Sara S
07-23-2007, 08:33 AM
This is by Annie Beckett, in the July 20 issue of the Independent Coast Observer:
This is a cautionary tale: my computer's been in the hospital for two weeks. In my carbon footprint shrinking zeal, I've been turning it off between uses and every night to save energy. The tech doc says that's comparable to suspending one's metabolism between activities and during sleep, critical housekeeping stops, "dust bunnies" accumulate and clog up the works, and compromise, in this case file corruption and hard drive glitches ensue. Ouch. Additionally, turning off the machine between uses means it has to cycle through its programs every time you restart and that sucks a lot more juice than leaving it on in sleep mode, which uses trickle power. To accomplish both maximumenergy efficiency and proper computer care, set your machine to sleep automatically after a few minutes of nonuse and leave it on overnight once a week to do its crucial background tasks. The monitor, which uses significant power, can be safely turned off every night. Happily, my Mac will be coming home this week, all better. Moral of the story? Think before you shrink.
This is a cautionary tale: my computer's been in the hospital for two weeks. In my carbon footprint shrinking zeal, I've been turning it off between uses and every night to save energy. The tech doc says that's comparable to suspending one's metabolism between activities and during sleep, critical housekeeping stops, "dust bunnies" accumulate and clog up the works, and compromise, in this case file corruption and hard drive glitches ensue. Ouch. Additionally, turning off the machine between uses means it has to cycle through its programs every time you restart and that sucks a lot more juice than leaving it on in sleep mode, which uses trickle power. To accomplish both maximumenergy efficiency and proper computer care, set your machine to sleep automatically after a few minutes of nonuse and leave it on overnight once a week to do its crucial background tasks. The monitor, which uses significant power, can be safely turned off every night. Happily, my Mac will be coming home this week, all better. Moral of the story? Think before you shrink.