Andy Hopper: Computing for the Future of the Planet
I recently hosted Andy Hopper (University of Cambridge) at Google to deliver his talk on Computing for the Future of the Planet (YouTube video). He covered a variety of areas that ranged from practical deployment issues that should be addressed today to futuristic concepts. The beginning of the talk, the part that was of most interest to me, was about energy efficient computing: adaptive datacentres and a “virtual battery” (moving computing tasks to where energy is available). Power consumption is certainly a key focus for Google and other large web companies. It’s intriguing to think about shifting data and processes in real time based on the cost of energy.
How green is your web page?
Writing faster web pages is great for your users, which in turn is great for you and your company. But it’s better for everyone else on the planet, too.
Intrigued by an article on Radar about co2stats.com, I looked at my web performance best practices from the perspective of power consumption and CO2 emissions. YSlow grades web pages according to how well they follow these best practices. What if it could convert those grades into kilowatt-hours and pounds of CO2?