[WEB4LIB] Re: Catalog Use Only (Public Stations)

[thrall12]

Dan Lester wrote:

> Don't power them down.  No reason to do so.  Doing so will shorten
> their life anyway.
>
> dan

I must respectfully disagree with this, first on environmental
grounds, then more generally in terms of unnecessary
system stress due to leaving systems on and unattended
for extended periods of time.  First, if anyone has been
paying the slightest attention to the severe power problems
recently plaguing people out in California, there are ample
environmental and economical reasons to turn all systems
off.  Next, "Energy Star" compliant or not, all systems draw
electricity.  If there's a power outage or severe electrical
storm activity overnight, all systems left on (regardless
of surge protection and any UPS in place) are susceptible
to possible software/hardware damage.  Do this enough
times on a Win95/98 or even a Linux system and file
damage can get severe.  Leaving systems on overnight
is taking an awful risk with expensive equipment.  If it's
not being used for off-hours processing activities, any
inactive system should be off.  Hard drives not set to
power down after a period of inactivity will also be
going on unnecessarily, especially if a program is left
running (e.g. a web browser with a page loaded that
autorefreshes), causing the drive to go all night long.
Power settings can be adjusted in operating systems
to power down monitors and spin down hard drives,
but the CPU fans (which burn out quite frequently
these days even in name brand PCs left on like this)
and all mostly all other peripherals (e.g. CD towers,
scanners, printers) are on and may also be vulnerable
to power dips/outages/undervoltage and surges.
Starting up a car uses up gas and stresses the engine
too, but none of us think of leaving it on overnight
to avoid that possibility because it just makes no
sense.  The difference is we're conscious of the gas
(especially these days with costs where they're at);
electricity seems infinite, but it is not--unless someone
proves Zero Point/Free Energy....  In the meantime,
do the power grids a major favor and please turn the
things off that can be turned off.  Our natural resources
are not in infinite supply, so how about a little timely
conservation wherever possible?  It can and will
make a big difference.

Robert