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A Green Computer System
Making the internet accessible to your guests and being environmentally sensitive are good goals to strive for. And they are available to you with an integrated computer hardware and software solution. With a high speed internet connection and up to ten monitors and keyboards per CPU, you can enter the internet society world. This could beat offering a wireless internet service as far as computer and internet security goes, as well as keeping the connection speed strong. It's a green system because of the resources saved by not producing as many CPUs and because of the energy conservation you experience by running fewer computers.
Thanks to the genius of Userful Corporation you can effectively create your own internet cafe. If you have a high speed internet connection you can provide an internet service to your guests and clients with this internet portal and workstation system. Put the power of a desktop PC at your guests fingertips.
Here's how it works. DiscoverStation software runs on one PC, and ten computer monitors and keyboards access the power of that computer. You make money by selling time on the computer. Internet security is built right in, updates are uploaded to your computer automatically, and technology support is a phone call away. You could set up a room as your internet cafe or distribute the stations around the property, say in the guestrooms or meeting rooms. Offer the "calling cards" for sale, and you are in business, as it were.
This new computer networking solution is being touted as a green action. There is clearly a green component with Userful's Discover Station approach to computing. What's green about this is that one CPU, instead of ten, are used for computer use. The CPU is a big consumer of plastics and electronics, so by having only one that's doing the work of ten, you have saved resources. And you save energy in the process too -- energy conservation from beginning to end is a component of sustainability. Whether that's enough to call this a green product I guess is up to you.
Since many travelers today don't travel with their laptop computers, but need to check email and surf the web, you can provide the service of making it easy and convenient to do those things. For example, people print out their airline tickets while on the road, and many want to access to a full computer system for various tasks. This system allows all of that plus burning CDs, instant messaging, playing games, and working (a spreadsheet, word processor, and other applications are available). This can be an income stream for you by selling the equivalent of a calling card for the computer user to buy their computer time with.
One problem this helps over come is the challenge of providing a reliable wifi connection to your guestrooms. Sometimes the signal is too poor to be of any service to guests with their own laptop computers. Or the connection gets swamped with users so it's ineffective for everyone. If some of your guests are using your computer system that's hard wired to the internet load is taken off the wifi connection so people using it have a better experience too.
Whether you want to think of this computer concept as green or not, it's an interesting service to offer. And a good possible income source for you too.
Posted by Kit

