If you haven’t already, check out Greenpeace’s Green My Apple campaign. It’s an incredible example of electronic activism.

As mentioned a few times, I’ve been trying to put off buying a new laptop for as long as possible. I’m still using a 2001 dual-USB 600mhz iBook (purchased early 2002). Five years is pretty good for a laptop but I’d like to get at least one to two more years out of it.

The easiest way to prolong the life of a computer (besides the obvious physical care) is to use open source software. I did a complete reinstall of my laptop a few months ago, and uninstalled all the proprietary software I had sitting alongside the open source applications.

If you are at least on some version of OS X, you should still be able to stay relatively up to date. New version of an application doesn’t support your ageing hardware or OS? No problem - you can usually go back and get any posted version of open source software. For example, Gimp.

I really don’t need as much computing power as I think I do, and if compiling and photo editing is slow, then it’s a good excuse to drink more tea!