I’ve already discovered that a lot of my computer gear is very noisy in the HF and VHF spectra — my print spooler, in particular, puts out a huge amount of noise when it’s just sitting idle. Fortunately, I don’t need the spooler to be active most of the time, so now I’ve started turning it off at the power strip, which also makes me a Better Citizen as far as California’s energy crisis is concerned.
Speaking of energy, I was surprised when I got my last PG&E bill — we found out that we’d reduced our consumption by more than 20% from last year. Since we hadn’t used our air conditioning at all last summer, I didn’t think we had much room for reduction, but I guess having paid attention to turning off lights when we didn’t need them made a difference. Given our low usage, the 20% rebate wasn’t too rewarding, but it’ll buy lunch if I’m not too extravagant.
Good news for my next trip to Israel: smoking barred in public places. I wish that were the biggest problem in Israel right now, though.