Re: Why not more enthused about Roku? (other devices)

> 
> How much does your PC draw?  
>

This is addressed in innumerable articles on the net.

According to a year-old Univ of Waterloo article, about 25 Watts when in
"sleep" mode (without the hard-drive spinning -- I assume they're
talking about S3 state).  Using this mode with the Audiotron would
require the A-Tron to send a "magic packet" required to wake the
computer -- Which it does not do, and which is a topic that's been
discussed ad-nauseum on this list.

Soooo, let's assume 60W or so for a system that's ready but "idle" (the
CPU is power-saving, the monitor is in sleep mode, and the hard disk is
powered-up).  This is darn close to your estimate of 50W.

> 
> If you think about how many millions of computers there are 
> on the planet, running all the time, just so they're ready to 
> go whenever you need them (even if you don't use them much), 
> there's a ton of wasted power being generated and consumed 
> all over.  It's really a shame.  :-( --Steve
> 

Or not.

Assuming a CRT-type monitor that is powered-off to SLEEP state, NOT
powering-off the monitor and letting it sleep significantly extends its
life.  Not powering-down your disk and letting it spin continuously also
extends the life of that component.

There's an energy cost for producing and transporting a new PC, of
course.  And you avoid incurring such costs by increasing the useful
life of your system.

And, if we're talking about what's a "shame" or not, let's fully
consider other factors: There's a significant environmental cost to
disposing of an old PC -- Especially if it includes a CRT monitor.  One
could also argue that -- because many obsolete electronic components get
sent to third-world countries to be "recycled" (i.e. taken apart with
hammers by workers being paid something like slave wages) -- there is a
significant ethical and societal cost incurred when the useful life of
such equipment is not maximized.

Also, consider the broader overall costs involved in NOT having your PC
running: You're not automatically installing the latest updates (let's
assume you're running Windoze) and you're not automatically updating and
running your virus-protection program.  These both increase the chance
of your computer being compromised (thus causing YOU to incur a
significant personal cost -- but let's not have that enter the
equation).  If your system does become infected, this increases the
chance of you spreading that virus... Spreading a computer virus very
significantly increases costs to society.

Sigh.  I think it's a shame everyone doesn't leave their systems on 24x7
;-)

What this all has to do with the A-Tron is, of course, anybody's guess.
I wonder what the overall societal cost/benefit analysis is for keeping
this list alive for such silly discussions?

P