a bunch of tech geeks tweeting about how they’re gonna stick with the ipods, netbooks and blackberrys that they already own instead of upgrading.

it has a pretty sweet cardboardy look to it too!

update: had a convo with bridgette about this today and found that she’s doing a lot better at this than i am (being that i just bought a new berry).

did you know?

interesting video visualizing what our world with all the technology and information we have floating around looks like today.

all of this begs the question, do we use less paper today with all of the electronic communication we do than we did 100 years ago?

thanks for the tip sam.

green plug develop universal adapter that could solve the phantom power issue

why didn’t anyone think of this before? if you’re a gadget junkie like me, it can be frustrating to have 15 different chargers (most of which look super-similar) rotating on your power strip. to make matters worse, i try to unplug each one after i’m done charging to avoid phantom power drain which can be pretty darn annoying.

luckily, california based company green plug has developed a single universal adapter that enables users to power their laptops, cell phones, and other electronic gear with only one power adapter. this means that we might be able to eliminate the need to create and ship a power adapter with every electronic device. the adapters will also shut off the power supply when a device has finished charging or is turned off, providing further energy savings to consumers as well as being more environmentally friendly.

westinghouse digital electronics has given the thumbs up to this venture and has recently announced its commitment to using the new “smart power” technology.

of course in order for green plug to succeed with their vision, other electronics companies must cooperate. the word on the street is that many of them believe that not including a new charger with each product will somehow lower the buyer’s perception when they unbox. i’m not sure about you guys, but i usually cringe when i open a new device and see yet another charger. am i the only one?

on a completely aesthetic aside, how brilliant would it be if green plug collaboed with microworks and incorporated their vine charger design into the universal plug?

read more about green plug at the future of things

pics of vine charger courtesy of spoon & tamago

why is this a site?

swyyne has always been an experiment for me. with all of the other super eco sites out there, i've been feeling like i want to contribute something just a bit different. so for now, here are my random musings.