Slashdot Mirror
Use Linux to Reduce Your Power Bill
Stephen Herzog writes "Linux Devices has published an article about the AcquiSuite, a Linux based hardware device that collects and reports energy consumption information. Companies who are looking at energy management solutions need to keep the cost down in order to recover their retrofit cost with savings from the energy bill. Linux is a perfect fit for cheap data collection devices in part because "Linux provides complete TCP/IP functionality, PPP... and no royalties"."
Everybody knows that Windows machines use less power than Linux because they're not running as much.
There, I made the obligatory Slashdot 'Windows is unstable' joke. This should render the rest of the stale jokes -1, Redundant.
"Derp de derp."
We used proprietary software that cost a WHOLE lot and sold it to people for a lot. But it still saved money. Now the outfit is having to switch over to more Linux/OSS based stuff because they're running out of funding.
Except for the government clients.. they alwasy seemed to have money.
...can it also play OGG files? Hey how about doubling it as a firewall? Come on! Where's your hacker spirit?!
With the stability of Linux, I can leave my boxes on for an almost infinite length of time. So I do :). I never could do that with Windows, the machine would get all borked after only a couple of days. I guess Linux increases my power bill.
Have you been stalked by Seth today?
Use Linux to Reduce Your Power Bill
You won't bathe, so there will be no need to waste power on hot water.
I save *loads* of electricity when I do a "shutdown now" on OpenBSD!
Trolling is a art,
I'm reading the article and thinking "Wouldn't it be more effective to just turn the damn thing off?"
:)
-Yes, this IS a joke.
If a man's character is to be abused there's nobody like a relative to do the business. -Thackeray, William
...because Linux doesn't support ACPI.
Out of the various possible routes taken by an electron in orbit, one line l may be chosen with peak in point p relative to which the line is symmetric (relative distance and velocity, v(p), are minimal).
Therefore, the scalar potential field created by such movement obeys Zipf's Law of Power (so do Web links, but that's another post).
Bottom line -- be weary of news releases such as this one that proclaim to reduce energy use and save you money. Unlike the X10 cam, most of these crocks of crud simply don't work!
Also, here in the UK our AC currents are very different from traditional outlets you folks may have in the States. Yet another question to ponder...
Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada, B3H 3J5
Linux is a perfect fit for cheap data collection devices in part because "Linux provides complete TCP/IP functionality, PPP, a horrible UI and no royalties
"Use Linux to Reduce Your Chances of Contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases"
That's right, act now and no female will want to get within 100 feet of you!
Christ, any other trivial fucking benefits we can wow potential users with?
Use Linux to Reduce Bill(s) Power.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
err..ok, so how about your refrigerator...oh, I guess you can shut that off when you are not using it as well
"Simon Says, Fuck You" - George Carlin
kill a watt meter does this too.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
to monitor water usage. It is actually kind of cool from my geek perspective. You get a bill for utilities from a company in Texas which is where the data is aggregated.
At first when I saw the box and I didn't know what it was so I called the phone number and asked what it was and they said oh it is an embedded machine to remotely monitor your water usage. I guess I got a tech/service operator because they were very knowledgable and said it uses embedded linux and want on to explain how it works (in general terms). The rep said the only presence they have in Seattle is for a technician for service related calls.
You could easily imagine running a utility company on a skeleton crew with only a strong capital investment on the onset. Makes you think.
Surely you weren't referring to AMD's Athlon processor, were you?
BD Phone Home!
Shameless plug. Like you weren't expecting it.
my father is a HVAC mechanic. He currently works as the Maintenance Supervisor at an animal testing facility in NEPA.
He says that such devices are practically non-sense. Changing CERTAIN devices related to HVAC will save you $200 to $500 over a 10-15 year period. There is NO way to save much more in large buildings (which this device seems to).
You are going to have to pay for new equipment to save then you are going to have to watch the savings over the years after the equipment is changed.
it's really not as great of a device as they say it is.
It's pretty much on the front page b/c of free advertising at least IMHO.
And for those times that the Windows box is running, there are large energy draws from the mechanisms in place that
a) ensure you do nothing to violate any copyrights of anyone anywhere ever
b) contact your employers, friends and family should you start expressing interest in any form of open-source solutions
c) track your every move and thought for future marketing purposes.
Laugh... it's funny... kind of.
Their heating bills went through the roof because of the penguins.
We had an improperly-vented Athlon machine running Windows that was fine (as much as could be expected). We installed RedHat 7.2 on it and redeployed it as a server, and the CPU melted. Apparently, Windows was under-utilizing the CPU.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Did you know that booting up your system takes a lot more power initially than to run the computer itself?
We call the power company, and they give us detailed reports on how much power each site is using, and day-by-day breakdowns, comparisons with last year...
If you want to reduce power usage, would you want to use an Intel x86 chip in that goal? Wouldn't a PPC Linux be more power efficient? I am sure others can bring up other lower power consuming chips that have Linux ports than Intel's power hungry beast.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Rearrange the words and now it makes sense.
Using Linux itself has just saved me money in my time. "It just works". Make a change, reboot, make a change, reboot, reboot? Never. Mysterious crashes? Long gone.
:) that the lights turn on automatically (sensored to X10) and the Linux box sees this (and the time) and dims the lights automatically for me. HHmmm, this saves power too!
I've also always had I believe a CM11a plugged into one of the serial ports. It's called X10 and allows signalling to take place over the electrical lines.
Linux takes care of outside lighting, HV/AC, and a host of other operations for me around the house. Add in a RF remote and all of a sudden you can control/dim the lights throughout the house with X10 and the remote in your hand (Linux does nothing here).
Can Windows control the lights? Of course, but I've never seen a Windows box "just work" with no human intervention for years on end.
I like the fact that when I walk into the bathroom at 2am (for obvious reasons
I've already worked with two companies doing almost exactly the same thing.Check these out:
www.enflex.net/products/mg-200.htmlwww.envenergy.com/products/medhardware.shtml
Both are embedded linux systems for building automation, power consumtion monitoring, and providing information about the monitored systems over the internet.
"Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
With respect to persons saying that energy savings is not practical.
We typically sell the AcquiSuite product to contractors who work on a performance based contract. The building owner pays some fixed amount for a retrofit which includes things like CF lamps, new motors, etc. The contractor only gets paid when the proposed reduction in electricity is verified. Typical contracts suggest 7-8% reductions in buildings with $20k anual electric bills. The AcquiSuite is used in these projects as a measure of before and after, and is used for ongoing maintainance.
But linux is also proven to reduce your processor heat as well. Its called two little assembaly opcodes that Linux uses.
EI
Halt
This two little commands enable all interupts and then halt the processor (in that order). So while the box is doing nothing, the processor is also doing nothing, excepting waiting on some interupts to go back to work. Because the processor has halted and is doing absolutely nothing, it has time to cool down.
Windows, as far as I know, does not implement these opcodes, and I don't know excatly how they could get away with it. I guess that is how processors burn up. Maybe these opcodes help in the deduction of your power billsince the processor is no longer "active".
All opcodes are for the Z80, I do not know if they are the same for the x86 processors as well, but the theory is the same.
With the mention of modbus and all :), I guess this thread might be a good time to ask for links on cases where Linux has been put to industrial use. Is there something significant, I mean for example cases where Linux is crucial part of keeping a $100 million industrial machine running and producing somethoids. Anyone?
The only thing Linux needs to attract the wierdos! Lets go guys, what can we come up with?
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Does anyone know of any inexpensive power meters that you can stick between an appliance and a wall socket that records power usage? My electric bill is insane nowadays, but it's really hard to track down exactly where the power is going. I've tried to find a cheap device like this ($50?) but have had no luck.
The idea is not to have just a meter that take an instantaneous reading, but to have something that adds it up over a 24 hour period (or whatever).
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Use it to reduce your [b]software[/b] licence bill.
sounds like another idea that mentions linux simply to get as many participants as possible because of the current "prestige" involved with being a linux user. "use linux to lower your power bill" = misdirection.
It MONITORS you power usage. It does NOT reduce your power bill, assholes!
I remember hearing about this ages ago from people that dual booted W95 and had could see the CPU temp. Whenever they ran W95 the CPU would always be hotter than when the booted into Linux. I think once Windows went to the NT kernel (NT, W2K, XP), it has the same feature where it waits on interupts like Linux.
I read this as using Linux to reduce Bill's power (as in Microsoft Bill). :^)
Especially for retrofit situations? All outlets can be X-10 managed, but this doesn't say anything about actual power consumption. I'd like something at my breaker box to measure the actual Kilowatt usage on the different circuits. Also it needs to be something passive, so if the computer goes down the system still needs to work perfectly (and then can poll the devices when it comes back up).
For CMOS devices, the power consumed is proportional the TOGGLING of GATE STATES NOT the length of time that the device is energized.
From a processor viewpoint, just saying the Linux consumes more power because the machine in on more misses an important effeciency of Linux.
For friend of mine measured the CPU temperature for both Linux and Windows on the same machine.
Linux ran at about 78F degrees. Windows ran at about 92F degrees. Same tasks for both.
Hotter chip means more energy consumed and shorter chip life.
Linux should get credit for measurebly more effecient use of cpu gates.
--Hopscotch
"...along with every heterosexual Slashdot poster..."
/
Every troll should know that there's no such thing as a heterosexual slashdot poster, you silly goose.
:
Nobody likes my jokes.
--
pants ahoy
I thought you wrote "*robots* tend to be big energy drains."
Robots that ensure you do nothing to violate copyrights, that contact your employers, and that track every move you make.
And remember: RIAA representitives that deny the existence of robots may be robots themselves.
GMFTatsujin
AC current, incorrect. AC stands for alternating current (as no doubt you know) so calling it AC current would be wrong, as it stands for alternating current current.
:)
In short, you can drop the 'current' part, and also flame me for nitpicking.
I don't know if any one else has expierenced this, but my laptop battery lasts 2.5-3 hours if I don't use any of the drive or heavily the CPU under windows lets say I am word processing. If I play DVD under windows it goes down to 1.5-2 hours. If I boot redhat and word process my battery only lasts 45 min to an hour. Its a Dell.
Use your UPS with computer interface to tell you how much electricity is being used by an appliance. Just hook up the serial or USB connection to monitor the UPS and plug your appliance into the UPS power socket (but not the computer also silly). Then monitor the watt usage.
but there is a chance that it was a dune coon, I won't rule that one out.
sort of offtopic, this related to saving power on linux not saving power using linux.
i've got a linux cluster with over a hundred cpus, but the cluster isn't used all the time (probably only 50% utilized). is there any way to reduce the power consumption of this system when it isn't being used--other than turning off the machines.
i've heard laptops are good at reducing power drain in sleep mode, but how about for desktops?
ps this cluster it uses dual-PIII nodes.
Oops. Should be "Use Linux to power Bill".
Now I've totally spoiled it.
There are 010 kinds of people. Those who understand octal, those who don't, and 06 other kinds of morons.
And I use Linux all the time.
In fact, all our web-based energy visualisation products were developed and run on Linux, and the 3D energy visualisation work I do on this in my spare time:
screenshot
is also developed and run on Linux.
The devices we use to interface ethernet with meters are too lightweight to run linux, they simply provide a TCP-IP -> serial connection for the meter's RS-232/422 interface and an ethernet port for connection to a LAN.
Many meters only support pulse-output, which does require a device such as this to count pulses, convert them to kWh or other relevant measurement, buffer these readings for some period and provide a interface for this data to be extracted, which is what this device is.
It is nice to see multiple inputs for temperature etc, as energy consumption data alone often does not provide enough of a picture to make decisions that can really cut your energy peaks or identify areas of inefficiency.
I gots ta ding a ding dang my dang a long ling long
I don't know which is less interesting; that somebody makes electricity monitoring equipment that runs Linux, or that somebody managed to exchange a drive on his Mac.
Please put up something more thrilling. Otherwise I might have to return to work.
Tor
I work for a building automation systems manufacturer and have designed, built, and sold energy management/building automation systems since 1987. Your father is operating from the perspective of an HVAC mechanic and has a particularly narrow perspective on energy management in general. Yes, replacing inefficient equipment can reduce costs at apparently minimal levels. However, he likely has never worked with a BAS that was configured correctly and adequately supported by the vendor.
A properly installed and configured building automation solution will find most of the savings are in finding ways to reduce demand through scheduling, staging, load sharing, load shedding, cycling, super-cooling, and other strategies. By reducing demand, you can go to a utility and negotiate reduced rates based on staying withing certain demand levels during peak times during the day.
Simple things like making sure the lights, HVAC, and things like escalators come on at the right time in a staged order (to prevent demand spikes), and only where they are needed and are shut off when they are not in use (at night) can save a large facility literally millions every year.
Changing out HVAC equipment for more efficient equipment is a very tiny part of the puzzle.
BTW- all of the major BAS manufacturers (including my employer) have such a meter-monitoring unit, and many of them or related systems are increasingly based on embedded Linux. Meter monitoring units are useful to monitor a facility before it is put under complete control to determine where the savings can be found. Once the facility is in place, meter monitoring and associated daily reports are typically used to ensure that the system is operating properly, but in this case there is much more information available.
So to say you might only get a $200 to $500 payoff over 15 years is small potatoes compared to the potential millions you can save at a typical big-box retail, manufacturing facility, or large high school.
GTWreck
what makes you think he's gonna run linux when he obviously doesn't understand windows?
Seriously. If you cant make windows work, pack up your PC, take it to the store, and tell them you need a refund because you're TOO FUCKING STUPID TO OWN A COMPUTER.
Perhaps a Mac, or maybe a Super Nintendo.
You think this is a joke but here's the proof that its true!
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Bill, Use your Power to Reduce Linux.
Watch it! I've been using computers since fucking 1985! I've got 2 Linux and 1 BSD boxes and I'm a Unix sysadmin (HP-UX). Windows is Windows - it doesn't matter how experienced you are, it JUST DOESN'T WORK! ..and the reason why I have Windows2000 on my laptop is because company rules force so. (This laptop is property of the company I work for) I SURE HELL wouldn't use windows if I didn't have to.
It's called the Kill-A-Watt, and is available from ETA Engineering, CCrane, and Radio Shack. .
I'm not involved in this, but just bought one, and it's answered a bunch of questions about how much everything uses. Interesting!
I steal power from BC Hydro to run my marijuana-grow-operation.
This guy is a troll; read his journal for crying out loud. He likes to post nonsense like this to get karma to troll some more. Don't take my word for it, read his journal & mod DOWN!
I know Steve and the guys behind the AcquiSuite. I designed the Veris Enercept power meter that's shown on their home page. In fact, I can probably take credit for convincing them to go with Linux on x86 a few years ago (they were also seriously considering PSOS on the netsilicon ARM+ethernet hardware). I didn't actually participate in the AcquiSuite though, and I'm not affiliated with them, and I recently left Veris Industries. So take the rest of this comment with a grain of salt... I'm not totally impartial, but I do know quite a bit about the system.
The AcquiSuite is designed for use in commercial buildings and groups of buildings. It can monitor many power lines, not just one socket. The Veris Enercept meters are typically installed in the breaker boxes that feed major sections or subsystems of a building. These meters are meant for 3-phase power systems in the 20 to 2400 amp range, not single-phase 120 volt, 15 amp residential. The AcquiSuite also interfaces to temperature, humidity and other types of sensors.
There's three major factors (as I understand):
One of the key factors is cost... since this thing is supposed to save energy, it needs to be a lot less expensive that what it costs to install.
Compare to the "Kill A Watt" (which actually offers similar functionality for single-phase 120 volt as the Veris Enercept, but on a LCD instead of RS-485 network). With a simple meter like that, you can look over at it and see the power company is give the correct voltage, and how much current/power you're using at any particular time. You can see the accumulated consumption, so you could jot that number down every month and see how much the attached load cost you.
But to be useful in truely saving money, you need to log the data, collect that data, and get an analysis of that data in a timely manner.
You can go to your conventional power meter, be it the "Kill A Watt", Veris Enercpt, or the "glass meter" on the side of your house and read what it says. If you remember what it was last time to read it, say a week ago, you might say "damn, I used a lot of power this week, I'll have to try to do better next week... but how?"
Now enter the AcquiSuite (or other data logging methods): when you're wondering about your power usage, you visit a website using your browser, and in seconds you have a detailed plot showing how much power you were using throughout the day. It's similar to those bandwitch graphs from MRTG, you see a massive anamoly and say "holy sh*t, what happened the night before last that used so much power"? Or perhaps you see the longer time scale and see that something hogs lots of power every Monday morning. Or perahsp you compare graphs for similar office spaces in different buildings and see that one office uses a lot more power than the others, and perhaps only in the morning.
This is the sort of information that you really need to find where power is being wasted. And it's the timely fashion that's required to actually do something about it. You can find the janitor who didn't turn the light off, or modify a factory start-up proceedure for sequencing those machines properly on Monday morning, or fix the heating system in that one office that's using too much power.
That is what the AcquiSuite, and systems like it, are all about. They log data on a fine enough time scale from enough locations that you can (hopefully) see those unexpected events that are wasting power and costing money, and you can see them very shortly after they occur, so you can actually go do something about them.
One of the neat things about the AcquiSuite is it's ability to use the internet (linux tcp/ip stack and ppp). It can call an ISP and upload its data to a server, and as I recall it can be set to do this on a schedule with many others, so that a whole bunch of them can share just one dial-up account to send their data. I was told that a lot of people install them on their existing fax line, since it only makes calls infreqeuently and off of business hours. There were a bunch of other simple but nice features to the AcquiSuite that Steve was telling me about, but they escape me right now. Oh well.
I hope this has cleared up some of what this is all about. I know a lot of slashdotters see a product and only think of its application in a resedential application, mainly their house, appartment, dorm room, etc. This thing is targeted at commercial builds and groups of buildings.
PJRC: Electronic Projects, 8051 Microcontroller Tools
This was done along time ago by a company called Enertec. Real cool tech that runs and monitors the building with 3D models, etc.
1985! you dont say. Well, you should know how to configure one by now.
You're a Unix sysadmin whos forced to use Windows, huh? yeh.. Silly troll..
You're as computer literate as my dead great grandmother. Admit it.
You couldnt find the reset button on a nintendo, all the VCRs in your house blink 12:00, and your tamagotchi is probably in a fishbowl with a years worth of flakes floating over it.
http://saveie6.com/
Even if the device is truly inefficient, it's usage will be many orders of magnitude lower than the devices that will be monitored by such equipment.
Rooftop units, cooling towers, boilers, lighting grids, and other items are actually worth measuring on a building-wide scale. You would never bat an eye at the kind of usage associated with computers *much* larger than the device in the article.
machines rather than the new portable heaters (P4's) would give enough power savings.
This device sounds great, but what many people I know and myself have been looking for is an affordable device which you plug in to a power outlet, then plug something (say, a computer) into the device, and get a simple readout of how many watts are being used, then we could use Ohm's law to find how many amps are in use. This would be extremely convenient for testing the real power usage of new PC components, major appliances, etc.
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
Linux provides complete TCP/IP functionality, PPP...
God, I need to update my kernel. When the hell did Linux get those, anyway?
Linus actually looks like a cool dude, surrounded by those nerds.
ACPI support
d ownloads.htm>.
CONFIG_ACPI
ACPI/OSPM support for Linux is currently under development. As such,
this support is preliminary and EXPERIMENTAL. Configuring ACPI
support enables kernel interfaces that allow higher level software
(OSPM) to manipulate ACPI defined hardware and software interfaces,
including the evaluation of ACPI control methods. If unsure, choose
N here. Note, this option will enlarge your kernel by about 120K.
This support requires an ACPI compliant platform (hardware/firmware).
If both ACPI and Advanced Power Management (APM) support are
configured, whichever is loaded first shall be used.
This code DOES NOT currently provide a complete OSPM implementation
-- it has not yet reached APM's level of functionality. When fully
implemented, Linux ACPI/OSPM will provide a more robust functional
replacement for legacy configuration and power management
interfaces, including the Plug-and-Play BIOS specification (PnP
BIOS), the Multi-Processor Specification (MPS), and the Advanced
Power Management specification (APM).
Linux support for ACPI/OSPM is based on Intel Corporation's ACPI
Component Architecture (ACPI CA). The latest ACPI CA source code,
documentation, debug builds, and implementation status information
can be downloaded from:
<http://developer.intel.com/technology/iapc/acpi/
The ACPI Sourceforge project may also be of interest:
<http://sf.net/projects/acpi/>
I mean, we all know that in general, the TCO for Linux is cheaper than for other OS' for a variety of reasons.
But what does this specifically have to do with Linux? This guy's talking about calculating ways to save power. That can be done under any OS.
The title of this article is like saying, "Use Porsche's to get from point A to point B". Yes, you can use Porshe's to get from point A to point B; but you can also use any other car.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
My power bill is *higher* because of Linux. I'm crazy and have multiple servers running about the house.
:-)
However, a few of them are Pentium III units, so my gas bill (for heating) has dropped like a rock.
I just wish it was equal to the amount my power bill went up.
The apartment stays nice and warm. If I lived in Alaska, this would not be a bad thing. But in Sacramento, CA... well, I like my home sauna, let's just leave it at that.
haha...
computer literate my ass.
I bet you blow on your nintendo games to make them work. Then fumble around for the reset button. You F'ing dumbass. I'd applaud if you could operate a public telephone.
Of course Linux saves on the electric bill, you cannot sit in front of a linux box for 12 hours playing Everquest.
... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed...
I wish that every single outlet in my home had a kill a watt type meter being logged.
What do you recommend for the home user that wants something like this just for the nerd factor and doesn't have a million bucks to spend?
I suppose we could rip open the kill a watt and try to create an interface for it so we could log it's data but still that's not very practical.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Actually, since texas de-regulated, most big buidlings and large consumers of power have not gotten a power bill (since Janurary) I don't know how the power companies are staying in business. The problem is that the central agency for keeping the meter data can not get the information back out the the power companies to send out bills! Funny thing is that the residential billing seems to be working, only companies that use more than a megawatt seem to be affected with the blight of free power.
=)
The device doesn't "calculate ways to save power". It logs power usage and reports it. If you think a Winblows computer can do this, why don't you find one and post it, smarty-pants.
You read it right...its a subliminal message....Use Linux to reduce Bill's Power!
He wont have much of a monopoly if no one wants to use his garbage
I'm pretty sure that is wrong. I'm lazy and only found one source here. It says:
Yeah, its great for companies,
but for residential applications?
How about this?
A programmable thermostat with a
$ meter.
Of course it wouldn't be exact, but
it might teach a few people (myself included)
that turning my thermostat up those last two degrees makes a huge difference in my energy bill.
Speaking of tapping. Landlord at my old apartment installed an outside security light. Guess who's power circuit he tapped into? Good thing I left before the power bill came due.
before: 1 Desktop-Computer, dial-in AOL, only on when I use it after: 1 Desktop-Computer 1 Linux-Fileserver always on 1 Linux-Firewall always on about 20 Computers in our House connected to this Network, rising So I definetely have to pay more for Electricity. stupid Linux, stupid
I bet Bill's grand house could use some Linux to reduce power.
Ciryon
Hey dude, you're a dipshit!
Its amazing what a single comma might do...
Santiago
Fuck off lamer!!! When you're old enough to get a job then perhaps you'll understand that large companies have a certain policy for certain things. Do you fucking idiot think that everybody can install whatever they want? I myself use TeraTerm to telnet Unix servers.. That's why windows is sufficient OS on my laptop although I'm a Unix admin.
Tiny! Wireless! Fits anywhere! Allows you to look at photos of scantily-clad women!
The machine should have had 3 case fans in it the way it was loaded up; only the power supply fan was operational (and the CPU fan).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
hey buddy.....that blowing shit really works. Come over and I'll show you on Kung-Fu.
That's common, I'm sure.
Although at the last apartment building I lived in, I saw it done in reverse. People on the 1st floor used to bitch about the heat -- 1920s building, heat rises to top floor, bad/no insulation, leaky roof door, etc.
The landlord couldn't fix it (short of a $200k remodel job), so the tenants ran an extension cord to the hallway circuit and ran a space heater in their apartment off of it. I saw it there most of the winter several winters in a row, so the landlord must have figured that an extra $10 on the monthly electric bill was better than bitchy tenants.
Strangely, these tenants were an elderly couple (late 60s) who had lived in the same apartment for like 35 years.
I currenlty use the ACPI support included as default in the 2.4 kernels. You were saying...?
you can now :) check out the new wine ;)
There is is no reason for any individual to have a computer in their home.
-- Ken Olsen (President of Digital Equipment Corporation),
Convention of the World Future Society, in Boston, 1977
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