Ways to know the computer industry is really straining to find reasons for stodgy old music executives to embrace the digital era: A Microsoft and Intel-funded study provides the pretty non-shocking news that music downloads are “greener” than their compact-disc counterparts, thanks to binary files not needing much at all in the way of physical components (not to mention, no plastic wrap). Ways to know journalism is probably just as doomed: A ton of media outlets ran with this particular non-story. Oh, woe. [The Register]
I wish I’d gotten a job working on that study. Uh, let’s see…one has mass and takes up space and one doesn’t. DONE.
I wonder if they factored in the environmental impact of the manufacturing of the computers, servers, Internet infrastructure, etc. as well as the energy necessary to send and store the files.
As an aside: read It’s Not News, It’s Fark. Your hand will be slapping your forehead and you’ll realize journalism has been doomed for years. And yet I still continue to write, whether or not I get paid for it. Go figure.