My god, it's Full of Macs!

New York has canceled the electronics recycling programs they were holding and has decided to allow people to include toxic electronics in trash destined for land fills.  This is a bad decision for many reasons.  Remember when the city cancelled all recycling for a while?  Well, it’s taken years for New Yorkers to even realize that it’s started back up again, and some still don’t know.

“Until July 1, 2010, NYC residents can discard unwanted or broken electronics (computers, monitors, TVs, cell phones) in the trash”  -DSNY

If you want to recycle a computer, turns out Apple will help.  For every new Apple computer purchase, you can get free recycling.  Or for $30 you can purchase a pre-paid shipping label from Apple to send in your old computer.

Recycle even if you’re not buying a new Mac.

If you haven’t opted in to the free program by purchasing a new Mac, or if you live in Canada, you can still participate in the Apple Recycling Program. Just purchase a prepaid shipping label from the Electronic Recycling Program or call 888-638-2761. The $30 (U.S.) fee covers all costs associated with shipping used products to the Apple recycling vendor. We’ll even provide packaging materials if you need them.  Read more…

Even better, Apple offers FREE recycling of ANY mobile phone or iPod:

The Apple Recycling Program offers free and environmentally friendly disposal of your iPod and any manufacturer’s mobile phone.  Read more…

Gregory Donovan has posted a great critique of Rupert Murdoch’s World Media Summit speech.  Here’s Murdoch, as quoted in Donovan’s post, on “stealing” content:

“The Philistine phase of the digital age is almost over. The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph.”

And part of Donovan’s critique:

“Like Gates’ before him, Murdoch willfully ignores the unwaged labor that he so handsomely profits from. Murdoch sees News Corp, AP, BBC, Xinhua, and the like, as the only rightful (and thus recognized) producers of content – just as Gates sees Microsoft’s hired programmers as the only rightful producers of his software. But what about the millions of MySpace users who freely produce untold volumes of content that News Corp then monetizes for a hefty profit?  What about all the blogs that News Corps’ journalists read and take information from without so much as a citation, never mind compensation. What about all the people that freely participate in beta-testing Microsoft’s software and the millions of software “users” who report problems and freely contribute their time and energy to improving Microsoft’s content? If it’s obvious that “there should be a price paid for quality content” — which I’m willing to support — then how much will News Corp be paying for all the free quality content it uses, and how will it compensate all the unwaged labor it uses?”

Continue reading…

What’s the difference between the operating system and the retail store environment?  OS X, iTunes, Disney Stores?  It all makes sense in light of this strange news from Mac Rumors:

The New York Times reports that The Walt Disney Company is planning a ground-up revival of its retail stores using a high-tech “Imagination Park” concept and has turned to Steve Jobs and the retail store team at Apple for assistance with the project. Jobs became a member of Disney’s Board of Directors and the largest individual Disney shareholder when the company acquired Pixar in early 2006.

The involvement of Mr. Jobs, the Apple chief executive who joined the Disney board with the 2006 acquisition of Pixar, is particularly notable. For the first time, Mr. Jobs’s fingerprints can be seen on Disney strategy, in the same way that he influenced the look and feel of Apple’s own immensely popular retail chain. While Mr. Jobs did not personally toil on the Imagination Park concept, he pushed Disney to move far past a refurbishment.

“Dream bigger — that was Steve’s message,” said Andy Mooney, chairman of Disney Consumer Products.

Jobs reportedly provided Disney with inside information on Apple’s retail store development and operations, as well as allowing Disney executive to visit the Apple campus and convincing the company to build a prototype retail store to aid in refining the customer experience.

Disney’s “Imagination Park” concept apparently carries several other Apple-like aspects to it, from in-store theater areas to mobile checkout technology for sales associates. The concept has reportedly been approved by the Disney Board of Directors, and the company is currently negotiating with landlords to secure the high-profile locations necessary for the concept.

We’ve received some wireless keyboards for the Mac Media Lab and they have these very clever silicone overlays with all the quick-keys for Final Cut Pro.  They’re a great tool for the lab.  You can take a wireless keyboard to whichever Mac you want to use.  The overlay helps you learn Final Cut and makes working in it much faster for those who are familiar with the software.

But the keyboards are wireless and that means batteries.  As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one solution to this and that’s rechargeable batteries.

About the same time that I replaced every bulb in my house with compact fluorescents, I also replaced all the batteries with rechargeables.  That was 2 years ago and we haven’t bought a battery or a light bulb since.

Yes, technology can be great, but it can also be toxic and wasteful.  As technophiles, I suggest that we have a moral obligation to reduce the waste we produce and keep disposable products to an absolute minimum.  It also makes financial sense; do you want to buy 1 rechargeable battery or 1000 disposables?

I heartily recommend the eneloop brand I use at home.  They come pre-charged, they hold the charge much longer than other brands, they last ‘forever,’ and they look really cool.  Technophilia satisfied, environmental sustainability satisfied.