As we watch in horror what’s happening in the Gulf (and ongoing in Nigeria), I’m proud to announce that CultofMac.com is now 100% solar-powered.
We have a new green host, AISO.net, which operates the world’s only 100% solar-powered data center.
Based in Southern California, AISO came highly recommended for quality of service, but I’m most impressed by the company’s green credentials.
Unlike other data centers, which often buy carbon offsets to assert their green bona fides, there’s no oil or coal in sight at AISO.
“Everything is powered by solar, including our office, all servers, a/c systems, networking and other hardware,” the company says. “We are the first and only 100% completely solar powered, carbon free hosting company that does not use energy credits.”
AISO’s data center is powered by a pair of solar arrays mounted on the facility’s roof. The center is cooled by low-energy, water-based air conditioning units, and its office computers will soon be powered by an ingenious wind turbine mounted in the air conditioners’ intake ducts. The company runs on sun, air and water.
“The sun is dependable and nobody is waging wars over it,” says the company’s founder, Phil Nail, who took the company solar in 2002.
To prove it’s purely solar, AISO put a live webcam on the roof to show its solar array in action. (Warning: it’s a very boring, very dry joke).
As well as CultofMac.com, AISO hosts websites big and small, including a couple of data-intensive sites for film industry clients in nearby Hollywood.
I couldn’t be happier that we’ve gone green. Renewable energy is clearly the future and as forward-looking, technophile site, it was an obvious choice to make.
We encourage you to join us. If you’re a webmaster and interested in signing up with AISO, please use this affiliate link. We’ll get some credit to apply against our ever-growing bandwidth bill.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
