🚀 go-pugleaf

dons@olympus.net (Don Schmelling) writes:

>Bernd "Bernie" Meyer (root@wombat.hanse.de) wrote:

>: Now, does the computer that user referred to usually stay up all the time? I
>: mean, I consider myself to be pretty computer-clever (I should, being a
>: BCS :-), and I sometimes need some time to realize that a machine is
>: switched off.... The machines I use are _never_ switched off, so first I hit
>: a key, then check whether the monitor has power, then hit some other key,
>: then wait some more, then hit some other key.... you get the idea?

>The computers were regularly turned off.  I really do not have trouble
>telling if a computer is on or off.  I mean they usually have a hard disk
>spinning or a fan or a power light or something.

a) _You_ have no trouble telling whether a computer is on or off. However,
you were calling a _user_ sumb because he asked why the thing didn't do
anything.

b) If you came to my place and would look at the computer, you'd not hear a
harddisk (spins down after 1 minute idle), not see a power light (they are
just annoying bits of light, and I sleep in the same room, so they are not
attached) and hear no fan (it's a regulated Papst fan, very very silent, see
above). If that made you flip the switch, you'd be in a lot of trouble!

c) look at your average Workstation in a computer room. It often doesn't
have any lights, or these are well hidden behind some panel. There are many
machiens around all making a humming, nearly unlocatable noise. Hard to tell
whether they are on or off

d) Accidentally switching _off_ a workstation is a very bad idea. in the
best of cases, it just takes a long time to come up again. Worse cases
involve the sudden killing of long running background processes, potentially
in the middle of a disk write. Worst case is filesystem corruption leading
to massive data loss. And that's from someone who knows --- now what horrors
do you think a _user_ might imagine?

>: Now if some user (and _just_ user) has the same experience, without the
>: background knowledge, how do you expect the poor soul to realize that a
>: computer _could_ be switched off?

>Computers, like most eletrical appliances or tools or whatever you want to
>refer to a Personal Computer as, need to have the power switch turned on.

A power switch which, for reasons of American regulations about the distance
of the point there power goes into a machine and the point where it is
switched, is often located on the back of the machine. A power switch which
rarely is labelled at all (or at all visible), and which sometimes is
miswired. 

>Now perhaps it is unfair to expect, people to understand that electrical
>appliances need to have the power on.

_Of course_ a computer needs power. But
a) The user might never have seen a power switch
b) The user might not consider himself permitted to flip said powerswitch.

Point b) above is not as dumb as it may sound --- in large installations,
there are only few with turn-on rights. This is to prevent accidents due to
lack of communication. The same with turn-off rights --- the system might
not react to keyboard or mouse actions anymore, but there is a good chance
the supervisor has some idea on how to get it down gracefully. If not, there
is a good chance he wants to take a look at some status information
available on or in the machine.

Bernie

-- 
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Anybody out there who knows how to connect a Wyse terminal keyboard to a PC
_without_ the terminal in between? Current keyboard lses chracters evr so
oftn.............  Getng wrs al te im. Hp!