How to set up your own Raspberry Pi powered VPN Eyes are everywhere online. The websites you visit often track where you came from and watch where you head off to next. A VPN - or virtual private network - helps you browse the internet more anonymously by routing your traffic through a server that is not your point of origin. It is a bit like switching cars to shake off someone who is tailing you. There are plenty of companies offering services with varying degrees of security and varying degrees of cost, but if you are willing to roll your sleeves up and get technical with some basic coding and a £30 Raspberry Pi computer, you can build your own VPN server at home. It won't give you the option of appearing to be from somewhere else but you can use it to connect external devices like a smartphone to browse the internet more securely through your home network, and access shared files and media on your home computer. Make no mistake, this is not a quick and easy process. To follow this guide you will need: N.B. Change the default password . . . .
2018 Study Finds ‘Unsustainable’ Smartphone CO2 Emissions To Reach 125 Megatons Per Year By 2020 For those serious about taking concerted action to combat climate change, implications from a 2018 study suggest that the widespread abandonment of smartphone use — which is collectively on track to add 125 megatons of CO2 equivalent per year by 2020 — may be key to preventing the planet’s catastrophic demise. Image Source (adapted): Press-Herald Most people haven’t considered their smartphones to be significant contributors to global CO2 emissions. But they are. The unsustainable expansion of smartphone emissions A recent analysis by Belkhir and Elmeligi (2018) determined that the greenhouse gas emissions from the Information and Communication Industry (ICT) – smartphones and mobile devices, prominently – will grow from 1% of total global emissions in 2007 to 14% by 2040. In 2010, smartphone use added 17 megatons of CO2 equivalent (17 MT-CO2-e) to annual global emissions. Last year (2018), there were 2.5 billion smartphone users. Image Source: The Conversation Permanently.
Low emissions energy development initiatives get funding boost The LEED fund supports innovative technology in the throes of becoming commercial realities and is administered by the Department of Environment and Conservation. Image: David ClarkeWESTERN Australia has some of the best renewable energy potential in the world but, despite support from the State Government, it needs to do more. So says Sustainable Energy Association (SEA) of Australia chief adviser and board member Professor Ray Wills, after the government announced $12.7 million from the Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) Fund for projects in the Mid-West, Perth and Wheatbelt. The LEED fund supports innovative technology in the throes of becoming commercial realities and is administered by the Department of Environment and Conservation. “Western Australia has a growing need for low emissions and integrated energy solutions, particularly around small to mid-scale renewable energy generation in remote and off-grid areas,” Professor Wills says.
How can we store more energy from the sun and the wind? Image copyright Solar Reserve It could be a scene from a science fiction movie. Deep in the Nevada desert, thousands of mirrors arrayed in concentric circles face the sky, lit up by the sun. All this reflected sunshine is directed to the top of a 640 ft (195m) tower standing in their midst. It's an innovative power plant generating electricity, but not in a way you might expect. How? The concentrated light heats up liquid salt pumped to the top of the tower - the temperature reaches 566C (1,050F) - and this heat is then used to make steam to power an electricity generator in another part of the plant. "The issue with solar traditionally is it is an intermittent power source - you can only produce electricity when the sun is shining," explains Kevin Smith, whose company Solar Reserve built the Crescent Dunes plant. "But because we store the energy as heat, we can reliably produce electricity 24 hours a day, just like a conventional gas fired power station." Growing market Power to the people
The clearest proof we’ll ever get that our planet is falling apart Every once in a while, a chart or statistic or image comes along that reminds us, all over again, why it is that this global warming thing is so terrifying. This week, it was those darn walruses, who — after a summer when Arctic sea ice was at its sixth-lowest level on record — mobbed an Alaska beach in the largest such haul-out ever observed there. Salon was on the story. They’re also reminiscent of the classic polar bear on an ice floe, the original poster child for a warming planet. The decline in sea ice is “one of the most visible impacts we see as a result of climate change,” said Margaret Williams, managing director of the WWF’s Arctic program. This is only going to become more visible. “These changes are in line with global changes that are taking place, with rises in temperature that are occurring all over the globe,” said Mahoney. And the impacts, said Jennifer Francis, a research scientist at Rutgers University, “are pretty much everywhere you can think of looking.”
Renewable energy target calls for 1,000 new wind turbines, inquiry told | Environment To meet the recently struck renewable energy target figure of 33,000 gigawatt hours 1,000 wind turbines would need to be built, a Senate inquiry has been told. The government and Labor reached a compromise on Monday on the 2020 target, dropping it from its original 41,000 GwH figure to 33,000. The Coalition agreed to scrap plans for a biennial review of the target, which had been a sticking point. The government-funded clean energy regulator will monitor the progress made towards reaching the target. The regulator told a Senate inquiry on Tuesday morning that most of the renewable energy to meet that target would come from wind turbines, and that to meet the 33,000 GwH figure, about 1,000 extra turbines would be needed. That represents up to 50% of the existing number of wind turbines, prompting the Liberal National party senator Matt Canavan to ask whether such a large number could be built in time. “So we have to build 1,000 in five years.
How thermal imaging tech is about to become hot stuff Image copyright Detroit Zoo Soon we'll all be feeling the heat, thanks to thermal imaging technology. Although it's already been used by industry, the military and some emergency services, it was expensive and therefore had a limited market. But in the same way that GPS location tech has now found its way into cars, smartphones, cameras and many other devices, thermography, as it's more properly known, is on the brink of becoming a universal technology, too. The cost of chips and thermal detectors that enable us to see and measure infrared heat signatures from surfaces has plunged in recent years. So in the future, that means more sensors in more places. In a supermarket a manager could be alerted when the checkout queue gets too long without looking at a video feed. At big venues, audio could be redirected on the fly amongst dozens of loud speakers to give the area with the most people at any given moment the best possible aural experience. Costs cooling Image copyright Getty Images
Where Greenhouse Gases Come From - Energy Explained, Your Guide To Understanding Energy Did you know? In 2016, fossil fuels were the source of about 76% of total U.S. human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. In the United States, most of the emissions of human-caused (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases (GHG) come primarily from burning fossil fuels—coal, hydrocarbon gas liquids, natural gas, and petroleum—for energy use. Economic growth (with short-term fluctuations in growth rate) and weather patterns that affect heating and cooling needs are the main factors that drive the amount of energy consumed. Energy prices and government policies can also affect the sources or types of energy consumed. Carbon dioxide In 2016, emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced from burning fossil fuels for energy were equal to 76% of total U.S. anthropogenic GHG emissions (based on global warming potential) and about 94% of total U.S. anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Other greenhouse gases The energy connection Fossil fuels consist mainly of carbon and hydrogen.