[Greenbuilding] interesting info re what systems are we living with today that were designed for the past....

[RT]

Sacie offered:

> http://www.quora.com/What-are-some-systems-we-live-with-today-that-were-designed-for-a-world-of-the-past#ans903979

I haven't actually looked at the above site but Kathy Ging's (?) post  
about installing carpet in her home seemed to fit with Sacie's topic.

For at least the past three decades, people who have aspired to build  
Green and healthy homes would not think of installing carpet in them even  
if they were made of "natural" fibres.

True, natural fibres wouldn't off-gas the horrible stuff that most  
synthetics do but regardless of the type of fibre, carpet collects and  
harbours crud, allergens, mites, atmospheric pollutants/contaminants etc  
... none of which contribute to healthy indoor air.

And I am also reminded of the woman who complained that her sunspace  
wasn't performing as per design predictions. Turns out she had covered the  
high-mass floor with indoor/outdoor carpet. D'oh!

I can understand why those people in the past who lived in uninsulated,  
drafty old castles and houses would want to put down carpet to make their  
living space a little more comfortable but in 2012 when warm floors and  
draft-free interiors are possible ?  (And "no" the "safer for little jam  
faces doing face plants" argument doesn't fly. A whole generation of  
kids-without-carpeted-interiors who are now cosmetically, perfectly-fine  
adults is plenty of proof to the contrary.

and re: Sanjay's run-from-a-CD Puppylinux

Ubuntu can be run from a USB pen drive (aka memory stick ... ie handy for  
those units which may not have a CD-ROM drive) and can do so without  
having to do anything about the pre-existing operating system that is on  
the computer's hard drive. That is to say, one can boot up from the hard  
drive and run the existing operating system or boot up from the pen drive  
and run Ubuntu.

And Ubuntu is updated to a new version every four months, with the updated  
version being offered at no cost.


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Rob Tom
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
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