Facebook for school & college education

Software’s are driving and catalyzing innovations in all spheres of our daily lives. And as more and more ‘focused’ software’s are being developed, the impacts they create will also get bigger and bigger.

Four years back people could have never foreseen Facebook / Orkut creating such a big impact. It has become one of the most essential tools helping us ‘connect’ and ‘reach out’ to friends and family across the continents. All this and more in a single web page. It has changed the way as to how we build and grow our friendship.

This made me wonder if we were to develop software / software’s focused for our school and college education, how will that be? What features should it have? I decided I will make a go and list down things which I would have if I was the software architect (Software development and me are miles apart!).

I made 4 categories – Student Assist – Teacher / Professor Assist – Parents Assist – Career Assist. These are just to organize and list down the features but the final system should integrate and bring it in a single, simple and easy to use package. Also I think the final system should utilize multiple types of devices PC’s, mobile phones, PDA’s, Kindle’s and a lot more.

Cool Roofs

Relying on the centuries-old principle that white objects absorb less heat than dark ones, malls in US are in the vanguard of a movement embracing “cool roofs” as one of the most affordable weapons against climate change

Cool roofs reduce energy costs by as much as 20 percent in the tropics – these translate to lower CO2 emissions. In fact, Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy Commission says that turning all of the world’s roofs white could save more than 24 billion tons of CO2 over the next 20 years.

What is more, a white roof can cost as little as 15 percent more than its dark counterpart, depending on the materials used. (Lawrence Berkley Labs). Also, in US the Cool roofs are eligible for federal stimulus dollars, low cost financing from major utilities and are also eligible for tax credits.

Wal-mart’s new stores in US for the past decade all have cool roofs with solar panels. But now the momentum is increasingly catching the home owners. This has prompted more business to come up and more research is going on across research labs towards highly reflective low cost paints

Earth Hour 2009

            It is story telling time - an inspiring story. In Mar 31^st 2007 one city took a stand on “Climate Change”. Australia’s largest city – Sydney was plunged into darkness for 1 hour. What began as one city taking a stand caught the attention of the world – EARTH HOUR went global. Over 50 million people in 35 countries & 400 cities came together for EARTH HOUR – 2008. Google’s home page went “Black”.

 And this year people in over 62 countries are coming together to support planet Earth and take action on “Climate Change”. My next door giant New York City will go dark for an hour to support Planet EARTH. Support Earth Hour – 2009. Switch of “NON ESSENTIAL” lights for an hour 8.30 pm – 9.30 pm on Mar 28^th, Saturday.

 For 1 hour, while working in your laptop – turn of the lights. For 1 hour, use lights only if it is absolutely necessary. For 1 hour, stand up against CLIMATE CHANGE. For 1 hour, celebrate EARTH HOUR.