A group of us went and saw the movie about the (alledged) Global warming issue...
On the way home I was just thinking... Ya know --- us CI guys could really make a positive impact. I'm serious!
A few years ago, there was kind of a trend, where a lot of office people, opted to telecommute... Work from home, instead of going into the office everyday... I think that kind of fizzeled out. Back then being "online" was a lot more expensive, and well I dunno what the hell happened, but it seems like people started going back into their offices... (They gotta show off their Benzes and BEEMERS)!!! Right?
I was just thinking that with all that we can provide today in terms of home networking, web cams and all, maybe CEDIA could start promoting the "Work from home more often mantra" -- and point out how WE are the dudes that can facilitate the "movement". Then again, if the wife is at home, some of us need to get away!!!
There is really no reason that I need to drive 35 miles each way to work everyday... All I do is answer my phone & work online... I really could work from home say, 3 or 4 days a week, and go in every Monday or Friday to go over stuff with the installers and owners. Turn in reports and all that happy crap.
Doing the math, imagine how much less traffic there would be, how much fuel would be saved, if say even 5% of the people that commute to their office jobs did the same?
Also, i know there are lots of CI companies that have everybody leave their Vans at the shop every night. If they let the guys take their vans home, and go directly to their jobsites in the morning and take them home at night, that would save a lot too.
Anyway, the movie that Al Gore put together, whether it is accurate or not (there is a lot of debate)... scared the sh*t out of all of us that saw it. According to his reports, we will be totally hosed in 50 years at the rate we are spewing hydrocarbons into the atmosphere, and we will still be dependent on fossil fuels and the countries that supply us.
China is rapidly getting into the car thing now, which could mean a lot of competition for "black gold" raising prices higher and higher.
...But, if we stressed in our client interviews how we can supply all the technology for more people to work (a majority of the time) from home (and demo the stuff) -- web cam set-ups video conferencing from home and point out that it is no longer a big complicated expensive thing that only the Bill Gates of the world can do, a lot of oil could be saved, and maybe even slow Global warming. (The US contributes over 30% of the entire worlds hydrocarbon pollution, due to our auto use).
If we could reduce that by not commuting as much, maybe in time our science boys will come up with a good alternative to our big-assed V-8's... (Hey don't get me wrong... I used to have a 55 Bel Air with a 327 with dual quads, and I wish I still had it... just hearing the report from dual exhaust pipes was almost as good as sex)...

Maybe I'm talking out of my arse... but that movie really shook me up, and now when I drive in and back home from work I have to wonder... (hey why AM I doing this???) I never see my bosses, we rarely have meetings, and we really only seem to communicate via email, even though we are in the same building!!! Why not do it from home? Hell, I'd even take a pay cut.
Going back a few years the only guys doing this (in our neck of the woods up here), were the well heeled yuppies, and tech people. I think a lot of them still do.
Now anybody can afford to do it really. Add to that the increasing fuel prices...(They are predicting $4.00 a gallon before too long), and that adds up pretty fast!
Even in my P.O.S. 12 year old GMC, I'd save a few bucks, not get all stressed fighting rush-hour traffic, and probably get more done at home (of course I don't have any curtain climbers running around either, or a nagging wife)
Spending 50 to 60 hours on the road just going to and from the office each month, traveling 1,750 miles in the process, wear and tear on the old GMC and $300 in fuel could be saved. Plus I wouldn't have all the spikes in my blood pressure, like when some idiot is tailgating me, or cuts in front of me... well you know... all the joys of commuting!
My boss could switch over to his web cam, when he wants to see me, while he is chewing me out, or make sure I'm not asleep on the couch...
Anyway, if you get a chance to see the movie, it is a little disturbing, and our industry could really make a positive contribution if we promoted more heavily, how are stuff can enable our clients to stay off the roads and work from home a lot more...
Now excuse me while I step off my soap box, and go look at the new Mustangs & Dodge Chargers... No, really though -- our industry could actually maybe get a little respect for promoting something like this...
I have friends that have been transferred to parts of the country, where it isn't all that unusual to have a combined 3 to 4 hour daily commute (total). That's 100 hours a month, sitting on your ass in traffic, when you could already be at home playing with your kids, or chasing the neighbor's wife or something...
Anyway, that movie really touched a nerve with myself and the guys who saw it with me, especially being from an area with heavy rush-hour traffic!

global warming is a myth.

I figured out a personal plan... I'm getting a VW Golf TDI and switching to Biodeisel... f--k the greedy oil bastards. 40+ MPG compared to the 10 I get with my Suburban. I'll leave the Suburban here at work and only use it when materials need to get picked up or transported. For sales calls like the ones I just did in Cle Elum and Enumclaw (Washington Native American named cities in honor of the land that was stolen from them) which ran up 280 miles I'd spend $23.00 instead of $89.00... and be doing the environment a favor as well.

more like a hoax.
bow down to the god of guilt!!!
nobody is really an athiest.
some only put there faith in things they think they have some control over.
As for Al Gore ..total fraud.
He was offered a free hybred, but decided on an Escalade.

Al Gore doing a movie about global warming is MUCH scarier than global warming itself. What a sham and embarassment.

What the hell Mr. Stanley?

There's no such thing as global warming or even pollution for that matter. It must be the liberal drive-by media that's put those thoughts into your head.

C'mon guys. You know that I have total respect for all of you, but please try to broaden your horizons beyond right wing talk radio.

Well, AHEM, even if there isn't a such thing as global warming. Lets look at oil, or waste.

No matter what anyone says, we will run out of oil at some point, probably in our kids or grandkids lifetime. Maybe not run out, but hit a point where the third world war is over oil. Think of all the plastics, cars, planes, whatever that use it.

Theres also a sculpture that was done recently, and its made out of all the electronics one person will throw away in their lifetime. Its about 50 feet tall, and ugly as sin.

I agree that we should do soemthing to help, the littlest bit helps.

Didn't he invent the internet? Why doesn't the CO2 keep the sun light/heat from going out but not coming in? Why is water vapor which blocks more spectrical radiation than CO2 and is number 3 as far as atmospheric gases by volume - CO2 number 5 - not talked about by these ENVIRO IDIOTS?

But I really have no opinion!

Marc

Well, the first thing that we can do is start basing our opinions on fact and not what AM radio host are telling us!

Its not just AM radio hosts. Its guys on street corners and pot smoking college kids too. Lets not forget about them.

I do agree that we are harming the earth, but not to the extent that we are being told. The earth goes through cycles, warming and cooling, and i believe it had a big hair phase at one point too. Were in one of the warming phases. But oil.......thats another story. Look at copper, mine owners are scared even. Oil will be the same.

According to the stats in his own movie greenhouse gases went up to their highest level during his time in office. And not walking 5 blocks in Cannes for his movie premier. We are all gonna die from something, lest we forget He and tipper got Owned by Dee Snyder and John Denver for being so full of sh$t.

And thanks to Jef Daniels and Jim Carrey we all know that John Denver is in fact, full of shit himself.

ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The guys on the street corners are expressing their opinions, and coincidentally, their opinions are exactly the same as the Ditto Head drones. Coincidence? I think not.

I could give two shits about Al Gore, and yeah, he & Tipper's reputations are forever wrecked by the PMRC BS, but hey, take a look around you? Remember the woods that you played in as a kid that have been leveled and turned into industrial parks or "quiet cul-de-sacs"? Meanwhile, the inner cities are abadoned, polluted wastelands.

Progress or greed?

AHEM, it was a joke.

I despise Al Gore. His movie and his opinion are garbage in my mind. But that doesnt change my mindset on peoples tendencey to be overly wasteful.

And yes, in most cases, it is greed.