Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!umich!caen!news.cs.indiana.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.iastate.edu!kickapoo.cs.iastate.edu!hamilton From: hamilton@kickapoo.cs.iastate.edu (Jon Hamilton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware Subject: Re: Leaving the Mac on Message-ID: Date: 25 Feb 91 01:35:48 GMT References: <9262.27c24f4a@cc.newcastle.edu.au> <39523@cup.portal.com> <1991Feb24.192201.26050@cs.utk.edu> Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA Lines: 54 wnn@ornl.gov writes: >In article >hamilton@kickapoo.cs.iastate.edu (Jon Hamilton) writes: [...] >Dismal efficiency! Regardless of how many moving parts there are, it all ends >up as heat. >Using a heating system that directly converts high-enthalpy electricity to >low-enthalpy heat is not a wise use of energy and is not a good excuse for >doing the same thing with a computer. Are you willing to you turn your's off at >least outside the heating season? No I am not. [...] >I turn my Mac on as soon as I arrive at the office. By the time I have taken >off my coat and settled down, it usually is ready. It takes me about 5 mins to boot A/UX and check all my file systems. I just won't do this every time I want to use the machine while I have an alternative. I can understand an argument for shutting the machine off at night when in bed, but I'm not the only one who uses my machine, and sometimes people are on doing things at odd hours of the night. >>UNIX filesystems are much nicer (less fragmented) when >>you leave the machine on and idle for a while. >File system maintenance does not require over one hundred hours per week! You >can configure your UNIX system to do it as part of the shutdown script. For >MultiFinder users, it is beneficial to boot daily because it eliminates memory >fragmentation. I have noticed that weird software problems, probably >attributable to minor corruption of the System Heap, are more commonly >experienced by users who leave their computers on all the time. When you power >on in the morning you get a clean slate. I reboot about once a week most of the time. I don't have any problem with you or anybody else shutting their computer off daily. Anyone who does so hourly I would question. I leave mine on. If you want to power yours down, fine. I'm not telling you to do otherwise. I was simply attempting to point out that there's more to consider than whether the hard drive(s) will last longer when determining a power routine for your machine. >Wolfgang N. Naegeli >University of Tennessee & Oak Ridge National Laboratory >Internet: wnn@ornl.gov Bitnet: wnn@ornlstc >Phone: 615-574-6143 Fax: 615-574-6141 (MacFax) >QuickMail (QM-QM): Wolfgang Naegeli @ 615-574-4510 -- % Internet : hamilton@kickapoo.cs.iastate.edu | Insert cute and/or % % America Online : JonHam | deeply meaningful % % Elsewhere : ThatGeek@his.little.corner | musical quote here %