power

A week after a slew of popular Web sites were knocked offline temporarily by a power outage in San Francisco, the data center for the Web sites has finally disclosed what went wrong.

Basically, backup generators made by a Dutch company called Hitec failed to work, according to an update posted to the Web site of data center 365 Main.

Here's what happened: transformer breakers at a San Francisco Pacific Gas & Electric power station unexpectedly opened, causing a power surge that cut off electricity to a portion of the city. (PG&E does not know why the … Read more

If you tend to zone out and leave your computer on to suck energy needlessly, Local Cooling (download it from CNET Download.com) helps you tell your Windows XP beast when to rest, giving the electric company a break, too. I've been using this free download on two PCs for a couple of weeks. It lets you time automatic snoozes or shutdowns for precise periods of neglect (also see Earth2Tech). Use Vista? Check out this battery saver.

By bringing hidden details about consumption to the surface, Local Cooling encourages you to relax your energy usage with little effort. Otherwise … Read more

The wind power industry made big strides last year, according to a Worldwatch Institute report released late Thursday.

15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines were installed around the world last year, representing a 26 percent jump in global wind power capacity, according to the study.

By year's end, total wind power capacity exceeded 74,200 megawatts, enough to offset 43 million tons of carbon dioxide, the institute said.

Germany, Spain and the United States are currently the world's top wind power producers, putting out 60 percent of the global total, but the report says the alternative energy … Read more

I got my hands on XtremeMac's latest in-car iPhone power adapter, the InCharge Auto. As luck would have it, CNET car tech writer Kevin Massy loaned me his trusty desktop car lighter power supply to see if the adapter was worth its salt.

The result? It works! In fact, the adapter's standard USB connection will likely work on other USB-chargeable products as well.

For just $20, this seems like a good solution for charging you iPhone between destinations.

SAN FRANCISCO--A power outage hit downtown San Francisco Tuesday afternoon, leaving thousands of residents without power and knocking popular Web sites such as Craigslist, GameSpot, Yelp, Technorati, TypePad and Netflix offline for a few hours.

The power failure apparently hit 365 Main, a 227,000-square-foot data center in downtown San Francisco, particularly hard. The data colocation center's client list includes Craigslist and CNET Networks' GameSpot, a sister site of News.com.

It wasn't immediately clear if the other affected Web sites were customers of 365 Main or of other Web hosting companies, or whether the sites were blacked … Read more

After hinting heavily about an upcoming "Big Idea" contest, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain, and the folks at Geek Squad and IdeaFestival released details Monday.

The contest aims to generate a number of ideas that will address social, economic and environmental concerns. The winners will attend the IdeaFestival in Kentucky, which draws participants from a number of fields, ranging from the arts, music, entertainment, medicine and the media to discuss solutions around similar issues.

"You get to hear different points of view, from people with different backgrounds and that's where you come … Read more

While the debate rumbles on about hybrid-car fuel economy in real-world driving, J.D. Power and Associates this week published its Automotive Environmental Index of the 30 most environmental cars on the road. No fewer than 10 of the top 30 are hybrid vehicles--up from eight hybrids in last year's shortlist. Check out our slide show of the top 10 greenest hybrids.

Perhaps Justin Stangel's experience will inspire a future Top Ten list titled "The Top Ten Ways to Electrocute Yourself."

The head writer for the Late Show with David Letterman recently had a mildly shocking experience with the power adapter for his PowerBook G4. While at work in Manhattan last week, Stangel starting to smell something burning after firing up his PowerBook, and noticed that the cord was frayed near the adapter, giving off smoke and occasional sparks. Sensing a potential gag for the show, he had a producer tape him playing with the cord, moving it back … Read more

You can find a decent computer for a lot less than $1,000 these days. But what if you want to pay even less without splurging on software, and can't stand to deal with that oxymoron called "tech support" when something goes awry?

The pay-as-you-go Zonbu PC is a novel new option. This book-size, two-pound desktop lacks a hard drive, instead storing your data on its servers using 128-bit encryption (hands-on here). Zonbu's 4GB flash memory is loaded with Linux and open-source apps.

Similar to cell phone or cable TV service, you'd pay $99 upfront … Read more