[FYI] Meet ... The Matrix

[Kristian Köhntopp <kris@koehntopp.de>]

[ Leute, die ihr Leben in kleinen, abgeschlossenen Konkons
  fristen, um mit ihrer Körperwärme die Energie zu produzieren,
  die ihre virtuelle Welt aufrecht erhält... -- KK ]

http://cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-2051442.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.ni

High-tech companies examine energy shortage 
By The Associated Press
Special to CNET News.com
June 10, 2000, 10:00 a.m. PT 

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.--High-tech companies wield 
increasing power in the American economy,
but they could face dark days in the coming months 
unless a nationwide energy shortage is quickly
addressed, participants at a regional energy summit warned. 

The U.S. Department of Energy and energy experts in 
several of the nation's largest electricity-consuming 
states say the possibility of extended blackouts looms 
large this summer and next, representing the potential 
loss of billions of dollars to high-tech firms that rely 
on uninterrupted power sources. 

"Our aging power grid is not able to meet the needs of 
the information age," said Carl Guardino, president of 
the high-tech industry organization 
Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, which sponsored 
yesterday's summit. 

Computers and computer peripherals now consume about 
13 percent of the nation's available power, a figure 
that has soared from less than 1 percent since 1993 as the
Internet becomes a preferred method of doing business 
and communicating with each other. 

But the construction of new power-generating plants and 
transmission lines to meet that demand has
virtually ground to a standstill in the same period as 
companies wait to understand the effects of
deregulation of the electric utility industry. 
...

-- 
"Twentysomething digirati offer this response to copyright-related
 quandaries technology has spawned: 'Copyright is dead. Get over it.'"
	-- http://www.inside.com/story/Premium_Story?art_id=5280