| Blog - Should Companies That Use Open Source Software Pay a Tithe? and Blog - Can a Gadget Blog Be about Ideas? |
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The founder of search engine Duck Duck Go just pledged 10 percent of the site's income--will anyone follow suit?Gabriel Weinberg, founder of search engine Duck Duck Go, isn't religious, which is one of the reasons he's comfortable calling his latest project a "tithe," despite the connotations attached to the term.Just about every startup on the planet benefits from the use of open source software--everything from database software PostgreSQL to the Apache web server--which is free to use.Weinberg's idea is simple: reckons companies that make a profit with the help of Free and Open Source Software should return a tenth of their profit to the open source community, to help solve problems with some open source projects. [Read the full article] One of the smart things the Chinese have done—for decades now—is to take waste heat from coal power plants and use it to heat homes and businesses, something that's done in the United States, but not widely. The system works by using some of the steam produced at a power plant to heat water, which is distributed in pipes through a city to radiators or floor heaters (pipes in the floor). Called cogeneration, it's a relatively easy way to get far more use out of the energy in coal or other fossil fuels.But as it turns out, cogeneration can make it more difficult to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy. When cities depend on heat from power plants, there's a limit to how much grid operators can lower power output from coal plants, while still providing enough heat. Especially in winter, then, power grid operators have to keep coal plants running, even when there might be sufficient wind power to shut them down, or at least turn them way down. [Read the full article] Faster obsolescence: More than 150 million cell phones are replaced each year in the United States alone. On average, users replace their phone about every 18 months.Credit: Roy RichieI have poor impulse control. Though I manage to avoid most major vices, including all the illegal ones, I do have a gigantic closet full of formerly cutting-edge tech gadgets. My collection of video games for every console on the market draws players from all over the 'hood here in Boulder, Colorado. But my living room and closet are nothing compared to my geek museum—actually a storage unit full of dusty old obsolentia, some of which still works. So perhaps it should have come as no surprise that I would end up involved in the Android wars.Mobile phones are undergoing such rapid innovation that that each new model is superseded sooner and sooner. [Read the full article] 
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