Google PowerMeter.
Google is developing tools to monitor home energy use.
By communicating with an as-yet undeveloped set of hardware devices, the smart meter software could provide you with granular, real-time data about your energy usage.
Definitely cool technology, but not without shortcomings:
First, where’s all that data going to come from? Sure, Barack Obama’s stimulus plan calls for 40 million more smart meters to be installed, but as we noted last year, the functionality of these little devices varies widely. Some track things in real-time, others don’t.
And they’re expensive. The sensors required to track all of the major appliances in your home would be hundreds of dollars and Google isn’t just going to send you a kit with all of the smart devices.
(thx macomber)
Do you ever wonder if your PC will shit a brick when you fire up a game like Crysis?
This service from System Requirements Lab allows you to select any game in their database (there are quite a few) and determine… “Can you run it?” With my computer, the answer is a consistent, resounding, “Hell no.”
The site runs a Java applet in your browser that actually detects the hardware you have running. Pretty neat idea to help get non-tech-savvy folks into PC gaming.
