I picked myself up a nice affordable laser printer today in the Lexmark E250dn.  It’s got the two features I wanted most: a network port and a built-in duplexing.  Since the printer can sit on the network, I can reclaim the PC I’ve been using as a print server and use it as a test platform for other projects.  Duplexing is a real nice paper saver when I need to print manuals and such.  I also appreciated that you can replace the toner and photoconductor separately, which is less wasteful.  And, unlike some others in the price range, it reportedly works "perfectly" with Linux.  (I’ll get around to testing that later…)

I haven’t printed much so far.  Installation was flawless.  There was a slight problem that the printer was faintly creasing the printed paper.  However, I was able to isolate the offending roller, and with a little "thumb maintenance", I corrected the defect.

Well, I hope it lasts a while!

I’ve been giving Compact Fluorescent Lamps a try since early this year. They use far less wattage than incandescent bulbs, prompting Australia and Canada to begin phasing out incandescent bulbs to reduce energy consumption. A 14 Watt CFL outputs the same light as a 60 Watt incandescent bulb, and lasts up to 10 times longer. According to the math on the packaging, the electrical costs you save on one bulb over its lifetime pays for the bulb fivefold. Just reducing the environmental load of power generation is enough for me to get the warm fuzzies, so the cost saving is icing on the cake.

There is some controversy, though, about the “greenness” of these bulbs. As with any fluorescent bulbs, CFL’s contain mercury, about 4mg per bulb. So in order for this mercury to not pollute the environment, every you must recycle every bulb (See recycling information links below).

Consider the fact that coal-burning power plants release mercury into the atmosphere. Over the five-year lifetime of a CFL, the mercury emissions via coal-generated power are 2.4mg, plus 4mg in the bulb, for a total of 6.4mg. Equivalent five-year usage of incandescent bulbs causes 10mg of emissions. (US EPA, 2002) Of course, 4mg of that mercury is trapped in the bulb and can be recycled and needn’t ever be released to the environment! Conversely, you can’t recycle what goes up the smokestack once it’s release to the atmosphere.

I believe there needs to be more incentive for people to recycle their CFL’s. People get lazy, you know. It would be great if there was a deposit on each CFL, like with bottles and cans, maybe 50 cents or so? And how about more green energy?

Well, anyway, I’ve tried several brands of bulbs with mixed results. The earlier bulbs had a barely perceptible flicker to the light that I found a bit jarring. One bulb even had an annoying hum, but others of the same brand were fine.

I recently purchased several varieties of BlueMax CFL’s that I am quite pleased with! There is no detectable flicker or hum. Good fluorescent lights use three or four colored phosphors to blend into white light. Sunlight consists a full spectrum of colors. BlueMax bulbs use six phosphors in order to more closely simulate natural sunlight. After, comparing these CFL’s side by side with two other brands, I agree that the light is more natural.

I purchased two varieties, Daylight Spiral and Sunset Spiral. The Daylight bulbs have a color temperature of 5900° Kelvin, which approaches daylight. The Sunset bulbs are closer to the warm glow of standard incandescents at 3000° Kelvin. I much prefer the Daylight bulbs for my office.

Recycling information links:
http://www.epa.gov/bulbrecycling/
http://www.lamprecycle.org/

Here’s a fascinating site about urban planning for cities without cars:

Carfree Cities

These designs rely on circular districts interconnected by metro rail. Each district is walkable within five minutes and is totally free of cars. The resulting layout alleviates the congestion, pollution, and danger of modern urban environments that have become overrun by private automobile use.

It’s a book, too, apparently.

You know, sometimes it takes 45 or 90 minutes to find a parking spot in my neighborhood. This guy figured out the secret:

Here’s the Smart Fortwo on Wikipedia. The Smart USA website says the car is coming to the US in 2008, and you can reserve one for $99. It promises 50 mpg (according to Wikipedia), top speed of 90 mph, and 8 to 12 cubic feet of storage space in the trunk starting at under $12,000. At 1609 lbs, it could almost be lifted by my apartment building’s elevator. How great would it be to park your ride in your living room? I am dubious of the safety claims. Something tells me I wouldn’t want to be mauled by a Lincoln Navigator in one of these things.