Computers

Computers can be great, but sometimes they are frustrating too...

Computers can be great tools and have helped mankind in so many ways, however there are also concerns about how effectively are they made, operated and disposed of. For example they are known to be significant users of electricity whilst running (plus some whilst on standby), and there are concerns about the proportion of materials that can be recycled. Manufacturers are working to improve in these areas compared to earlier models.

An interesting article on moves by Google and Intel to reduce their carbon footprint can be seen at:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/can-green-computers-help-save-the-world-453073.html.

How do I get my website to work more effectively?

For most business owners this is the key question, as the number of websites increases dramatically each year. If a website is sitting on a server but isn't being found and read by its target market then it is consuming resources, whilst failing to provide an adequate return on the time and money invested in it.

Search Engine Optimisation

So often websites are designed that look attractive, but don't pay attention to the less glamorous side of ensuring that they have the appropriate keywords researched and the text written in a way that will aid the search engine finding it, whilst still being informative and persuasive for the reader. If carried out appropriately the search engine and the web designer are on the same side, each trying to deliver quality content that best matches the user's interests.
So click to find out more about you stay up with this constantly changing challenge...

Web Copywriting

When producing a new website I am consistently asked how long will it take, however most times the constraining factor is being provided with the raw text. This seems strange as business owners are intelligent, capable and know their current business (or new concept) inside out. So why does writing copy seem so hard?
Discover how to take make it easier...

Web Design

A website is the place that the business owner should be able to express everything they wish their business to be.
Are you looking for someone that will take into account your current materials, your tastes and the tastes of your target audience?

Can Open Source Software (OSS) help reduce the amount of computers going into landfill?

Personal computers often contain materials such as lead, zinc, nickel, cadmium and mercury. A government report estimates that in 2006 there were over 1.5 million PCs going into landfill in Australia. This is referred to as "ewaste".

One of the reasons for personal computers being dumped is that people want to upgrade to a newer, faster model with a later operating system and they then wish to migrate their proprietary software to their new machine. They are then often concerned that should they want to give the older machine away, then they would be in breach of the software licensing rules.

A possible way to overcome this would be to remove all the software from the machine and instead to load it with an open source operating system and open source application software.

Open Source Software is available for use without charge within certain boundaries. Following is a link to a definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_software

To find out more about the pros and cons of Open Source Software see the government guide at:
http://www.finance.gov.au/publications/guide-to-open-source-software/index.html

Four excellent guides include:

Official Ubuntu Book, The (3rd Edition) by Benjamin Mako Hill, Corey Burger, Jonathan Jesse and Jono Bacon.
Fedora 10 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible by Christopher Negus.
OpenSUSE 11.0 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Bible by Roger Whittaker and Justin Davies.
PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition) (Developer's Library) by Luke Welling (Author), Laura Thomson (Author).

Search for other Open Source Software products

For businesses that wish to explore these ideas further,
please see our Executive Briefings section.

Sunshine N Water is a sponsor of the Uni NSW solar racer project.
This has now been declared Open Source.