From CNN…
New kind of ‘vampire’ sucks power out of homes
It rehashes an important topic that’s been mentioned here before: Unused power transformers (e.g., cell phone, iPod, whatever) draw a lot of power that goes nowhere except as residual heat. As the article says, use a power strip and turn it off when the devices [...]

From PC World…
Network Admin Program Eases Vista Power Consumption
1E estimates that 60% of U.S. workers who regularly use PCs do not turn them off at the end of the day. The 1E NightWatchman can schedule shutdowns as well as manage patching Windows.

The U.S. Government’s Energy Star site has a…
Energy Star Home Advisor
…site up.  It asks for your ZIP code, how you cool your home, how you heat your home, and what type of water heater you have. Then, it provides some advice to optimize. However, it does NOT take into account that some homes have may [...]

From MacNN…
Hitachi brings out green Deskstar drives
Power use of these drives can be as much as 59% less than current non-green (gunky brown? drives.

Phoronix has an interesting power consumption comparison of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Fedora 8 Test 3, and Ubuntu 7.10.
Linux vs. Windows Power Usage
Windows XP was the lower power user among the group in both idle mode and well as when in use. This is no surprise to anyone who has tried to use Ubuntu or [...]

Consumer Reports has a relatively new web site named…
GreenerChoices.org
…whose catch phrase is Products for a Better Planet. It contains a small section for electronics products that I hope will grow over time for we tech geeks.

Interesting breakdown of power use reported in this GCN blog item…
Where the power flows
Here’s the power usage break down:

60% IT Equipment (Servers use 56% of this, storage devices use 27%, and network equipment 19%)
25% Cooling
12% Air Movement
3% Lighting (and misc.)

Extreme Tech has a review of the Fit PC that only needs 5 Watts (no fan).
Fit PC—A Tiny Linux PC that Fits Anywhere
What surprised me was not the electricity consumption though. I was surprised by the price: $285. This includes 256MB RAM (no expansion available) and a 40GB hard drive. Gentoo Linux is preloaded. The [...]