Powering down PCs

[Dan Marmion]

Much as I hate to disagree with both Dan (Lester, that is) and Walt, I'm
going to.  No wait, let me rephrase that more positively....  I'm such a
nice guy that I'm going to agree with everyone.  Yeah, that's it.

Seriously, I've concluded that, strictly from the PC's point of view, the
best answer I can give is, it doesn't matter.  From an ecological point of
view, you certainly want to run earth-friendly machines, but assuming you
do, I think arguments for and against frequent (i.e., daily or weekly)
powering down are purely local.  I personally want to have remote access
to my computer when I'm not in the office, so I leave it on.  But whenever
I'm asked the question, my answer is it really doesn't matter, do whatever
feels best to you.  If you think you might be using it again that day,
leave it on, but when you go home, turn it off if you think you might be
doing the earth a favor.  Leave it on if you can't see any point in
turning it off.  Let's worry about more important things.

Dan Marmion

-- 
Daniel Keith Marmion           email: dmarmion at nd.edu
Associate Director for Information Systems and Access
University of Notre Dame Libraries  http://lib.nd.edu
221 Hesburgh Library, Notre Dame, Indiana  46556-5629
voice: (219) 631-3811             fax: (219) 631-6772
Editor: _Information Technology and Libraries_ (LITA)