This is a guest post from Jason, since he’s the master of all things technical in our house. Enjoy!

When we tested all our electronics with the Kill-a-Watt, we found out that the ten-year-old desktop was using a lot of energy, even when it wasn’t powered on. Since we were mostly just using the desktop for storing our music and pictures—we’re primarily laptop users now—we thought it would be a good idea to replace the poor old thing with network-attached storage (NAS for short).

Isn't it sexy?

NASes are mini-servers that are built specifically for storage. If you work in a corporate environment, there are probably more than a few hanging around on your network. Only in the past five years or so have they started to be sold into the home market. It’s basically a tiny computer built around a bay for hard drives. When I started looking, my basic criteria was: 1) something that chews up less electricity than the old Windows Vista desktop (not hard to do) and 2) something that we can access from the laptops and back up our data to.

After some comparison, I chose the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+. It’s a very sexy little silver box that slides right into my entertainment center. The old PC ran at 110W–121W (plus 18W for the monitor) and used 6W when it was off (plus 2W for the monitor). The NAS uses 29W–45W, and just 1W when it’s off. In comparison with other NASes on the market, it’s in the middle of the pack somewhere: not the lightest sipper of electricity but not a workhorse server either. One of the many reasons I chose it is that it has an array of possible energy-saving features, such as:

• A variable-speed fan – it senses the temperature and adjusts how fast the fan spins automatically.
• Automatic disk spin-down – most new computers spin down when they’re not in use, but NASes generally don’t.
• Scheduled startup and shutdown – in case we forget to turn it off at night, although I try to turn it off when I’m not using it.

The electricity draw varies based on what sort of hard disks one puts into the box, so it’s important to look for low-power drives to go with your NAS. I picked the WD Caviar Green drives, but there’s a variety of equally good “green” hard drives on the market now. “Green” in this case indicates only that they spin at a slower speed and thus suck down less energy. This means that they’re a little slower, but you’ll probably never notice on a network-connected server.

Other reasons I chose the ReadyNAS:

• It has a reputation as a reliable device.
• It supports RAID (redundant array of independent disks), which allows me to stuff a bunch of hard disks into the box and, if one of them fails, still keep all of my data. Additionally, if I need more storage in the future, I can just stick another hard drive into the box or replace my old ones to expand my storage space.
• The most silly: I can connect it to my Tivo right out of the box. Tivo’s a funny beast that doesn’t support DLNA like almost every other streaming device on the network (PS3, Xbox, etc). Most other NASes support DLNA, but not Tivo.

All in all, I really love it. I’ve moved my entire iTunes and picture libraries onto it, and they’ve barely dented the total storage capacity (1.8 terrabytes!). It’s hard to describe how freeing it is to finally be able to access all of our files without having to exile myself to the office.

This is a little early this week, because we’re up in Maine for our nephew’s graduation. Congratulations, Lucas!

• When Our Birdies Leave the Nest (College Cafeteria Food) – It’s Not Easy Being Green. Speaking of graduation . . . although I think Lucas would be offended by being called a birdie.
• The environmental impact of eggs – Slate. Eggs are on the more efficient side of the animal protein continuum, but efficiency isn’t everything—overcrowded chickens are more efficient than free range.
• How I Came to Peace with My Grocery Bill – Green Phone Booth. Is organic food worth the extra cost?
• Available Energy Rebates For Going Green At Home – The Good Human. This is more for owners than renters, but I’ll put it out there for the rest of you…
• Trustees of Reservations is reducing by half the amount of manicured lawns on its land – Boston Globe. It’s a baby step, but one in the right direction.
• Best Price on Recycled Toilet Tissue – Cheap Like Me. A very in-depth discussion of the price of recycled toilet paper.
• Bike to Work – Sense of Home. Another person biking to work!
• Rhubarb – Sense of Home. My parents always had a huge rhubarb plant. I bet it’s something even I couldn’t kill.
• Foraging for Asparagus – Sense of Home. I’ve never seen wild asparagus before. I think Sense of Home may be my new blog crush. (She’s even a children’s librarian, Sharon!)

That’s all for now. As always, if you find something interesting, send it along.

I’ve had my Kindle for five months now and in that time my spending on books has noticeably increased. The problem is that I can buy them whenever, wherever I want. And books that I’d think twice about buying in hardcover, I don’t even notice the cost digitally. There’s no question that it’s more convenient, but it’s definitely more expensive.

So I decided to investigate the many sources of free books. And by free, I don’t mean stolen—I mean library, public domain, or promotional copies. There are lots of different sources, but the whole thing can be confusing, with different file types accepted only on certain devices, and each source only listing their own few thousand books.

Amazon already lists a few sources: Project Gutenberg, ManyBooks.net, and Internet Archive. Goodreads also has a lot. Just make sure to download the files in the Mobipocket format (.prc) and move them into your Kindle’s Document folder. Project Gutenberg is my favorite. I remember reading The Awakening on Project Gutenberg during my first temp job in 1998. (Sorry, State Street!) Unfortunately, the stock is limited to books whose copyright has expired. It’s a great source of classics, but nothing new.

For that, you’ll have to go to the public library. Getting books from them is not a seamless experience, though. Even their Mobipocket-formatted books don’t work without some fiddling. Kindle Vixen suggests using the program Mobi2Kindle, but I couldn’t get that to work. Here’s what I did, which is a lot more convoluted. (And before you ask, yes Jason did help me out with this.)

Converting Mobipocket Files for Kindle (on a Mac)

The first time:

• Go to http://igorsk.blogspot.com/2007/12/mobipocket-books-on-kindle.html.
• Download Kindle Mobipocket tools. That downloads a folder named azw-0.

If your Kindle serial number starts with something other than B001 or B002:
In that folder, open kindlepid.py. Find the code:

elif serial.startswith(“B002”):
print “Kindle 2 serial number detected”

After that, add:

elif serial.startswith(“B003”):
print “Kindle 2 serial number detected”elif serial.startswith(“B004”):
print “Kindle DX serial number detected”

Save the file.

• Open Terminal (Applications, Utilities, Terminal).
• If the azw-0 folder is on your desktop, type “cd Desktop/azw-0/” and hit enter.
• Type “python kindlepid.py SERIAL#” (with your Kindle serial number in place of SERIAL#—it’s on the back of your Kindle) and hit enter.
• This should give you your Kindle PID; it should look like this: PDFZ4UF*GZ. Your local library will ask you for this number when you register your device there for the first time.

Each time you download a book:

• Download your library book to the azw-0 folder. If you’ve chosen the Mobipocket format, it should have the extension .prc.
• In the Terminal window, type “python kindlefix.py BOOKNAME.prc PID” (where BOOKNAME.prc is the name of your book file and PID is your PID) and hit enter.
• You should now have a book file with the extension .azw in your folder. Drag it to the Documents folder on your Kindle (or email it to your Kindle address). Ta-da!

This seems like a lot of work for a library book that will expire in 14 days. And most library books aren’t even in Mobipocket format—they’re in Adobe EPUB format, which I (and Jason) haven’t been able to figure out yet. It looks like in order to read them on the Kindle you have to strip the DRM. It’s a moral gray area that I’m comfortable with (they are library books, and it’s not like I’m selling them), but I haven’t even figured out how to do it yet. Maybe that’s another post. (Sorry, Lindsay!) Others are in .pdf format, and while it is possible to read them, it’s not possible to change the text size, which makes for a lot of squinting. The convenience alone makes it worth overspending on Amazon, don’t you think?

Too confusing? Did I leave something out? Let me know in the comments.

Didn’t answer your question? Check out part 2, ePub or part 3, Calibre Plugins.

By now most farmers markets should be up and running. Once my CSA starts, I usually don’t buy much at farmers markets, but there’s one nearby any day of the week for impulse purchases. Here’s a quick list of the ones near me:

Mondays

• Central Square, Cambridge – Corner of Norfolk Street and Bishop Allen Drive, 11:30–6:00, 5/24–11/22

Tuesdays

• Copley Square, Boston – 206 Clarendon Street, 11:00–6:00, 5/18–11/23
• Harvard Square, Cambridge – Corner of Oxford and Kirkland streets, 12:30–6:00, 6/15–10/26

Thursdays

• Prudential Center, Boston – 800 Boylston Street, 11:00–6:00, 5/20–10/28
• Kendall Square, Cambridge – 510 Kendall Street, 11:00–2:30, 6/4–11/5

Fridays

• Copley Square, Boston – 206 Clarendon Street, 11:00–6:00, 5/21–11/19
• Charles Square, Cambridge – 1 Bennett Street, 12:00–6:00, 5/28–11/19

Saturdays

• Cambridgeport – Corner of Magazine Street and Memorial Drive, 11:00–2:00, 6/12–10/30

Sundays

• Charles Square, Cambridge – 1 Bennett Street, 10:00–3:00, 5/23–11/21

There are many more than I can list here, but Northeast Harvest has a really complete and up-to-date list. Check it out.

A mixed bag this week. Seriously—you try to find a theme.

• The 2010 Guide to Safe Sunscreen – The Good Human. It’s that time of year… I usually use Kiehl’s, because they don’t test on animals, but it’s worth experimenting with something new.
• Should You Replace a Refrigerator? – Sound Money Matters. Aryn replaced her 22-year-old refrigerator, which should save her more than $100 a year in energy bills.
• Some Buildings Not Living Up to Green Label – New York Times. Tenant use can make an LEED-certified building an energy hog.
• Utility Set to Turn on Largest Mass. Solar Facility – Boston Globe. And four more solar projects may be up and running by the end of the year.
• How Violent Can a Farmer Get with His Livestock? – Slate. Farm animals are exempted from most animal welfare laws.
• How About Some Radishes with that Big Mac? – Boston Globe. We once bought a bag of oranges at a rest stop in Florida—it was cool.
• Reusable Canning Lids – Two Frog Home. I reuse my canning lids to store things in the pantry, but these you can actually use to can again.
• British Medical Council Bars Doctor Who Claimed Link Between Vaccines and Autism – New York Times. For the good of the world this guy’s discredit needs to be shouted to the rooftops.
• This Is Not a Weed – Boston Globe. A lot of the edible plants we learned about are considered weeds.

That’s all for now. Remember to send anything interesting that you see this week my way.