random babble

[cornerofmadness]

Felt rather awful all day so didn't do much but work more on that reproduction and fetal development lecture set and lounge around catching up on last week's tv

Castle Okay yes, I know the plot is extremely unlikely but that said it's just plain fun. Like I said last time, it's the women that make the show for me, not Nathan. (okay he's cute and all) His daughter is a pretty cool character. Mom too. I'm less impressed with the female lead. This year we're suddenly swamped by the stoic tough female cop but she doesn't rise above caricature (witness, Castle, the Eleventh Hour, Fringe and the Mentalist).I'm not sure what to think about it. It's not like it's a new idea and it's done SO much better elsewhere (The Closer, any Law and Order, hell Agent Scully)

Heroes OMG this was almost good. Wow. the ending with Matt and Daphne was sweet and sad. Warm Mommy and Cold Daddy were hysterical. Touch and Go Baby great name. Wow, they FINALLY remembered Micah exists. I was wondering if they had forgotten him and his cousin entirely. Here's praying they don't bring in yet another 'sister-clone' of Nikki

Dollhouse Okay yes I said I was done with this but there was nothing on friday so I took a chance. SHUDDERS. We're now into the part Joss Whedon was raving about in interviews (giving us warning it would take this long to get to the good stuff). It's still awful. the slutty and still ugly clothing they're putting on Eliza is insulting and not really attractive (then again I don't find Eliza all that hot, unlike much of my Flist) This episode was just dumb. In so many many ways (well at least they knew teh hippocampus plays a role in memory) Boyd bumbles around uselessly (and he's the only character I liked) then punches out the bad guy but how does he even know that? All he sees is Echo sobbing don't leave me to him. And did Echo manage to convince anyone she was smart enough to understand that stuff in the lab when she was Catherine? Well didn't convince me and the acting is still wooden. So yeah unless I get totally bored I'm thru with this. Fox is usually so fast to cancel and now it has something that deserves it and it's not pulling the trigger

And the REAL reason for this post in many ways turn your computers off at night I've known about the energy stuff for a few years now (my school is Draconian about it but no one listens half the time. sigh). I just thought this was a very good short write up on how horribly wasteful and damaging to Mother Earth it is to leave the computer burning 24/7. I don't know enough about PC's to know if the restart stuff is true but I've read countless articles in my professional journals about the energy stuff.

Comments

[absolutefiction.livejournal.com]

I knew leaving on your computer overnight was bad but not that bad. wow.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah, it's amazing how much it adds to the electric bill. I've been switching off power cords (where I can) at night and the electric bill did come down

[absolutefiction.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been nagging my whole family to unplug cell chargers and stuff for awhile. lol

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

cell chargers a big offender

[dragonydreams.livejournal.com]

I was very excited for the return of Micah. I just knew he was Rebel. It made the most sense. Sadly, there's one more Niki clone: Barbara. We haven't met her yet, but we know she exists.

I almost always turn my computer off at night. It doesn't like being left on all the time.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Honestly it never even occured to me that he was Rebel since it's been so long. In retrospect it made sense

I was hoping Barbara died or something. I do remember hearing about her.

yeah mine never did either

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

I don't leave my laptop running when I'm not using it, but my company leaves computers on at night for IT updates.
:/

The mom in Castle reminds me of Endora from Bewitched. My main quibble so far is that they have to make the police awfully dumb to make Nathan's character seem smart.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah that making them dumb thing is the 'ridiculous' part that bugged me

She almost looks a little like Endora too

That's costing your company $$$

[ishte.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't agree with you on the 'turn off your computer' thing. It's not very good for your components to turn them on and off every day. It's better to let them go into standby mode. Turn off your monitor certainly, but don't turn off the box. Have it set to go into standby mode after x number of minutes of inactivity, but let it stay on. Standby is a very low power mode. This also allows your windows updates to take place on time, and your virus and spyware scanners can run overnight during the hours you're not actively using it.

I understand the need to save energy. I agree with that, however, I don't agree with this method. I don't think he helps to save this little bit of energy at the cost of having land fills more quickly filled with silicon parts that were worn out before their time because of the ons and offs.

I switched from a desktop to a laptop for my primary computer several years ago because laptops use far FAR less power than desktop comptuers. I can hook my laptop to a big monitor if I want to, but no longer feel the need with my current one becuase the screen is nearly as big as my Mag Innovision 18" monitor anyway, and the picture is better by far. I love the portability of just being able to pick my computer up and take it with me where ever I want. When my power was out for weeks, it was a godsend to be able to just pack up and go to Panera or wherever there was power and connectivity.

I do agree with the concept of turning off power strips to TV's VCR's, Cell Phone Chargers when they are not in use. I no longer use a regular alarm clock... My cell phone alarm wakes me up, tells me when to go to work and keeps all my appointments for me. It has to be charged a couple times a week since I rarely talk on the phone. My old alarm clock is a nuisance becuase the numbers are SO BRIGHT that they are like having a blue night light in the room all night anyway. Annoying. I also save my bath water for flushing the toilet when I'm here by myself. My daughter will also do this but it's kind of a nuisance while the house is for sale. I'll return to this practice once I sell this house and move.

I turn off power strips to the small kitchen appliances (coffee maker, stick blender, toaster, etc) I have switched to Eco bulbs even though now I'm hearing that they may be more harmful to our environment than standard incandescents... LED bulbs will replace them soon enough, and meanwhile they do save me energy costs and the cost of replacing bulbs constantly, which I have to do in this house all the time anyway.

I'll try to think of some of the other things I do, but when your computer is in standby mode, and your monitor is off, (TUBE monitors especially use a lot of power, it's worth the investment to get an LCD panel. It'll save you plenty in energy costs) your computer really does not use that much power, but is still able to do it's updates and run it's important self protection routines.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

you're not disagreeeing with me. You're disagreeing with the computer people this journalist interviewed. I said I had had no idea

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

I don't turn off the power strip to the TV & electronics, because if Tivo and the cable box are powered down, I don't get overnight updates, and I have to re-set the clocks all the time.

My computer, however, is set to hibernate so it does power down at night, without having to shut it off all the time (which is bad for a computer, unless you LEAVE it off for significant periods).

I'm not sure how much power we'd save by turning everything off -- there's clocks on everything in the kitchen, filter light on the fridge (which stays on no matter what), the cat's water fountain, the VCR which has a timer and therefore a clock, etc. They've made it very hard to "just unplug." Last month's power bill was $54.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah the tv/recorder stay on too for the same reason.

the computer guys didn't seem to think turning it off would hurt the computer but like I said, I don't know. our IT wants them off at teh end of the day

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I've heard from more than one source that leaving a laptop on for more than an hour or two shortens its life. Now I'm hearing that turning it on and off shortens its life, too. Damned if I do, damned if I don't, apparently. Well, the Tigerbook still runs after ten years of being turned on and off, so I think I'll just continue to disconnect everything at night and pack it away on the computer shelf, where it can sit and mull things over on its own internal battery power instead of running up the numbers on our (brand-new, digital) power meter. Leaving three computers sucking on the power grid's tits 24/7 seems excessively wasteful, anyway.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I think that's pretty good evidence that it's not doing the lap top much harm