Germany orders shutdown of digital ads to save gas:
Germany has ordered overnight shutdowns for non-essential digital signage, to save its reserves of natural gas for more important purposes.
Like many European nations, Germany relies on natural gas imported from Russia. And thanks to Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, that gas is currently in short supply.
The European Union has therefore implemented an energy saving plan. One of Germany's tactics is requiring digital signage in shop windows and other non-essential locations to be turned off between 10:00PM and 6:00AM. Germany will also stop external lighting of some public buildings and implement many other power-saving measures.
[...] Further complicating matters is a requirement to turn off the screens altogether rather than leaving the displays blank.
Digital signage is seldom switched off, and retail staff will have to learn how to do that. Many digital signs also include a computer – some are Android machines, others use compute sticks, the Intel NUC and even the Raspberry Pi. Admins will therefore need to cope with extra reboots.
And then there's the matter of content updates, which are often scheduled overnight.
All of which adds up to a stressful moment for admins of digital signage, and not much time to get things right.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:05PM (3 children)
Does the actual computer have to be switched off, or just the screen (note that switching off the screen is not the same as leaving it blank).
OTOH, maybe switching the screen off separately might not be implemented in those devices.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday August 31 2022, @08:39PM (2 children)
Don't forget it goes the other way. E-ink (which uses zero power) is going to blow the minds of angry virtue signalers. It only uses energy when changed, so forcing everyone to make it blank at night will use more energy than not changing it. Admittedly not much signage uses e-ink but its still going to be hilarious to watch.
(Score: 2) by helel on Wednesday August 31 2022, @10:04PM (1 child)
Even if the war lasts long enough for e-ink to catch on I suspect Germany will source their power elsewhere by then...
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 02 2022, @12:26PM
A former higher education institution I attended in my youth already has e-ink displays next to each classroom door with schedule information and occasional propaganda.
They're probably still operational a couple years later (its been awhile).
I am pretty sure that "solidarity with The Ukraine" means they'll be blanking them every night to wear them out quicker.
(admittedly this is midwestern USA not Germany, but I'm sure there's places in Germany scrambling to find ways to "show solidarity" by using more energy and causing ecological damage by wearing out their e-ink faster, LOL)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @06:42PM
This is an interesting experiment: turn off all the ads and measure both the delta(happiness_level) of people as well as delta(sales).
Subsequently, no doubt at some point in time, some MBA is going to complain about "unrealized profits" and want to have them be turned on again because they don't know any better, the poor sods. At that point in time, I wonder how people will react when they are plunged back into an environment that bombards them with stimuli which continually tries to steal their attention away from things that matter more.
I say go further: disable and disallow any and all advertisement into perpetuity.
(Score: 3, Funny) by HammeredGlass on Wednesday August 31 2022, @07:18PM
I'd fill one of those out just for the fun of it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by krishnoid on Wednesday August 31 2022, @08:27PM
Maybe they could temporarily replace them with, like, physical signage? Ridiculous, I know, this isn't the boring ages [youtu.be], right?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @09:31PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJv9QYrlwg [youtube.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by legont on Wednesday August 31 2022, @10:40PM
It's liberal idiots on both sides of the pond who got us there
I guess they don't laugh any more, morons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfJv9QYrlwg [youtube.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:12AM
Neonlicht, schimmerndes Neonlicht. Und wenn die Nacht anbricht. Ist diese Stadt aus Licht ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msGEYVm4Qg4 [youtube.com]
First they came for the digital signs, then they'll come for the neonlights ... The german nightlight just won't be the same.
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday September 01 2022, @01:40AM (1 child)
I'm lost, wasn't Germany for green energy? Why are they using gas generators when we've had nuke plants, solar collectors, windmills, and hydro technologies for decades now? If their ok with fossil fuels, why not use a more readily available local variety? Also, why make yourself dependent on your adversary for energy? That does not make sense to me. When Russia first invaded Ukraine 10 years ago, you'd think someone would have started the divesting process. but instead they increased their dependency.
Is there some kind of old east german reason for this nonsense?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by helel on Thursday September 01 2022, @07:55AM
Germany's electricity breakdown is about 60% nuclear and renewable and 40% hydrocarbon, with the former growing over time and the latter shrinking. Just because Russia started a war doesn't mean Germany can drop the 40% to zero in a year or less meaning the next best thing is to reduce total electric demand to reduce pressure on that 40%.
As for the sense in making yourself dependent on adversaries... The theory is that it's like soft mutually assured destruction. Russia needs our cash and we need their gas so nobody will do anything stupid like start a war. It's a great plan until it isn't.
Republican Patriotism [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by TrentDavey on Thursday September 01 2022, @07:26PM
See what I did there?