What can hackers do for the environment?

Working on the assumption that making small changes to the largest number of offenders has a bigger impact than making a huge change to a few devices, we're working on making virtualization easier and more manageable. Millions of computers in data centers are sitting idle <i>right now</i>, and they're burning power at 30-80% the rate of a computer doing real work. So, let's get the jobs they're doing consolidated down to a few virtual machines that spin up when they're needed (or run all the time, but when they're idle, other virtual machines on the same physical device can be doing work).<p>Halving the number of machines in a data center, even if the number and size of disks spinning and amount of memory stays the same (and we're assuming that CPUs aren't working full-time, and just need to be fast enough and plentiful enough to answer all queries quickly), will dramatically reduce power and cooling requirements for that data center. So, it's sort of a CFL model. A virtual machine is a drop in replacement for a dedicated server, but burns remarkably less power for the same amount of usage.

i feel like something that software guys can do is find out ways to make telecommuting work more viable for the masses (where viable -- factory workers can't really take part), not just tech workers.<p>it already <i>is</i> viable, but its not quite that accessible and easy to do for the non-tech-savvy.<p>this would help to remove the reliance we have upon driving long distances every day for work and help relieve some of our pollution, energy and oil problems.<p>its not a cure-all, but there isn't one. incremental steps will help fix our problem.