About Eco PC Review

Eco PC Review is dedicated to bringing news, information and analysis to educate people about the environmental impact of computers. This is an issue that is not widely understood, and we are only just beginning to get an inkling of what all those electronic thinking machines might be doing to the environment. A majority of people in the developed world are computer users and the ubiquity of computers is almost complete, yet the questions about their eco-footprint are only beginning to be asked. There is much to be learned and solved.

EPCR has an activist, user-centric, and practical focus in achieving its mission. This is as much for the benefit of the audiences as for its staff: The writers, editors, researchers and other contributors who bring you Eco PC Review are keenly interested for themselves in finding out more about the issues around computers and the environment, and ways to deal with them. Ultimately, our goal is to help you - and ourselves - understand more fully the world that human beings create.

We invite everyone to share and contribute as they are able.

If you have news or information worthy of attention that we have not covered, we urge you post it directly yourself. Just sign up and log in to EPCR, and the Submit News link will become visible.

If you are a writer or journalist and wish to contribute articles, please contact Mike Chin, editor at ecopcreview dot com.

If you have special knowledge or information relevant to our cause because of your work or avocation and want to share this knowledge, please contact Mike Chin, editor at ecopcreview dot com.

For information about advertising, please contact business at ecopcreview dot com.

If you or your company would like to make a donation or some other money-equivalent contribution to EPCR, please contact business at ecopcreview dot com.

Who is Eco PC Review?

We are a loose, eclectic association of mostly computer-savvy people who have an interest in expanding awareness about computers and their environment impacts.

Core Staff

Mike Chin is the Editor and Founder. Born in Korea to restless, ambitious parents and raised in Seoul, Singapore, Bangkok and Massachusettes. Obtained a BSc in “Humanities & Technology” from WPI, with history as a major, physics and marketing as minors. A leap into business journalism in Asia, then a pivotal life decision: Oh, Canada! Several careers later, he still strives for that elusive equilibrium between science and art, left and right brain. Also founded Silent PC Review in 2002.

Richard Grams handles Technology and Design.

Editorial Contributors

Jeff Kane has been "working" with computers ever since 1984 when he saved his money to buy a TI-99/4A. Eleven years later he figured out how to get paid for it. Now he works in the IT department for a Fortune 1000 company. When he isn't fighting SPAM, reconfiguring the firewall or waiting on hold with tech support, he's trying to make sense of the corporate IT world. He's hoping that by sharing with us an inside view we can make the IT world of beige boxes a little greener.

Christopher Weber is a PhD student in Engineering and Public Policy and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. His research interests include the environmental impacts of American household consumption, environmental consequences of international trade, and international climate policy. He is, in the words of a well-established academic in the field, a "rising star".

Mike Waldhier is an IT professional who has been working for the past 10 years as a Network and Database Administrator in various capacities. He has a keen interest in the ecological issues stemming from the overuse of "disposable" technologies, in particular computers and cell phones, and has recently begun looking into energy-efficient, low-noise computers as a means to reduce overall energy-consumption. Outside of the ecological realm, Mike enjoys a modestly busy life in Pennsylvania, and will be starting an MBA program this fall at Penn State University.

Bradford Raughley has had a strong interest in the nature and ecological issues from an early age. He currently lives a semi-nomadic life on the east coast of the US with his wife and a fluctuating number of animals.

David Eng is pursuing an undergraduate degree in CS and in Mathematics at Rice University. He is fascinated by the challenge of EPCR to mobilize large numbers of disparate peoples via the Internet.

J.D. Hodges is a technology enthusiast residing in an inholding within the Mark Twain National Forest. J.D. and his family live entirely "off the grid" with solar energy for electricity and satellite internet. J.D. is a practicing attorney in Missouri, with his juris doctor from the University of Tulsa and his B.S. in CIS from Drury University. When is not lawyering or tech consulting, J.D. works on his new architectural visualization services project: NetRender.com.

How Eco PC Review began

The concept for Eco PC Review germinated originally during the power efficiency testing of computers and computer components for Silent PC Review. SPCR is a web site that began in 2002 as Mike Chin's hobby while he continued his day jobs as a contract technical writer. It grew and expanded to take over Mike's life. SPCR is now firmly established as the resource on the web for all things related to noise around computers, and ways to minimize that noise. The site has had a significant impact on the PC marketplace, in bringing noise issues into the viewscreen of IT marketers, and sometimes, even the designers. Today, quiet computing components and PCs represent a small but very real and firmly established sector of the marketplace.