Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

phiw13 · 2020-12-24 00:04:26

Destry wrote #327762:

[…] Died on the operating table.

Welcome to the club! my most risky feats in that area where replacing RAM in a PM8500 and a PowerMac G4 graphite (not too difficult), and replacing the HD in the same G4, which took me the better part of a day.

Have a look at the refurbished section on apple.com/fr, sometimes one can find nice deals (my daughter bought an MBP13 for 25% off the catalog price). Link is in the footer of every apple.com page (special deals or refurbished or…). Although from a quick look, that Back Market site is probably sourcing lots of their offers from the same source.

Destry · 2021-12-13 12:55:47

Bloke wrote #314171:

In a world of spiralling costs, is there a market for a “green” website solution? I’ve not thought this through, it might be a waste of time, just throwing it out there.

I might have mentioned this somewhere before, but about 6 years ago I proposed the notion of green content strategy to my peers in CSF. I didn’t get much interest, but it seemed worthwhile to me. Then we folded up the egg stand.

I now see more sustainable design services — and even an ABA book on the topic, no surprise — but content is still where the matter is, and in that respect, sustainability still flies in the face of content marketing, with its more, more, more and social media milling, videos, infographics, and so on. CM pretty much dominates the centralized web anymore. I guess that’s why the alternate platforms and gemini and such is interesting to me, marketing is entirely void there.

Point being, though, using Txp’s lightweight nature as a selling feature for ‘green’ or an asset towards ‘sustainable’, is as important now as ever was. I’m sure some other project is already doing it. Don’t dally. Get some wordage on the home page. Make one of those sunflowers green. ;)

In other news, that ecoindex mentioned a long while back in this thread is defunct now, but there’s a new kid on the block, website carbon, which calculates the same thing. Maybe somebody shared it already. I haven’t been poking around the boards lately. There are probably other calculators now, too.

Seems I need a green webhost provider, though. Stat!

Last edited by Destry (2021-12-13 12:59:23)

Destry · 2021-12-13 13:14:13

Was just pointed to delightful sustainable vps.

And some more mentions in this thread.

And ethical.net has a number of hosts under their web hosts section.

I’m particularly interested in the European offers.

Last edited by Destry (2021-12-13 14:06:26)

Destry · 2021-12-13 15:49:42

Oh, the Green Web Foundation is nice.

<img src="https://api.thegreenwebfoundation.org/greencheckimage/textpattern.com?nocache=true" alt="This website is hosted Green - checked by thegreenwebfoundation.org">

I guess running your web host’s site through the GWF checker is a good way to test whether your own site is hosted green. And also a good way to push your host to use green data centers if not, because you can share the unhappy grey badge with their name on it otherwise. :}

I think being on green data centers is soon going to be like having ‘https’; frowned on if not the case. But more so because of the greater energy implications under climate problems. Hosts will lose customers if they don’t get on board.

Last edited by Destry (2021-12-13 15:53:28)

gaekwad · 2021-12-13 20:36:42

Destry wrote #332198:

Oh, the Green Web Foundation is nice.

<img src="https://api.thegreenwebfoundation.org/greencheckimage/textpattern.com?nocache=true" alt="This website is hosted Green - checked by thegreenwebfoundation.org">...

Cloudflare sits in front of the site, we’re hosted on DigitalOcean (disclosure: donated server credits since we’re open source, they’re considerate, and I asked nicely). Cloudflare don’t actually do hosting in that sense…they have CDN infrastructure and they’re introducing R2 at some stage, but our hosting should currently be considered grey, not green.

As of last year, there were some DO sites that are renewable energy: NYC1, LON1, AMS2, AMS3, and SGP1. Right now, we’re on a single server in SFO3 (grey), since some idiot tonked the other server, but there are three new servers on the way: two of the three are green (LON1 and SGP1), and I’ve just been persuaded that I can splat the third and rebuild it in NYC1 instead of NYC3…which would give us proper green badges across the board.

So: grey right now, with a greener future in mind.

Last edited by gaekwad (2021-12-13 20:42:30)

etc · 2021-12-13 20:43:55

And txp itself should be rather green. At least, we try hard.

gaekwad · 2021-12-13 20:50:50

I’ve just asked DO what the current green energy situation is: twitter.com/textpattern/status/1470494142098821126

jakob · 2021-12-13 22:32:08

Two hosts that I commonly turn to use green energy to run their servers:

all-inkl.com – shared hosts with email – a well-known and long-standing webhost in Germany with own datacenters that claim to be 100% CO2-neutral (in German). An independent company. Not the most modern panel or servers but reliable, economical and helpful.
webdock.io – a VPS host (no email but email forwarding) – has certified green servers and reinvests a (small) proportion into climate renewal through the stripe climate initiative. On top of that they’re exceptionally helpful.

Destry · 2021-12-22 17:30:29

Thanks for the links, Jakob. I’ll probably avoid German-only sites because I can’t read them. Webdock could be a possibility, but I really don’t understand the specs. My current dirty host is about 75 euros per year, and it gives me all the sites, databases, storage I need. Green hosting seems to always cost a fair bit more for a comparative offer.

It’s like having to eat processed food because organic is so much more expensive. ;)

Unless you grow your own…

Since I originally first posted about the solar-powered Low-Tech Mag, they published an article about the sustainability of it. It’s interesting. I’d like to run my own websites this way, and I’d be fine that they danced on and off with the whims of mother nature. Unfortunately, I don’t have the means or time allowance to invest and learn to do it. It does say, though, that it’s actually more efficient if you host more than one website this way.

Anyway, my hosting is about up. I may have to sit on dirty for another year to buy some time.

jakob · 2021-12-22 18:20:53

Destry wrote #332288:

Thanks for the links, Jakob. I’ll probably avoid German-only sites because I can’t read them. Webdock could be a possibility, but I really don’t understand the specs. My current dirty host is about 75 euros per year, and it gives me all the sites, databases, storage I need. Green hosting seems to always cost a fair bit more for a comparative offer … Anyway, my hosting is about up. I may have to sit on dirty for another year to buy some time.

Sometimes the running system is easier, I know. I don’t want to twist your arm but both options do come in cheaper ;-)

An all-inkl Privat (4,95€/Month) comes in at 60€/Year (first three months free, so 45€ for year 1). The admin area of all-inkl, although a bit dated is flexible and is also in English (and Polish) and their service emails generally come in both languages (well, passable English). The domain hosting is also included (you can transfer your domain to them, but you don’t have to) and you can host and configure multiple sites and subdomains through their admin area. Downsides: no SSH access (terminal/command line), no DNS settings (for special Domain settings) and no free SSL certificates (the main disadvantage) in this package. Both are included in the next higher Privat Plus package (7,95€/month), SSH in the Premium (10€) plan. Also help may not be available in English (I haven’t tried). These are shared servers so you’re not entirely free to configure want you want.

With webdock, I guess you’d go for a “Starter” box (so you can use their email-forwarding) and then select “The Perfect Server” as Image, with Apache (for htaccess use) and PHP 7.4 or 8. Their perfect server is production-ready and comes with MariaDB (=MySQL) and phpMyAdmin already installed as well as host of other things (see link). Email and domain hosting is not included but if you have those covered elsewhere, that’s not an issue. They currently have an XMAS offer with 15€ off for new customers, so also 45€ in the first year, 60€ thereafter. Disadvantages: no email, no DNS domain settings (the assumption is you have these hosted elsewhere, this is just a virtual private server), and while standard tasks can be done via the admin area, other things, like hosting multiple sites, need some manual server configuration. As a VPS you have more freedom over what you can install on the server.

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#49 2020-12-24 00:04:26

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

Destry wrote #327762:

#50 2021-12-13 12:55:47

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

Bloke wrote #314171:

#51 2021-12-13 13:14:13

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#52 2021-12-13 15:49:42

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#53 2021-12-13 20:36:42

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

Destry wrote #332198:

#54 2021-12-13 20:43:55

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#55 2021-12-13 20:50:50

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#56 2021-12-13 22:32:08

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#57 2021-12-22 17:30:29

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

#58 2021-12-22 18:20:53

Re: Low-Tech Magazine, now solar-powered!

Destry wrote #332288:

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