Domain: blackle.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to blackle.com.
Comments · 24
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What took so long?
The concept for going black to save power, even specifically calling out Google, has been around for like 15-20 years already.
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Re:Google Homepage
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dark google - blackle !
Does anyone remember http://www.blackle.com/ ?
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Re:Oh chill
Reminds me of a few years ago my sister (who is very environmentally conscious) was using Blackle instead of Google in order to save energy (they even advertise the number of watt hours "saved" under the search bar).
She was a bit dejected when I informed her that LCD screens don't use less energy displaying black vs. white, since black is merely produced by blocking the light, and that the only way to save power was to turn the brightness on her laptop down.
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Re:Not here
Remember when Blackle came out as a joke on the plain white background?
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Other google-powered search sites: Blackle, Znout
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More Code Efficiency=More Elecricity Efficiency
I wounder how much energy and money this would save for a server hog like Google. Reminds me of Blackle
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Re:black GUIs...
To be fair, there is always Blackle for all your late night Googling needs. I really wish that everyone would switch to a light-on-dark color scheme as it's easier on the eyes, but I guess that's just not going to happen.
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Re:Maybe we should switch to...
... and by that I mean Blackle.
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Cups of tea, sympathy and Blackle!
You insensitive clods!
In other news: Use http://blackle.com/ if you are interested in combining a search with saving power. Sure, it might run the same amount of power from the server end, but at least it's not using as much power to display the results. -
Re:Not just for saving ink
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Re:Practicality?
drifting OT here, but just... WOW. I'd not seen that. How sublime.
Throw everything you've ever known about bleed and contrast ratio out the window; Blackle says displaying dark images and backgrounds on your monitors saves energy. Brillant!
(ah; to be fair, they do make the plasma/lcd distinction in their faq.) -
My favorite: the black display
Sites like Blackle suggest that a black screen saves energy. May have been true for CRT displays, but modern TFT Displays always have the backlight on, even on a black screen.
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Re:Tesla, Insight and the color of Google homepage
Google's homepage to black? Like this? Though I have to wonder if they can really claim all that much in savings - for LCD's is there really a significant power savings for black pixels vs. white? Does anyone know what the difference is?
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Re:It's not the idle capacity I'm worried about
Well, as you can use your CPU cycles to help research, I guess you can also help by not wasting energy too. Both are common efforts and achieve better results as more people join. If blackle has any numbers that only by changing the background (I have all my windows with dark background anyways, just because I don't get so tired of my eyes at the end of the day), you can help. I think, that as a common effort to achieve different goals, you are free to chose either one, independently on how much it cost to each individual.
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Re:Same old storyThat's why Blackle is a total waste of time (500,000 watt hours saved over all of its users? We're talking $50 in electricity at $0.10/kWH...).
Blackle is a waste of time to anyone who uses an LCD screen. LCD monitors don't change their output energy when the screen is black. Liquid crystal merely blocks the transmission of light from the backlight to the outside of the screen. Backlight output is maintained by your brightness settings. -
Re:Same old story
So... don't burn coal for power and don't use compact fluorescents. When did two wrongs become a right?
It's not a matter of two wrongs, it's a matter of tradeoffs (as with most things). I'm a big fan of non-coal power (including nuclear), but the existing coal plants aren't going to go away any time soon, and we seem to keep building more around the world.
For most people, artificial light is a necessity. These days, they have a choice between incandescents, CFLs/fluorescents, halogen, and maybe a few LED options. CFLs are much more efficient than incandescents or halogens. LED lights are still somewhat expensive. If you use a CFL, don't recycle it, and its total mercury emissions are less than the emissions from the power plants used to produce the extra electricity required to power an incandescent, it's clearly better to go with the CFL.
Of course, the best thing to do from an environmental perspective is to simply recycle your bulbs. I've mentioned this before on /.; there are a number of household items that we need to dispose of properly. Things like CRT monitors/TVs, large or lithium-ion batteries, etc. The easiest thing to do is to set all these items aside until they build up a bit, and then cart them off to the nearest recycling center. For me, that's just across town, but I'm lucky in that regard.
Being a rational environmentally-conscious person means that you should take actions which require the least expense (in terms of both time and money) which cause energy/pollution reductions in the greatest quantity. That's why Blackle is a total waste of time (500,000 watt hours saved over all of its users? We're talking $50 in electricity at $0.10/kWH...). -
If Google really wanted to save electricity...
They should do this.
;) -
You need to go black!
Going green is a big deal. Here's an example I saw about 3 weeks ago...
Stop using Google and start using Blackle.
"Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002"
(As I post this: 431,996.517 Watt hours saved) -
Re:The most frustrating thing is....
Between displaying 100% white at the highest brightness and the blackest black at the lowest brightness, there is only a 5-10% difference depending on resolution and refresh rates.
Blackle seems to say differently. And people have done the math. -
Re:What I want to know is
You can try blackle to search them.
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I had to do it
How can yahoo compete with Blackle... I know, I know, mod me into oblivion.
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Re:Oh crap...
I believe that would be "excessive use of the color white".
It would appear that we have found the real reason behind Blackle! -
Re:This is against Geneva or Hague convention
I think he meant something like this.