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May 21, 2007

people

Al Gore really likes his Macs

Posted May. 21, ’07, 7:53 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Apple » People

Al Gore's Office It’s not every day that you’ll be able to find someone that sits on a board of directors that eats his own dog food (and I doubly doubt that in the case of Iams), but former Vice President Al Gore really does use a Mac. With three monitors no less.

Ok boys and girls, now it’s time for your homework. Go look at the photo. Take a hard long look. Then report back what equipment he’s using and what he’s doing. Extra credit to the person that thinks he can clean up his office in under eight hours.


8 Comments

Inkling Author Profile Page said:

Given how Prime Time Al tailors his public appearance, it might be better to ask if this is how his office really looks. He may have spent hours collecting and arranging those stacked papers 'just so.'

The one thing that is undoubtedly real is all the wasted coal-fired energy driving those three monitors. When it comes to energy use, Gore is a pig. A few months ago, The Tennesian reported that just one of his three homes used more energy than twenty typical homes. Like all too many eco-celebrities, it's do as I say not do as I do. And, sadder than that, all the ecofanatics seem content to be the movement's much trodden upon little serfs.

May 21, 2007 8:11 AM
Ponderer said:

Yes, but the Tennessean did NOT report that he's paying far more for green power, and he's been extensively upgrading his house to take it almost completely off the grid. Here's Gore's response, specifically:

"Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology."

Get your facts straight.

May 21, 2007 8:35 AM
Daniel said:

At the risk of making this a political, instead of technical, blog entry, I think some clarification as to Gore's energy use bears mentioning. First, his home was built in 1911, and a 1911 home is not, without modification, an energy-efficient home. Accordingly, Gore's use of energy has been quite high; however, it should be duly noted that 100% of his energy is green energy (i.e. produced by renewable sources... not coal-fired plants). Second, Gore has, since the time he purchased the house, been making renovations to it to increase its efficiency, and he plans to use solar technology to further those ends. While Gore might, with his money, have been able to make these changes on a more speedy schedule, it's also important to note that he has been rather busy, and using green energy until such time as the necessary renovations can be made seems like a good and reasonable compromise. If everyone did as Gore is currently doing (and not merely saying), we'd all be using homes powered 100% by green energy. And that's a good thing.

May 21, 2007 8:43 AM
MzK said:

Look at the right side of the center screen...

He's checking out Drudge!

May 21, 2007 9:12 AM
Samo said:

@Inkling

Wow. You jumped on the former Vice President pretty fast--all without mentioning the Mac-angle (which was the point of this post, I think).

For a less bombastic look at the Gore-household energy use see this Snopes post.

May 21, 2007 9:15 AM
Andre Da Costa said:

Well, he's on the Apple Board, so he gets free hardware.The setup is just wicked though, I won't have such a setup until 2015, unless I win the lottery this week.

May 21, 2007 10:28 AM
Fletcher said:

Pretty amazing what $5,000 of monitors gives you. Almost makes me want to give up my MacBook for a desktop again.

I remember seeing the Cinema Display on Jody Foster's characters desk in the movie Inside Man. It just looked surreal. Like it had to be a movie prop and not a real monitor.

May 21, 2007 10:30 AM
Steve Rubel said:

I have the hard copy. It has a bigger image - and I studied it. From the looks of it, iGoogle is on the center monitor. I can't see what feeds are there, but he's got the weather in column three and the purple clock in column two and lots of news feeds. All three monitors appear to be running Safari. Oh and the caption in the magazine said that Al uses mind mapping software. Note the diagram above his head. It's a mindmap.

May 21, 2007 11:17 AM

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