Low Power Cloud - towards a greener world?

An interesting innovation to create a low power consumption cloud using Netbook processors: http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22504/page1/.

The fact that jumped out to me was that when we're using our machines to check email or whatever else, we never think twice about going to one extra site. What we do not consider is that many sites are so loaded with information that some computer somewhere in a datacenter is definitely expending all the power to pump those KB's of data out to you. Facebook for e.g., has hundreds of applications, each talking to some server somewhere, your home page receives Status updates from friends, photos, videos and what not! Videos especially take up so much bandwidth. Sometimes we are just "browsing" without a second thought. I am not saying we should all not use technology or not be social and be boring green people :-) but this realization is very important, IMO, to be judicious about how much coal we burn up by every act of ours. Certainly it created some awareness in me.

How do we measure what the optimal power consumption per person is? I have no idea! The equations to calculate each of our carbon footprints would be so complex that no easy ones exist. And do I not browse in order to save power and read books instead? How many books do I buy, considering some tree somewhere was cut down to make it? The interrelationships are all complex, but we can always consider whether what we use is reusable and/or renewable. And certainly, we know when we can cut down excessive usage, and as long as we hold those reins on ourselves, it's still pretty darn good!