VIDEO | Op-Ed: Here's an example of energy savings at a technology conference. MOS 6502 and Commodore legend Chuck Peddle planned to fly to New Jersey to give a 90-minute computer history lecture. But he was stuck in Sri Lanka for his job, so he videoconferenced instead. The twist: instead of using an expensive, professional videoconferencing "solution", Chuck used ordinary Skype, with his office connection on one end and, halfway around the world, a simple cable modem at the auditorium in New Jersey with the PC's output sent to an 8-foot screen. It worked beautifully* and that's one less person who flew on a long airplane trip. (Chuck's speech was part of the Vintage Computer Festival East 4.0, hosted by MARCH, a non-profit user group of which your friendly Efficiency Zone editor is president. The video, in four parts, is posted on YouTube. The lecture begins approx. 15 minutes into part one.)
* Until the very end, when the receiving PC running Windows XP went blue-screen-of-death due to a bad memory chip. Many in the audience, including Chuck, found this incident to be poetic justice for Commodore!