Blackle.com -Saving Energy One Search at a Time

Blackle.com is an energy-saving search engine offered by the Australian group, Heap Media. From their site:

"Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black.... In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.

"We believe that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Secondly we feel that seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser reminds us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy."

Blackle encourages you to use their site as your home page, for energy saving, and also offers a nice list of energy-saving tips, too.

Freebies: Washington Mutual Checking Account

Clever advertising is just a good choice in agencies. How good is the WaMu offer? Well, it's true: you get a checking and a savings account for free. This includes free checks, free online banking (including bill pay) and a free ATM card (gold). Branches are popping up everywhere, so convenience shouldn't be an issue.

There are drawbacks, tho: it may work a little differently than your other bank. For instance, make a deposit and you get a confirmation sheet that could easily be confused with your Starbucks invoice. No formal banking slip here.

Go inside to get some cash, and you see kiosks with tellers standing there. There's not any long bar, with windows, separating the two of you. Cash withdrawals here get you a paper slip, which you take over to a withdrawal machine in the corner - near the guard - and get your own cash. When I asked the bank clerk what she thought about this, she said she felt safer with this system. Me? I'd prefer the long bar and the big windows ....

As for customer reviews, there's a lot of bad juju online. Surf through My3Cents.com, EOpinions, and RateItAll.

Can't tell you any more than that. I opened one out of curiosity, really -- and I'm not sure how much trust I really have in WaMu, frankly. That kiosk business is strange, and I like a standard deposit slip, somehow.

Daylight Savings Time is THIS Sunday

Yes, finally. Daylight Savings Time hits this Sunday. We move our clocks back one hour - remember "Spring Forward, Fall Back" from years past?

The history of Daylight Savings Time is pretty interesting. Did you know that during his stay in Paris, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the French could save money on candles by getting up earlier, and taking advantage of the morning sun?