November 6, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Going Green in Software Development
November 7, 2011 at 1:14 am
Another great argument against the use of cursors - thanks!
November 7, 2011 at 5:08 am
That's an interesting perspective I've not thought about before.
November 7, 2011 at 5:54 am
Most of the old guard would pride themselves on writing efficient code, but I'm not convinced the code I've written has saved significant amounts of energy.
November 7, 2011 at 6:05 am
Steve, when you're appointed benevolent dictator or energy czar, the first thing that I’d ask you to do ban those lame flash-based facebook games. Even when my wife isn’t playing actively one of those games and barely anything is changing on the screen; both cores on her laptop are running at 100%. If you consider the number of people playing those games, the amount of energy wasted must be enormous.
As punishment for this crime against humanity, I propose that the developers be sentenced to work in a large office building, be required to wear a suit and tie every day and be forced to write all of their code in COBOL.
November 7, 2011 at 6:16 am
We can debate the morality of energy efficiency as long as we want, but whether we like it or not eventually it comes down to cost-effectiveness. Does a windmill or solar panel produce enough electricity to make it useful in real life? In some situations, yes. In others, no.
For software, does bad code in one application cause an increase in 5 watts of power? 10 watts? 100 watts? What does it cost in hourly wages to have a developer check for such efficiency? How does that cost compare to the cost of a few extra watts? And more, what is the cost of implementing the controls that would be required to check whether or not efficient code is affecting the bottom line in the server center? Do we hire a consultant? Do we increase the QA staff? Is extra equipment required? Do we purchase a special software package, that itself consumes power, to monitor power consumption in other applications?
Maybe the power consumption of individual work stations should be considered? One wasted watt spread over 10 million machines adds up. On the other hand, it often adds up for someone else; not the writers of the errant app.
This is a very interesting point and may be something we all watch someday. However, something tells me it will be a long time before there is widespread concern about it.
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“Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason.”
November 7, 2011 at 6:53 am
effwitt (11/7/2011)
Steve, when you're appointed benevolent dictator or energy czar, the first thing that I’d ask you to do ban those lame flash-based facebook games. Even when my wife isn’t playing actively one of those games and barely anything is changing on the screen; both cores on her laptop are running at 100%. If you consider the number of people playing those games, the amount of energy wasted must be enormous.As punishment for this crime against humanity, I propose that the developers be sentenced to work in a large office building, be required to wear a suit and tie every day and be forced to write all of their code in COBOL.
There's nothing wrong with COBOL. If it wasn't for COBOL and other early languages, no one would be writing T-SQL. I would like to write all of my code in COBOL, or RPG, or PL/I, or Pascal. We created very efficient and fast programs with these languages. Many of the programs are still in use today. I don't know that I'll be able to say the same thing about T-SQL, .NET, Java, and other newer languages in 30 or 40 years.
November 7, 2011 at 6:55 am
Steve,
What have you determined about the cost-effectiveness of wind and solar energy? Everything I've been hearing and reading has been pretty negative.
Thanks,
Tom
November 7, 2011 at 7:13 am
Someguy (11/7/2011)
...Maybe the power consumption of individual work stations should be considered? One wasted watt spread over 10 million machines adds up. On the other hand, it often adds up for someone else; not the writers of the errant app.
This is a very interesting point and may be something we all watch someday. However, something tells me it will be a long time before there is widespread concern about it.
I think where this will first come up is with cloud computing. Too much testing and data transfer will likely show us a lot of bandwidth waste, which will be charged back.
November 7, 2011 at 7:31 am
P Jones (11/7/2011)
Another great argument against the use of cursors - thanks!
Indeed, rowset cursors are destroying the planet and a threat to mankind. It's time we stopped beating around the bush and got straight to the point. However, I'd also like to call out websites that use Flash and warm stand-by servers.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
November 7, 2011 at 7:35 am
OCTom (11/7/2011)
Steve,What have you determined about the cost-effectiveness of wind and solar energy? Everything I've been hearing and reading has been pretty negative.
Thanks,
Tom
In the US, most people cannot use solar due to the extreme inefficiency it has. Unless you live in Florida or Texas, it just isn't cost effective. We can continue to waste tax payer money giving billions (yes it is now billions!) away to failed companies in a so called stimulus plan, but we are not going to replace fossil fuels any time soon.
However there are some areas where solar and wind actually do make some sense. They (alternative fuels) aren't ready to replace coal, gas, oil or nuclear electric plants, but they do supplement production nicely in some areas.
I like Steve's approach on this. I believe we should all do what we can to reduce energy waste and pollution. This article expresses that in a nice way. Without the fiction that our media uses...
Dave
Dave
November 7, 2011 at 8:10 am
OCTom (11/7/2011)
Steve,What have you determined about the cost-effectiveness of wind and solar energy? Everything I've been hearing and reading has been pretty negative.
Thanks,
Tom
It's very hard to tell. Some people want to weight in the costs of building the panels, mining silicon, etc., like the Prius v Hummer debate, which seems silly. I'm not sure most of them are weighing the costs on the other side as accurately.
In a pure solar v mass generated electricity, it can be hard to get payback in a reasonable time, it's a large initial investment, power storage is hard, utilities don't want to pay, or you spend time arguing for credits, and maintenance can be an issue.
For example, we get lots of sun in CO, for most of the year, so on the initial check, there can be a nice payback in 8-10 years on solar. However you are limited to 10k of generation, which may or may not work for the current McMansions that are being built for removing all your power costs. Not only that, there's a lot of space needed, potential roof improvement or repair over time (shingles may never completely seal for 20 years and we have hail. Replacing panels could perpetually push out your payback period. The people I know with solar tend to use it for supplements, so they're reducing their long term costs, but not necessarily financially the best way. They haven't tracked their investment, often, or considered the cost over time.
It still appears to be a gamble to me at scale. However if you reduce your usage to the point where a 5k system can work, it might be worth it to you. I know a friend in Parker, Glenn Berry, thinks that his 25k system is worth it.
November 7, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Just this weekend, my husband and I made our final decision on which solar leasing company to go with and signed the contract. We live in the Denver, Colorado area, and are putting a 7.4 kW grid of panels on our roof. (BTW, I disagree that only Florida and Texas would benefit from solar.)
Depending on whether my husband is home or out of town, it should supply 50-95% of our electricity needs. I say it depends, because he works out of a home office, in the basement, so when he's home, especially during the winter, we needs to keep the furnace running all day. When he's out, I turn off the furnace as much as possible. (I've charted our monthly consumption for the past two years, and can definitely see the times of peak consumption.)
I did a few experiments a couple weekends ago, to see what our baseline consumption looks like. The blower on the furnace accounts for almost half the baseline (no lights, TV or computers running). But it was obvious there was something else that was using a lot of electricity. When I turned off the refrigerator, the electricity dropped to a crawl. So, there are a few big things that really account for the lion's share of energy consumption.
As far as leasing or buying the solar panels, one advantage of leasing is that the leasing company is responsible for maintenance and replacement of equipment. The good news is that the panels are typically waranteed for 20-25 years, and I was told that they should hold up to hail up to 1 inch in diameter. Given that we won't be producing MORE than we will consume, ownership of the excess electricity doesn't come into play for us. I am very excited that we are finally going solar.
November 7, 2011 at 1:24 pm
I think acceptance of renewable energy in IT runs into two problems.
First, it requires a long term investment but no one is sure what the price of electricity will be two or three years from now, so cost/benefit calculation is a guesswork, easily slanted in favor of personal wishes. People who do understand these things are not working in IT, they are making major bucks trading in futures.
Second, the currently trendy Agile and SCRUM methodologies foster short term, sprint-sized thinking. Budgets are typically per-quarter and a 5-10 year investment just does not fit in.
November 7, 2011 at 3:03 pm
If you are interested in monitoring your electric usage, you may want to check out the following, The Energy Detective (TED) which I installed in my house. I have mixed opinions about it, but I think I would recommend it:
http://www.theenergydetective.com/
Basically, you/an electrician hooks a thingy in the electrical box and then you install some software. You can then get incredible information about your electric use by the month, day, minute and second. You can also learn a lot about how much electricity various individual things use by turning them on and off and watching how the reading changes.
Good luck.
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