Green IT: Why it matters

Being involved in the technology industry myself, I am pretty well aware of the environmental impact it is putting on the planet. Indeed if every organizations can take a couple of minutes to strategize their IT infrastructures, much energy can be saved every day.

Consider the number of servers existing across the company, they are working 24 hours non-stop, yet are they being well utilized? Are they really that productive all the time? How many of them are old machines being there no longer used? 

Sort out all the servers that are not well utilitized, regroup the applications and switch off some of the machines.

How many employees are leaving their workstations turned on throughout the night? Many of them are considering a "quick wake up" of their machines when they come back the other day, afterall they are not responsible for the electricity bill.

Lay down a company policy that enforce the staff to turn off their workstations when they off from work.

Are you disposing old computers and hardware properly? Any idea to have a second hand dealer to take care of those e-waste? Most of the time they can resell them in their market. Or maybe you can contact a voluntary organization that collect obsolete hardware from companies, they can refurnish the stuffs and donate to those who need them.

Have a mind of charity. You can do more than one good deed by reusing, reselling or recycling electronics wastes.

Rest I can reassure, environmental sustainability is not a complicated issue that requires corporates to incur huge sacrifices and costs. We can save money and help the planet by using our brains sometimes.

Link to » Green IT: Why it matters | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

China gas emissions 'may pass US'

With such a huge population it is indeed not surprising that China will sooner or later become the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, yet I do not feel particularly worry.

Not because I am biased towards my own country, indeed China can exercise a better control over civilians in these kinds of affairs. The largest problem in China are still poverty, welfare and education, controlling carbon emission is a comparatively small issue and the government should be capable to tackle this well.

A strict regulation and control can be arguably good or bad. While it can be interpreted as a lack of human rights or whatever, I do believe in this context, strict regulation is the quick clean solution we ever need.

The International Energy Agency had predicted China's carbon dioxide emissions would pass the US by 2010.

Source: BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | China gas emissions 'may pass US'

Global warming imperils Himalayan glaciers

 The problem is clearly worldwide. It is not the responsibility of a single country, but both developed and developing nations have the duty and obligation to regulate their carbon emissions.

When the glaciers on top of the mountains melt, the effect would be very much similar to the melting of arctic icebergs. Water will eventually flow into the ocean or being carried by the clouds to the ocean. Both a rise of sea level and dilution of the ocean will cause a series of ecological problems.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Global warming could wipe out large areas of glaciers in the Himalayas and surrounding highlands, threatening livelihoods across much of Asia, climate scientists said in Beijing on Monday.

Source: Global warming imperils Himalayan glaciers | Science | Reuters

Poverty figure drops beneath one billion

With more collaboration and communication through the web, I really hope that people can gain a better understanding about different pictures of this world. Do a bit of soul searching...

Should this be happening? Should we help to solve it at a quicker pace?

Elizabeth Stuart, of Oxfam, said: "Poverty is declining but at a snail's pace. Today 50,000 people will die of preventable diseases."

Source: Poverty figure drops beneath one billion | Business | Money | Telegraph

Republicans frosty on Gore's Global warming warnings - CNN.com

"The planet has a fever," Gore said. "If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action."

Republicans frosty on Gore's Global warming warnings - CNN.com.

There is indeed no time for us to think about the causes and inter-relations of what and who is causing this problem. That time has already gone. We should now head to focus on what we can do to solve this problem.

PEAR Mail cannot send mail with form POST sender address

Email Injection - SecurePHP.

Problem Scenario:

Constructing a PHP email enquiry form. User can post their names and reply email address in HTML form. Feeding $_POST[sender_name] <$_POST[sender_email]> as the $from field in PEAR mail, an error returned and the email cannot be sent.

Such problem does not occur if feeding static string as the $from field.

Solution:

This is not a problem at all. PEAR mail is deliberating blocking this to avoid user feeding in cc and bcc information in the sender field, causing injection attacks and spamming.