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TechStuff Podcast Roundup: Internet Electricity and Using Twitter Creatively
July 10, 2009
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These Google datacenters in The Dalles, Ore., are each as large as a football field. How much electricity do you think they use? In this case, it's hydroelectric power from the Columbia River. (Craig Mitchelldyer/Getty Images)
So this week Jonathan and I tried to answer an interesting question: Just how much electricity does the Internet use? I won’t spoil the podcast (much), but the short answer is, a whole lot. Actually, it’s really hard to get a grip on, because the Internet is constantly in flux. New machines join and leave the network all the time.
Jonathan did a little research into the matter, and a 1999 study from the Berkeley Labs Environmental Energy Technologies Division found that the total energy used by office and networking equipment was around 74 terawatt-hours per year. That’s 2 percent of the U.S. energy use. Add in computer manufacturing equipment and telephone routing gear, and it boosts it up to 3 percent. And that’s before all those gigantic data centers went onto the power grid, too. Give the podcast a listen if you’d like to learn more.
On Thursday, we discussed one of our favorite topics: Twitter. This time, we wanted to give you some creative ideas of things you can do with the service. Like what? Like make some new friends, for one. You can post about and follow events using hashtags — little notes preceded by an octothorpe (you know, this thing: #). It’s also great for crowdsourcing questions.
You can even use it for self-promotion.
That reminds me, if you want to follow some of us here at HowStuffWorks.com, you can find feeds here:
HowStuffWorks.com
Jonathan
Manager of Editorial Staff Development Tracy V. Wilson
And, of course, there are the TV channels from our parent company Discovery Communications:
The Discovery Channel
TLC
Animal Planet
The Science Channel
Discovery Health
Military Channel
Planet Green
Investigation Discovery
If you’d like to know more, take a look at these articles on HowStuffWorks.com:
How Twitter Works
How Power Grids Work
Experts Say the Internet Uses Way Too Much Electricity
Comments
4 Responses to “TechStuff Podcast Roundup: Internet Electricity and Using Twitter Creatively”
Chris Pollette says: I don’t update my Twitter feed very frequently, and it’s not always about tech-related topics (it’s my personal feed, we don’t really have official work Twitter accounts).
Have you heard of twitter games. There’s one that is based in the town that I live in called TweetLord. I don’t play it but I’ve heard that it’s getting quite a following. It’s a role playing game where you tweet hashtags to do different things.
Chris Pollette says: I wrote up a post about Spymaster a little bit ago. I think that’s a pretty cool idea, to use Twitter in those ways. Sort of like using GPS systems to play games.
How can we follow you on Twitter?