🚀 go-pugleaf

Joe Sloan (jjs@dostoevsky.ucr.edu) wrote:
: Chad Irby <cirby@news.gate.net> wrote:
: >You don't have to sit at a machine to use it.  If there are processes 
: >running that are supposed to do things, then it's being used by someone.

: Yeah, if you think "bin" and "daemon" are "someone"...

Oh- so you run those processes, leave them up, and never use the friggin' 
computer for anything else?  "Don't touch it!  That's the bin and daemon 
machine- nobody ever gets to use it!"

: >If there's nobody using the machine, you should turn it off and save some 
: >energy...

: What a bogus idea -

: I've got email coming in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week...

Oh?  Then you're USING THE DAMNED MACHINE, aren't you?

Look- being a "user" doesn't mean you sit in front of the computer every 
minute you're using it.  It means you "use" the computer to do things.  
Like collect your mail.  If you start a long process that's going to run 
six hours, then walk away from the computer, does that mean you're not 
using it?

: I should shut down the machine and just let email bounce? There are
: students logging in at odd hours to compile programs, read mail/news,
: write documents, etc... ftp and www usage is not limited to some 9-to-5 
: schedule. The German and Australian netizens who download files from 
: here "in the middle of the night" might also take issue with your idea...

Think *really* hard about what you're saying here.  That computer is 
there for people to *use*.  You might be the sysadmin, but those people 
who download files are *using* the machine.  You yourself are *using* the 
machine to act as a file/mail server, as well as letting those other 
people *use* the machine for those other purposes.

If there are no users and no jobs running, then it's not a computer- it's 
a space heater.

-- 

Chad Irby           /    My greatest fear: that future generations will,
cirby@gate.net     /      for some reason, refer to me as an "optimist."