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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum
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To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (17794)11/15/2006 3:09:09 AM
From: axial  Read Replies (2) of 46821
 
Hi, Frank -

I've often wondered about the efficiency of network power utilization, and how much power the 'net consumes.

Another question is: how does power utilization in optical transmission compare to copper on a per-bit basis, in terms of efficiency?

There was some discussion of this back around the time of the California energy troubles.

"As Reger pointed out, US energy costs are skyrocketing, and Google's energy bill is around $100m."

theregister.co.uk

In a general sense, I'm wondering just how much power The Information Age is consuming - especially now that the 'net has become an entity in itself, as opposed to a simple medium for information exchange (which it also is).

We really can't expect specific answers to these questions.

It's just that one suspects that the utility bill for the Internet is getting quite large - maybe as large as a big city's? Or more? What do you suppose is a reasonable estimate?

One could speculate that in any given power-constrained jurisdiction, limitations on content could be made by tying power consumption to some arbitrary value system. To pick an easy target, porn, for instance.

Which justification could also be used to disguise other content intervention, and creating artificial scarcity.

Regards,

Jim
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