Techies reveal their creative side for charity

Another one of the five finalists was Bill Ayers, whose entry — the Lean, Green, Wind-powered IT machine — was based on the concept of wind-powered remote working, using a 1kW turbine to power a server running Windows Small Business Server.

Email is provided by Exchange and Outlook using Cached Exchange Mode, which Ayers claimed is tolerant of intermittent connectivity — something to be expected when using wind as a power source.

Ayers's project was also interpreted by Ross Garth:

"A picture, displaying the four elements (wind/air, earth, fire and water), is combined with IT 'elements'. This shows the correlation between nature and technology. The picture portrays a combination of production, destruction and the interaction of humans," said Garth.