Why You Should NOT Shut Down Your PC
- Thread starter Porphyrogenitus
- Start date
Porphyrogenitus
Junior Member
- Oct 12, 2011
- 113
- 72
This last part tells me your entire post was probably politically motivated, but I'll respond to your legitimate questions:
While I'm sure boot speed is actually an issue for for many users, even faster users have to deal with manual data entry every time they login. While you get your cup of tea and likely get further distracted in the process, your PC sits idly for several minutes waiting for you to login. That's lost time right there. Then while waiting for the computer to load, productive people have to do the monkey job of opening 10+ programs like Dreamweaver, Chrome, Itunes, Excel, Word, etc and then manually opening the files from where they left off. The point isn't that this is excessively strenuous, but more that after 365 days these 10+ minutes wasted here, plus the time shutting down each night, this time annually adds up to 100+ hours of your time. That's 3-5% of your working year. Even if you can cut this a bit, you're looking at some serious productivity increases. Brush off something like this 10 times and you're witnessing what really differentiates the leaders from those that serve.
You bet my time is that precious. Your time on earth is equally limited... why waste it unnecessarily? On your deathbed you will beg for this time back, so appreciate it while you have it. If you're this loose with your time, how do you plan to make it in IM where self-motivation is by far the most important success factor?
People with clients and cash flows certainly do. 'Remember me' is not secure - it leaves you vulnerable to session hijacking or employee theft. Personally I don't want my PayPal, bank accounts, email accounts, forum accounts, etc. exposed this way. The ability to hit f5 with one master lock (windows + L) saves time and keeps me more organized.
Never heard of anyone having an issue with this. Did you have a bad past experience? I'm sure we'd all love love to hear this story
Hey its not for everyone, just some advice. Curious though, how did you post then?too bad, i just turned off my computer
Porphyrogenitus - you're right, it's not for everyone, just as not everyone would divide the world into masters and servants based on computing habits (nor would they choose to be on the side of the equation you clearly think you are).
I'm curious too: are you so virulently anti-global warming theory that you won't even consider the ramifications of energy wastage?
Feel free to call me on being liberal hippy scum, but ignoring my original question seems like an admission of guilt...
I'm curious too: are you so virulently anti-global warming theory that you won't even consider the ramifications of energy wastage?
Feel free to call me on being liberal hippy scum, but ignoring my original question seems like an admission of guilt...
pxoxrxn
Supreme Member
- Dec 21, 2011
- 1,398
- 2,084
If you want to save even more money, trying doing IM without a screen. After a while you wont even need to buy screens and you'll be saving bulk cash. The only problem is you don't know if your doing it right because you just have to hope a check shows up in the mail.
CrushL
Junior Member
- Jul 4, 2013
- 160
- 46
Sounds a bit stiff to me. I surly do work a lot, but honestly not that 'tight'. When I get up in the morning, first thing I do is pressing the power button of my computer. Right after that, I go to the bathroom and get back to the computer through my kitchen where I got some breakfast.
While I have breakfast, I open my tools and programs while reading some news sites and checking stuff. When I'm done eating, I then start doing real business stuff. I really can't see me 'losing' time there since I wouldn't do anything else if my computer was already running (except for not pressing the button after getting up and not starting tools while eating).
Only exception is of course when I need something to run through the night (don't have a Win VPS yet).
bertbaby
Elite Member
- Apr 15, 2009
- 2,025
- 1,535
Your calculations are missing a few key components, first all computer components have a MTBF, a mean time between failure. Leaving the computer on be it a laptop or desktop means mechanical components are moving toward their inevitable failure and that is usually the fans and hard drives. Fans are all over the place, sometimes on the main board, power supplies and even the graphic cards and Steve Jobs had good reason to hate them. Even when there are no moving parts, some components such as a SSD have a limited number of cycles. Heat build-up is a killer and really bothersome with laptops as well. Heat kills electronics.
Other reasons for a reboot are to refresh the Windows environments to address system resources, heap stacks and the like that become full and cause the system to grind to a halt. Memory leaks in browsers are a killer for example.
And finally we come to the issue of conservation of power, this planet isn't getting any greener on its own.
That said my main administrative computer is on 24x7 and that brings me to my final point. If you leave it running 24x7, particularly if its a desktop, it should be on a UPS and protected somewhat from the vagaries of the local utility company.
Other reasons for a reboot are to refresh the Windows environments to address system resources, heap stacks and the like that become full and cause the system to grind to a halt. Memory leaks in browsers are a killer for example.
And finally we come to the issue of conservation of power, this planet isn't getting any greener on its own.
That said my main administrative computer is on 24x7 and that brings me to my final point. If you leave it running 24x7, particularly if its a desktop, it should be on a UPS and protected somewhat from the vagaries of the local utility company.
Porphyrogenitus
Junior Member
- Oct 12, 2011
- 113
- 72
It occurred to me that I should have added three things: 1) a costs section, as bertbaby laid out for us (too scared of tl;dr). 2) you should still restart at least once a week, just not every day. 3) costs are further decreased because routine tasks can always be scheduled at night, and it makes it easier for you to justify doing it then. Many times I find myself distracted by the programs running in the background, and I catch myself wasting 1+ hour just watching console output. I doubt I'm the only one.
As far as the hard drives go. 4 2tb drives have been spinning for two years now. Yes they can go bad, but I monitor their health scrupulously on Defraggler and have them on RAID 1. Probably lost some people here, but you can pick up a 3tb drive now for less than $100, even if one went bad its still a comparatively small expense that still dwarfs even depreciation. Further, you can set secondary drives to idle when you are away.
On a standard HP or Dell laptop, yea this wouldn't be advisable without adding some airflow. Those parts aren't designed to be run continuously, heat is a killer for them especially. Sleep mode is great for these.
As far as the memory leaks, again valid point but there are certainly ways to avoid this most of the time should it prove to be a problem. Simply installing a different OS or using a different browser should make restarting every couple days affordable for any modern PC.
Your final point regarding the UPS is a really good point. They're a bit expensive, but even if you're reckless they also give you the advantage of being able to save your work when a power outage hits.
If all you're doing is browsing, checking news, opening a couple tools, you might not be looking at much time savings. But if you do the same thing every day, you might want to consider it as it might save you some time. Just takes a couple restarts and a timer to run the numbers for yourself.
Seriously though, threads cannot be about politics here. My bad for giving you the benefit of the doubt thinking your questions were legitimate. I won't respond to your trolling anymore, so please stop polluting an otherwise healthy discussion with your arbitrary political opinions. Nor will I respond to anybody's climate change arguments as they are not the issue at hand here. If you want to expand this thread over to a politics forum, please make the thread, link to it, and I'll come join you.
I agree with what you are saying about the moving parts. I'll admit it: I go through a fan or two a year doing this. I order them through JAMECO, unit cost is <$3 + shipping. They aren't hard to reinstall, just have to open up the case, unscrew the screws, and plug it in the same slot. Some time and a bit of money is lost here, but still not enough to justify wasting ~15-20 mins of every day.
As far as the hard drives go. 4 2tb drives have been spinning for two years now. Yes they can go bad, but I monitor their health scrupulously on Defraggler and have them on RAID 1. Probably lost some people here, but you can pick up a 3tb drive now for less than $100, even if one went bad its still a comparatively small expense that still dwarfs even depreciation. Further, you can set secondary drives to idle when you are away.
On a standard HP or Dell laptop, yea this wouldn't be advisable without adding some airflow. Those parts aren't designed to be run continuously, heat is a killer for them especially. Sleep mode is great for these.
As far as the memory leaks, again valid point but there are certainly ways to avoid this most of the time should it prove to be a problem. Simply installing a different OS or using a different browser should make restarting every couple days affordable for any modern PC.
Your final point regarding the UPS is a really good point. They're a bit expensive, but even if you're reckless they also give you the advantage of being able to save your work when a power outage hits.
Thanks for taking the time to think through the logic, I'm not trying to "sell" the idea, I'm just putting this out there that this is something to consider. There might be certain situtations where this does not apply. If you don't use your computer for much, just browsing, etc., you're not looking at much savings. But if you have 10+ programs that are running, most of which require opening subordinate files, you're losing time here. That's it. The estimate for your own situation is undoubtedly different.
If all you're doing is browsing, checking news, opening a couple tools, you might not be looking at much time savings. But if you do the same thing every day, you might want to consider it as it might save you some time. Just takes a couple restarts and a timer to run the numbers for yourself.
Please scourge me, I plead guilty of not following an unproven sentiment that's perpetuated by politically-motivated anit-capitalists that steal 43% of my earnings to pay a lazy segment of our population to sit around and act entitled to live off the confiscatory spoils of extortionate rapine.
Seriously though, threads cannot be about politics here. My bad for giving you the benefit of the doubt thinking your questions were legitimate. I won't respond to your trolling anymore, so please stop polluting an otherwise healthy discussion with your arbitrary political opinions. Nor will I respond to anybody's climate change arguments as they are not the issue at hand here. If you want to expand this thread over to a politics forum, please make the thread, link to it, and I'll come join you.
bertbaby
Elite Member
- Apr 15, 2009
- 2,025
- 1,535
"As far as the hard drives go. 4 2tb drives have been spinning for two years now. Yes they can go bad, but I monitor their health scrupulously on Defraggler and have them on RAID 1."
Last two crashes I had came with zero warning and were catastrophic. RAID is a good solution, so are backups and for one machine I regularly clone drives and keep a spare ready to go!
Last two crashes I had came with zero warning and were catastrophic. RAID is a good solution, so are backups and for one machine I regularly clone drives and keep a spare ready to go!