The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Dell makes exploited hamster cry

Chris

Dell.....well I guess they should be proud to get an EPEAT silver star. 

Flame

http://www.epeat.net/ProductDisplay.aspx?action=view&search=true&productid=1215

So give the winner of a "green" contest a product that contains cadmium, mercury, lead, and chromium.

(Yeah, yeah, yeah....I'm trolling and almost all electronic equipment contain toxic materials. I'm just tired of "yoghurt-eating fruitcakes in hemp suits and sandals" talking about green and computing in the same breath. I'm tired of "Green is the new black." I'm tired of the environment being the latest cause for ne'er-do-bads. Almost every cause championed in the nineties has been largely forgotten as a result of the overused and melodramatic bleating of the sheep. I'd just like for once someone to say - "Hey, things aren't that terrible. Humanity has made it this far and will continue to make progress. Things are pretty good compared to pushing rocks on mastadons. If you want to, help out. If not, your inaction is NOT going to lead to the extinction of the species." No more doomsday.)

That is all.

skeptical i

Hamster in the rain ... 

Coat

... booted out by his mum's boyfriend (see http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/01/999_timewasters for details), only to find no solace in the cold vaguely- radioactive big city. This is what it sounds like when hamsters cry.

Mine's the yellow rainslicker with canister mask attached.

Ben

That squirrel looks like it is in for a right shafting..... 

Coat

Nuff said.

Mines the fur coat with the free Tee hanging out the pocket....ta.

David Glasgow

Identification error 

Coat

Ahem. Although artistic license causes some identification problems, the nationality of the artist and general physiology of the creature suggests it is probably a lemming (Lemmus Lemmus).

Obviously, it is distressed by the fact that a city has been built on the cliff used by generations of its ancestors.

Thats me. I'm off.

Spleen

Re: Identification error 

Well if it doesn't like the buildings, why doesn't it just dig through them? Oh wait, I guess all the steel in the skyscrapers would make it difficult. I guess it'll have to climb over, float down, mine into the floor and then dig into another shaft sunk with perfect timing at the other end.

Mine's the blue one. Death to the green-coat wearing blue-haired infidel lemmings!

What on earth is up with the winner of 'Best landscape'? Some sort of animé... thing? Projecting the force of nature through her hands into a world gone wrong, presumably via the power of love and badly-pronounced random English (or for extra points, German)? Is she about to pull a sword from between her breasts and chop down the skyscrapers? If she's that concerned with the environment then she should read up on the concept of heat loss and maybe reconsider wearing a skirt only slightly longer than my middle finger in weather that justifies a jumper and gloves.

Of course, I'm probably not the target audience for this sort of thing, considering that most science-fiction dystopias seem preferable to reality to me.

Ade

A critique of industrialisation over the animal kingdom? 

Pirate

Surely the squirrel is trying to escape the inevitable destruction the Dell sponsored bullet train will blaze? Isn't this a sensitive yet critical comment on the rampant nature of industrialisation and a plea to the world to think - for once - about God's little creatures?

I imagine this isn't quite the marketing hook Dell are looking for, even if it does look like it was made by a GCSE art student.

Jamie Kitson

Quick Link 

The link that I was looking for in the story:

http://apps.facebook.com/graffitiwall/contest_finalists.php?contest_id=4

Ismael

@ Spleen 

Happy

the Best Landscape winner is not about some anime girl projecting the force of nature trough her hands.

Is about some anime girl in short skirts pulling the pollution like some sort of curtain, just to reveal nature behind it.

I'm against all that hippie thing for the environment too, but I think we should be a little more concerned about that... Preferably in a non hipocrital fashion, of course...

And, all in all I really liked the Best Landscape. Is far more original that the grand winner (a little bit less commercial though...)

My English is crap. Probably I couldn't express what I was trying to say correctly, so, if you don't understand what I said, just ignore this post...