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Comment Re:a PC actually wrote this article (Score 1) 551

by Anonym1ty (#26120985) Attached to: Five PC Power Myths Debunked
Standby power uses about 0.5-4 watts. Not ideal, but that's pretty small.

Not Ideal is right... Add the power supply for the monitor's soft power button, The Bricks for The Speakers, Printer, Router.. The fact I have more than one computer (3)... a few misc. things too and all of sudden it's close to 150 watts when not in use.

My motherboard does nothing to kill the phantom loads of peripherals.

That's the beauty of a 2 kW appliance timer. All that crap is really off.

Yes after doing this to not only the computer, but the LCD TV and other things in the house using appliance timers I did indeed save 70%, yeah **** 70%! Not exaggerating. This is the real deal. Shut the crap off and you do save a lot. Noticeable on the First bill after doing it. $75 electricity down to $20. It is indeed worth doing. Stand-by never gave me any noticeable savings on my bill. Shutting the stuff off off off saved me far beyond my expectations.

Comment Re:a PC actually wrote this article (Score 1) 551

by Anonym1ty (#26097785) Attached to: Five PC Power Myths Debunked

In order to do that, the power supply is still running.

My computer does not have a BIOS option for power up. It does however have a power up after a power outage setting. So the wheels started turning. I set the shutdown to run on a schedule. The some time after the computer shuts down I have an appliance timer cut power to the outlet. This not only shuts off power to the computer (which has already shut down) it also kills power to all phantom loads associated with it. Then when the appliance timer comes back around to turn the power on, the computer turns on as if after a power failure.

This is the kind of thing you figure out when you pay different rates for on-peak and off-peak power at your home.
Government

Submission + - Crown Prosecutor Attacks Big Brother Surveillance

Submitted by
Anonym1ty
Anonym1ty writes: "Sir Ken Macdonald head of the Crown Prosecution Service, said that the "enormous powers of access to information" that technology had given the state should be used with great care. Currently, the UK Government is examining ways to collect and store records of landline and mobile phone calls, e-mails and internet traffic. Without the right to monitor the flow of internet messaging, the police and security services would have to consider a massive expansion of surveillance."

Feed Wired: Britain Opens Archives on UFO Sightings (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
More than 1,000 reported sightings of unidentified flying objects, heretofore kept locked away in the National Archives, have been released. Of particular interest is a 1984 sighting, made simultaneously by several experienced (and sober) air traffic controllers.
Security

Submission + - SPAM: 11-year-old takes school network by the horns

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: When Victory Baptist School, a small private school in Millbrook, Ala., was struggling to keep its computer network together last year, an 11-year-old student named Jon Penn stepped in as network manager. For Jon — who says his favorite reading material is computer trade magazines — it's been the experience of a lifetime, even getting to select and install a gateway security appliance largely by himself. "This is kind of a small school, and I'm known as the computer whiz," the sixth grader says
Link to Original Source
It's funny. Laugh.

The 30 Dumbest Video Game Titles In History 113

Posted by Soulskill from the extreme-carpet-cleaning-2-the-revenge dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Not every game involves taking an axe to the head of a criminal; some classics from the 80's involved massacring camels from aircraft, or in the case of "How to Be a Complete Bastard" for the C64, something altogether different(unless you're a camel). CNet has collected the 30 most ridiculous game names and concepts from the last 25 years. Quite frankly, how some of these — including "Touch Dic" from Korea — ever made it onto store shelves is beyond me."
Sony

Sony Offers Bloatware Removal Service — For a Fee [Updated] 231

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the scams-and-other-marketing-ideas dept.
linuxwrangler writes "First Sony packed its laptops with Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office trial version, Corel Paint Shop Pro trial version, WinDVD and more. Now it is offering to remove the bloatware. Of course marketing changed the name from 'removing the crap we stuck you with' to 'Fresh Start' software optimization. And they want you to pay $149.99 to clean up their mess — $49.99 for 'Fresh Start' on top of the required $100.00 Vista Business upgrade. You can get about $25.00 of that cost back if you select all available 'no-software' options which are only available after selecting the $149.99 'upgrade'. Wonder what they would charge to remove Windows completely." Update 11:57 GMT by SM: It seems that massive outrage at Sony's "Fresh Start" program has encouraged them to drop the fee for scrubbing your laptop of bloatware before shipping it your way.
Security

What Happens To Bounced @Donotreply.com E-Mails 286

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the lazy-people-who-can't-configure-mail-servers-to-do-their-bidding dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post's Security Fix blog today features a funny but scary interview with a guy in Seattle who owns the domain name donotreply.com. Apparently, everyone from major US banks to the Transportation Security Administration to contractors in Iraq use some variation on the address in the "From:" field of all e-mails sent out, with the result that bounced e-mails go to the owner of donotreply.com.'With the exception of extreme cases like those mentioned above, Faliszek says he long ago stopped trying to alert companies about the e-mails he was receiving. It's just not worth it: Faliszek said he is constantly threatened with lawsuits from companies who for one reason or another have a difficult time grasping why he is in possession of their internal documents and e-mails.'"
Google

Submission + - After Google buyout, GrandCentral becomes unusable 1

Submitted by diometres
diometres writes: You all may have heard that Google bought GrandCentral over the summer and turned it into a 'Google Beta'. GrandCentral had received great reviews before the acquisition as a service giving you 'One phone number for life'. Google promised to support existing users whilst expanding and improving GC, but six months later, GrandCentral is facing a revolt from users who are fed up with constant outages, amazingly poor support and a complete lack of communication from the developers as to when key features, like the ability to listen to voicemails, will be restored. Everyone understands that GrandCentral is free and still in beta, but imagine if you were unable to read any new or old message in GMail for more than two weeks! Regardless of fixing an outage promptly, does Google have any obligation to communicate with users (many of whom signed up before the acquisition) as to what the problem is and ETA for fixing it? Is 'beta' a get out-of-jail-free-card for shoddy service?

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