“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

How much does it cost to leave your TV on all day? What about turning your air conditioning 1 degree cooler? Which uses more power every month — your fridge or your dishwasher? Is your household more or less energy efficient than similar homes in your neighborhood? electricity

Our lack of knowledge about our own energy usage is a huge problem, but also a huge opportunity for us all to save money and fight global warming by reducing our power usage. Studies show that access to your household’s personal energy information is likely to save you between 5–15% on your monthly bill, and the potential impact of large numbers of people achieving similar efficiencies is even more exciting. For every six households that save 10% on electricity, for instance, we reduce carbon emissions as much as taking one conventional car off the road.

Data Sources

Our estimate of the impact of real-time energy feedback on carbon emissions is based on the following sources:

• Home electricity use: The U. S. Energy Information Administration estimated in 2001 that there were 107 million households in the United States using a total of 1140 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year. That gives an average of 10.6 megawatt-hours (MWh) per year per household.
• Carbon emissions from residential electricity: According to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Average Emissions Rate for 2005 was 712 g CO₂ per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
• Electricity saved with real-time feedback: There have been several studies of feedback’s effects on energy use. Sarah Darby’s review of the literature, The Effectiveness of Feedback on Energy Consumption (pdf) , estimates savings between 5 and 15% from direct feedback.
• Carbon emissions from cars: Again according to the EPA, a typical car is driven 12,000 miles per year, the average fuel economy of a passenger car is 23.9 miles per gallon, and a gallon of gasoline produces 8.8 kg of CO₂.

Based on these figures, we get an average of 7.5 tonnes of CO₂ emitted per year per household, and 4.5 tonnes of CO₂ emitted per year per conventional car. So, 10% energy savings for 6 households would reduce carbon emissions by about the same amount as taking one conventional car off the road.

Climate Savers

Energy Saving Tips

Here are some more resources to help you find ways to reduce your energy use.

Heating and Cooling:

• Weatherstrip and caulk your windows and doors
• Seal and insulate your home
• Consider installing a Geothermal Heat Pump to heat and cool your home, save up to 70% on your heating and cooling costs.
• Clean your furnace’s filter monthly
• Consider buying an ENERGY STAR furnace or air conditioner, insulating and sealing ducts and relocating heating and air conditioning vents.
• Cover your hot water heater with an insulation blanket
• Consider installing energy efficient windows or storm windows

Saving Water:

• Reduce the temperature of your hot water heater to 120F or less (or until using little to no cold water in the bath/shower)
• Install a low flow shower head (there are some nice ones out now-a-days)
• Solar hot water heaters can reduce your hot water heating bill
• Wash clothes in cold water
• Run full loads in the washing machine and dishwasher
• If available, use the energy savings settings on your dishwasher and washing machine
• Consider air drying your clothes. saves energy, money and keeps your clothes lasting longer.
• Take a shorter shower

Computing Equipment:

• Learn how to set power management on your computer
• Download the Google Desktop Power Management Gadget
• Buy a Climate Savers certified energy efficient computer
• Plug your computer peripherals (printer, scanner, speakers, fax machine) into a powerstrip and power down when not in use.

Electronics and Home Appliances:

• Turn down the brightness on your TV and computer monitor
• Look for and purchase ENERGY STAR appliances and electronics
• Consider replacing that old, second refrigerator in the basement – This calculator determines how much energy your refrigerator is using
• Plug home electronics into a powerstrip and turn off when not in use. Or unplug appliances that you rarely use – when was the last time you used that VCR?
• Don’t keep your refrigerator and freezer too cold. Set temperature between 36-38 degrees F and freezers at 0-5 degrees.

Other Energy-saving Tips:

• Grist: 7 ways to cut your energy use
• Alliance to Save Energy: No-Cost Low-Cost Tips for Saving Money & Energy
• Department of Energy: Additional No-Cost / Low Cost Tips to Save Energy
• Carbon footprint calculator
• ACEEE: Consumer Guide to Home Energy Savings
• Home Energy Savers: Calculate your home’s energy footprint
• Get a home energy audit

Climate Savers Computing Initiative

The Climate Savers Computing Initiative is a nonprofit group of consumers, businesses and conservation organizations dedicated to promoting smart technologies that can improve the power efficiency and reduce the energy consumption of computers.

Participating manufacturers commit to producing products that meet specified power-efficiency targets, and members commit to purchasing power-efficient computing products.

By 2010, the initiative seeks to reduce energy consumption by computers by 50 percent and reduce global CO2 emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons a year.

The goal of the new environmental effort is to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by setting targets for energy-efficient computers and components, and promoting the adoption of energy-efficient computers and power management tools globally.

The typical desktop PC wastes more than half of the power it draws from a power outlet. Servers typically waste 30-40% of the power they consume. This energy is wasted as heat. As a result, offices, homes, and data centers have increased demands on air conditioning which in turn increases energy requirements and associated costs.

Believe it or not, a typical desktop PC wastes over half the power delivered to it — and, when turned on, most desktops waste power — even when they’re not in use. Through some very simple measures, there is an opportunity to save 70-80% of the power currently consumed by desktop computers. With a more efficient power supply, more efficient DC-to-DC converters, and power-management features turned on, that same desktop PC would save as much as 80% of the energy currently consumed! That energy savings means dollars, of course; it also prevents emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

Lights Out

You have the power: All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
Swami Vivekananda

नव वर्ष संवत 2067 की हार्दिक बधाई Nav Varsh Samvat 2067 – Hindi New Year in 2010

Gudi Padwa,
Maharashtrian New Year: Gudi Padwa is the day on which the universe was created by Lord Brahma, according to the Brahma Purana. It is also when Satyug began and Lord Ram returned to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana.

Ugadi, Telugu & Kannada New year,
The name of the festival is derived from ‘Yuga Aadi’ which means New Age, the first day of the Lunar calendar. It’s also Vasanth Ruthu (spring). It symbolises new life with blooming of fresh flowers, singing of birds and fruit-laden trees. It is considered an auspicious time to venture into new projects.

Cheti Chand Sindhi New Year:
The day is celebrated as the birthday of Jhulelal, the Ishtadevta. Water is worshipped as the elixir of life. For those who observed 40 days and nights of austerities, Chaliho Sahab, it is Thanksgiving Day.

The Hindu New Year in the traditional lunar Hindu calendars followed in North India – especially in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Chhattisgarh is celebrated on Chaitra Shukala Pratipada (March – April). The New Year is first day after the Amavasi (No moon) in the month of Chaitra. In 2009, the Nav Samvat begins on March 27.

According to the traditional Hindu calendar followed in North India this is year 2066. This calculation of Hindu New Year is based on the Luni-Solar calendar. A month in the calendar is calculated from full moon to full moon (Purnima to Purnima). This is known as Purnimanta system.

The calendars followed mainly in North India are based on the Amanta and Purnimanta system. Amanta calendar is calculated from New moon to New moon. Purnimanta is calculated from Full moon to Full moon. Amanta is used in some places for calculating festivals and other auspicious days.

The Amanta Lunar calendar starts with Chaitra month. Amanta is used fix all the major Hindu festivals in North India. Even those communities that prefer the Purnimata calendar use Amanta calendar for fixing festivals.

The Hindu Months

Names of the 12 months of the Indian Civil Calendar and Correlation with Gregorian Calendar

1. Chaitra (30 / 31* Days) Begins March 22 / 21*
2. Vaisakha (31 Days) Begins April 21
3. Jyaistha (31 Days) Begins May 22
4. Asadha (31 Days) Begins June 22
5. Shravana (31 Days) Begins July 23
6. Bhadra (31 Days) Begins August 23
7. Asvina (30 Days) Begins September 23
8. Kartika (30 Days) Begins October 23
9. Agrahayana (30 Days) Begins November 22
10. Pausa (30 Days) Begins December 22
11. Magha (30 Days) Begins January 21
12. Phalguna (30 Days) Begins February 20

The Hindu Moon Days

Names of 15 Moon Days in the Hindu Month

1. Prathamã First
2. Dvitïyã Second
3. Trtïyã Third
4. Chaturthï Fourth
5. Pañchamï Fifth
6. Sasthï Sixth
7. Saptamï Seventh
8. Astamï Eighth
9. Navamï Ninth
10. Dasamï Tenth
11. Ekãdasï Eleventh
12. Dvadasï Twelfth
13. Trayodasï Thirteenth
14. Chaturdasï Fourteenth
15. Panchadasï Fifteenth
16. Purnimã (Suklapaksha) Full Moon
17. Amãvãsyã (Krsnapaksa) New Moon

Which One is Best One…?

Love Marriage	Arranged Marriage
Resembles procedural programming language. We have some set of functions like flirting, going to movies together, making long conversations on phone and then try to fit all functions to the candidate we like.	Similar to object oriented programming approach. We first fix the candidate and then try to implement functions on her. The functions are added to supplement the main program. The functions can be added or deleted.
Family system hangs because hardware (called Parents ) is not responding.	Compatible with hardware ( Parents ).
You are the project leader so u are responsible for implementation and execution of PROJECT- married life.	You are a team member under project leader (parents) so they are responsible for successful execution of project Married life.
Client expectations include exciting feature as spouse cooking food, washing clothes etc.	All these features are covered in the SRS (System Req. Specification) as required features.
Love Marriage is like Windows , beautiful n attractive…. Yet one never knows when it will crash….	Arranged Marriage is like Unix ….. boring n colorless… still extremely reliable n robust.

World Water Day on 22nd March

We take clean water for granted. We turn on a faucet and it’s there. Sure, we might turn up our noses at the chlorine taste and turn to eco-unfriendly bottled water or filtered water instead, but … we HAVE water. Water that we didn’t have to walk a mile while carrying a jug to fetch. Water that doesn’t make us sick.

Did you know?…

• Flushing the toilet accounts for 30% of household water usage. By placing a brick in the toilet cistern we could save 10 million litres of water a day.

• 5000 children die every day from waterborne illness—from lack of adequate clean water. Five million people die every year from it.

• Over a billion people around the world aren’t so lucky.
  
• Every DROP counts.

World Water Day, observed around the globe every March 22, grew out of a 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) intiative and was declared a world day the following year. Countries are encouraged to devote the day to implement UN water recommendations and to set up concrete activities to support them.

It’s not too late to get involved and help.

• Use a bucket of water when washing the car. Use the house for rinsing only.

• Only water the lawn and garden when they’ re really dry. When it’s cool, not during the day hottest part of the day.

• Save water! save life.

• Turn of the faucet while brushing your teeth.

• Take short showers instead of bath.

• Use water harvesting.

• Do not water the plants between 11 am – 4 pm.

• Don’t but water toys.

• Use bucket for waste water to use for plants.

What is PHP?

PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML.

What is LDAP?

LDAP, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, is an Internet protocol that email and other programs use to look up information from a server.

Every email program has a personal address book, but how do you look up an address for someone who’s never sent you email? How can an organization keep one centralized up-to-date phone book that everybody has access to?

That question led software companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Lotus, and Netscape to support a standard called LDAP. “LDAP-aware” client programs can ask LDAP servers to look up entries in a wide variety of ways. LDAP servers index all the data in their entries, and “filters” may be used to select just the person or group you want, and return just the information you want. For example, here’s an LDAP search translated into plain English: “Search for all people located in Chicago whose name contains “Fred” that have an email address. Please return their full name, email, title, and description.”

LDAP is not limited to contact information, or even information about people. LDAP is used to look up encryption certificates, pointers to printers and other services on a network, and provide “single signon” where one password for a user is shared between many services. LDAP is appropriate for any kind of directory-like information, where fast lookups and less-frequent updates are the norm.

As a protocol, LDAP does not define how programs work on either the client or server side. It defines the “language” used for client programs to talk to servers (and servers to servers, too). On the client side, a client may be an email program, a printer browser, or an address book. The server may speak only LDAP, or have other methods of sending and receiving data—LDAP may just be an add-on method.

If you have an email program (as opposed to web-based email), it probably supports LDAP. Most LDAP clients can only read from a server. Search abilities of clients (as seen in email programs) vary widely. A few can write or update information, but LDAP does not include security or encryption, so updates usually requre additional protection such as an encrypted SSL connection to the LDAP server.

LDAP also defines: Permissions, set by the administrator to allow only certain people to access the LDAP database, and optionally keep certain data private. Schema: a way to describe the format and attributes of data in the server. For example: a schema entered in an LDAP server might define a “groovyPerson” entry type, which has attributes of “instantMessageAddress”, and “coffeeRoastPreference”. The normal attributes of name, email address, etc., would be inherited from one of the standard schemas, which are rooted in X.500 (see below).

LDAP was designed at the University of Michigan to adapt a complex enterprise directory system (called X.500) to the modern Internet. X.500 is too complex to support on desktops and over the Internet, so LDAP was created to provide this service “for the rest of us.”

LDAP servers exist at three levels: There are big public servers, large organizational servers at universities and corporations, and smaller LDAP servers for workgroups. Most public servers from around year 2000 have disappeared, although directory.verisign.com exists for looking up X.509 certificates. The idea of publicly listing your email address for the world to see, of course, has been crushed by spam.

While LDAP didn’t bring us the worldwide email address book, it continues to be a popular standard for communicating record-based, directory-like data between programs.

dn: cn=John Doe,dc=example,dc=com
 cn: John Doe
 givenName: John
 sn: Doe
 telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 6789
 telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 1232
 mail: john@example.com
 manager: cn=Barbara Doe,dc=example,dc=com
 objectClass: inetOrgPerson
 objectClass: organizationalPerson
 objectClass: person
 objectClass: top

dn is the name of the entry; it’s not an attribute nor part of the entry. “cn=John Doe” is the entry’s RDN, and “dc=example,dc=com” is the DN of the parent entry, where dc denotes Domain Component. The other lines show the attributes in the entry. Attribute names are typically mnemonic strings, like “cn” for common name, “dc” for domain component, “mail” for e-mail address and “sn” for surname.

A server holds a subtree starting from a specific entry, e.g. “dc=example,dc=com” and its children. Servers may also hold references to other servers, so an attempt to access “ou=department,dc=example,dc=com” could return a referral or continuation reference to a server which holds that part of the directory tree. The client can then contact the other server. Some servers also support chaining, which means the server contacts the other server and returns the results to the client.

LDAP rarely defines any ordering: The server may return the values of an attribute, the attributes in an entry, and the entries found by a search operation in any order. This follows from the formal definitions – an entry is defined as a set of attributes, and an attribute is a set of values, and sets need not be ordered.

The client may request the following operations:

• Start TLS — use the LDAPv3 Transport Layer Security (TLS) extension for a secure connection
• Bind — authenticate and specify LDAP protocol version
• Search — search for and/or retrieve directory entries
• Compare — test if a named entry contains a given attribute value
• Add a new entry
• Delete an entry
• Modify an entry
• Modify Distinguished Name (DN) — move or rename an entry
• Abandon — abort a previous request
• Extended Operation — generic operation used to define other operations
• Unbind — close the connection (not the inverse of Bind)

< ?php
$ldap = ldap_connect('ldap.lettucecode.com');

if(!$ldap) {
  die('Could not connect to LDAP server.');
}

if(!ldap_bind($ldap, $ldap_user, $password)) {
  die('Could not bind to LDAP server.');
}

$base_dn = 'o=lettucecode.com,o=com';
$search = ldap_search($ldap, $base_dn, 'uid='.$username);
if(ldap_count_entries($ldap, $search) < 1) {
  die('Username not found');
}

$info = ldap_get_entries($ldap, $search);

if(isset($info[0]['name'])) {
  echo 'Username '.$username.' has name '.$info[0]['name'];
} else {
  echo 'Entry -name- not found in username '.$username;
}

ldap_close($ldap);
?>

Google Developing GMail Offline Version Using Google Gears

A report, citing highly placed sources, says that Google has developed an offline version of Gmail that is likely to be made available within this year.

Like Google Reader which lets you work offline using Google Gears, GMail users will be able to interact with their GMail account even when they don’t have an active Internet connection.

While it’s a definite possibility that Google is working to enable Gmail for Offline access via Google Gears, there are some bits that I will take with a grain of salt.

For instance, the report says that you would have to download a GMail software client for that would automatically synchronize with the Gmail server. Why? Google Gears works inside a web browser and do not require any additional software. Or is Google developing a standalone desktop client for GMail like Outlook. Both the cases look slightly doubtful.

Effect of economic crises on peoples/youngsters,does it indulge them in wrong activities?