My Favorite Color: Blackle

It's a little odd to me that we've come full circle and we're back to a black screen. Admittedly, the original black screens, the one on which you played Oregon Trail [if you've been legally drinking for any longer than four-to-five years, don't boggle your mind, it's just the best computer game ever made -- you lose friends to rattlesnakes and anyone privy to it will most definitely choke on their food at the mention of "caulk your wagon and float it"] and most likely typed involuntarily in green, were black for a different reason entirely.

Blackle is powered by the Google Search Engine, which an overwhelming number of us use anyway. Its claim is that black screens use fewer watts to power; although the savings is minimal per unit, the sheer volume that the engine sees accumulates significant hours. The Blackle page actually lists a figure for "Watt hours saved" just below the search bar. It claims to be potentially capable of saving 750 Megawatt hours annually, which is an obviously rough estimate found on the engine's "about" page. The myriad factors contributing to the bottom line include monitor size, differentiation between CRT and LCD monitors, low-energy sleep levels and deep sleep levels - and these are only among the computer's specs. The annual increase in overall computer usage as well as popularity of competing search engines would make it difficult to estimate the actual effect. A good point made on the Blackle site, though, is that regardless of individual energy savings, the black screen can potentially be a constant reminder to always be making small steps toward reducing energy consumption.

I'd be lying if I claimed that I'm overly concerned with energy savings, but I personally find the black screen to be easier to read [hence, my blog]. At some point in college, I actually developed a habit of highlighting with my mouse any text I was reading; the field turns grey/black and the text its complement. Try it - you may like it, or not, but either way it's a respectable effort.