This is a screen capture from CNN.com at 1:30pm today. I guess even the big companies with all their approval processes still get it wrong.
Michale Jackson Dead for at least six months
The Bamboo Notebook PC is Here!
By Philipp Gollner
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Back in 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I, an early personal computer that consisted of a circuit board in a simple wooden box.
Apple Inc and other computer makers went on to make advanced PCs in metal and plastic casings, but now Taiwan’s Asustek Computer Inc is finding potential beauty — and sales — in an eco-friendly notebook PC encased in another natural material: bamboo.
The Asus Eco Book, as it’s dubbed, has a case made of laminated bamboo strips available in different shades.
Harvesting bamboo, an abundant, flexible, durable and fast-growing grass, is unlikely to harm the environment as processing wood from trees might, Asustek said, although glues and laminates for shaping and fortifying the material sometimes contain toxins.
The product is still in the prototype stage and engineers are checking to see if bamboo is suitable for laptops, which have to endure extreme conditions while allowing heat from microprocessors and monitors to escape.
The Eco book is a new tack for a company that caters to executives and other high-end users with its calf leather-bound notebooks and faux alligator-skin models.
“Originally we came out with a leather model style-book,” said Cher Chronis, director of marketing communication for Asus Computer International, the Taipei-based company’s U.S. unit.
“It was very popular,” she said. “After that, it was kind of natural for us to experiment with other types of materials, so we decided to go green.”
Asustek says its leather notebooks have not been criticized by animal-rights activists and that the Eco book is not meant to assuage critics.
BAMBOO MICE, KEYBOARDS
While just about all big computer makers are taking steps to make technology more environmentally friendly, Asustek is one of the first to unveil a bamboo-encased computer.
Some niche companies geared toward eco-conscious consumers offer bamboo computer mice, keyboards and monitor frames.
“As part of a portfolio of case choices, it makes sense,” said Roger Kay, president of PC market researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc.
“I don’t think the computer is going to go over to wooden casing,” Kay said. “It’s ecological to grow it, but my sense is there’s probably more show than substance to the claim of sustainable manufacturing.”
While plastic casings often contain toxins like polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, the bigger environmental threats come from lead in cathode ray tube monitors
All major manufacturers, such as Hewlett-Packard Co, the world’s largest PC maker, Dell Inc , the No. 2, Apple as well as Asian rivals Lenovo Group Ltd and Acer Inc, have programs to reduce energy consumption, recycle components and reduce hazardous materials in computers.
Consumers and businesses are expected to buy about 260 million PCs this year, a 12 percent jump from 2006’s level, according to market researcher IDC. Growth is being fueled by surging demand for notebook computers.
With so many computers being sold, and an estimated 500 million computers hitting obsolescence in the United States alone in the past 10 years, PC accessory makers are going green, too.
PVC-FREE
Laptop computer case and accessory maker Targus Inc recently introduced its environmentally-friendly Grove laptop cases, made of recyclable plastics, nickel-free hardware and PVC-free material.
Targus teamed up with the Texas-based computer maker last month to sell its cases on Dell’s Web site and will donate a portion of its Dell-sold cases to Dell’s “Plant a tree for me” program, which allows consumers to make donations to plant trees to offset the carbon impact of electricity for running their computers.
Dell and Lenovo plan to eliminate PVC and brominated flame retardants, or BFRs, another potential hazard, from their new products by 2009, and Dell requires its parts suppliers to meet environmental targets such as carbon-emission reductions.
Apple says it plans to eliminate the use of PVC and BFRs from all its products by the end of next year.
The major computer companies including Apple and Dell also have programs to recycle discarded PCs and monitors. By 2010, Apple expects to recycle 19 million pounds of so-called e-waste per year, or about 30 percent of the product weight it sold seven years earlier.
HP said it is on schedule to meet a goal of recycling 1 billion pounds of equipment and supplies by the end of this year.
Asustek, while small compared with HP, Dell and other heavyweights, says its size enables it to design, manufacture, market and distribute PCs on its own, allowing it to get new ideas like the bamboo PC to market faster.
“If it does get to the point where we do find a model that meets all the engineering requirements and allows green computing, we will release it,” the company’s Chronis said. “Everybody loves the Eco book. It’s a beautiful computer.”
(Editing by Brian Moss)
Source: Reuters
The 100 Oldest .com Domains Registered on the Internet.
Taking a break from marketing discount disney tickets, and to satisfy my curiosity, I went in search of the earliest adopters of the World Wide Web as we know it today and to my surprise there were WWW dns entries that go back as far as 1985…can you believe that…now who was browsing the internet back in 1985 (other than Al Gore). Anyways, the list below represents the 100 first domains ever registered on the internet…it includes some expected names, some unexpected names and some notable missing names. (NB. Entries registered on the same days are in random order on that day.)
1. 15-Mar-1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
2. 24-Apr-1985 BBN.COM
3. 24-May-1985 THINK.COM
4. 11-Jul-1985 MCC.COM
5. 30-Sep-1985 DEC.COM
6. 07-Nov-1985 NORTHROP.COM
7. 09-Jan-1986 XEROX.COM
8. 17-Jan-1986 SRI.COM
9. 03-Mar-1986 HP.COM
10. 05-Mar-1986 BELLCORE.COM
11. 19-Mar-1986 IBM.COM
12. 19-Mar-1986 SUN.COM
13. 25-Mar-1986 INTEL.COM
14. 25-Mar-1986 TI.COM
15. 25-Apr-1986 ATT.COM
16. 08-May-1986 GMR.COM
17. 08-May-1986 TEK.COM
18. 10-Jul-1986 FMC.COM
19. 10-Jul-1986 UB.COM
20. 05-Aug-1986 BELL-ATL.COM
21. 05-Aug-1986 GE.COM
22. 05-Aug-1986 GREBYN.COM
23. 05-Aug-1986 ISC.COM
24. 05-Aug-1986 NSC.COM
25. 05-Aug-1986 STARGATE.COM
26. 02-Sep-1986 BOEING.COM
27. 18-Sep-1986 ITCORP.COM
28. 29-Sep-1986 SIEMENS.COM
29. 18-Oct-1986 PYRAMID.COM
30. 27-Oct-1986 ALPHACDC.COM
31. 27-Oct-1986 BDM.COM
32. 27-Oct-1986 FLUKE.COM
33. 27-Oct-1986 INMET.COM
34. 27-Oct-1986 KESMAI.COM
35. 7-Oct-1986 MENTOR.COM
36. 7-Oct-1986 NEC.COM
37. 27-Oct-1986 RAY.COM
38. 27-Oct-1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
39. 27-Oct-1986 VORTEX.COM
40. 05-Nov-1986 ALCOA.COM
41. 05-Nov-1986 GTE.COM
42. 17-Nov-1986 ADOBE.COM
43. 17-Nov-1986 AMD.COM
44. 17-Nov-1986 DAS.COM
45. 17-Nov-1986 DATA-IO.COM
46. 17-Nov-1986 OCTOPUS.COM
47. 17-Nov-1986 PORTAL.COM
48. 17-Nov-1986 TELTONE.COM
49. 11-Dec-1986 3COM.COM
50. 11-Dec-1986 AMDAHL.COM
51. 11-Dec-1986 CCUR.COM
52. 11-Dec-1986 CI.COM
53. 11-Dec-1986 CONVERGENT.COM
54. 11-Dec-1986 DG.COM
55. 11-Dec-1986 PEREGRINE.COM
56. 11-Dec-1986 QUAD.COM
57. 11-Dec-1986 SQ.COM
58. 11-Dec-1986 TANDY.COM
59. 11-Dec-1986 TTI.COM
60. 11-Dec-1986 UNISYS.COM
61. 19-Jan-1987 CGI.COM
62. 19-Jan-1987 CTS.COM
63. 19-Jan-1987 SPDCC.COM
64. 19-Feb-1987 APPLE.COM
65. 04-Mar-1987 NMA.COM
66. 04-Mar-1987 PRIME.COM
67. 04-Apr-1987 PHILIPS.COM
68. 23-Apr-1987 DATACUBE.COM
69. 23-Apr-1987 KAI.COM
70. 23-Apr-1987 TIC.COM
71. 23-Apr-1987 VINE.COM
72. 30-Apr-1987 NCR.COM
73. 14-May-1987 CISCO.COM
74. 14-May-1987 RDL.COM
75. 20-May-1987 SLB.COM
76. 27-May-1987 PARCPLACE.COM
77. 27-May-1987 UTC.COM
78. 26-Jun-1987 IDE.COM
79. 09-Jul-1987 TRW.COM
80. 13-Jul-1987 UNIPRESS.COM
81. 27-Jul-1987 DUPONT.COM
82. 27-Jul-1987 LOCKHEED.COM
83. 28-Jul-1987 ROSETTA.COM
84. 18-Aug-1987 TOAD.COM
85. 31-Aug-1987 QUICK.COM
86. 03-Sep-1987 ALLIED.COM
87. 03-Sep-1987 DSC.COM
88. 03-Sep-1987 SCO.COM
89. 22-Sep-1987 GENE.COM
90. 22-Sep-1987 KCCS.COM
91. 22-Sep-1987 SPECTRA.COM
92. 22-Sep-1987 WLK.COM
93. 30-Sep-1987 MENTAT.COM
94. 14-Oct-1987 WYSE.COM
95. 02-Nov-1987 CFG.COM
96. 09-Nov-1987 MARBLE.COM
97. 16-Nov-1987 CAYMAN.COM
97. 16-Nov-1987 ENTITY.COM
99. 24-Nov-1987 KSR.COM
100. 30-Nov-1987 NYNEXST.COM
This article was researched and written by Ryan Forrester – an internet marketing professional living and working in Orlando Florida
Life & Times 