My Mac, and all peripherals, are plugged into a power strip which I turn off when I'm not using them. So they pull 0W when off.

Methinks I need to show this to my roommate and/or borrow one of these things from the library: then maybe he'll stop balking when I tell him that if he'd bother to turn off his computer periodically (like maybe when he's not home?) with some other similar small steps that the bills might not be quite so high....

I've tried replacing my ceiling lights with CF bulbs but they go out after 15 minutes (neither the bulb nor the fixture is permanently damaged). It's very frustrating to have to use regular bulbs. If anyone knows why this is happening and how I could fix it, I'd like to know. I can't afford to have an electrician come out right now.

As for putting computers on standby, my XP machine refuses to do it more often than not. Any free third-party programs out there I could try that might work instead of using the Windows settings?

To be honest, for me, it's more about the heat generated than the electricity bill directly. My media area must be 10-20 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

The most annoying part is that my Gateway PC's motherboard has a little LED light for some unknown reason. At night with the lights off I can see the little red light through the air holes and it bugs me. This PC is even in the shutdown mode, we're not talking about it's equally annoying blinking standby light.

On recent Chat a reader asked:

"...my husband and I want to install parental controls on my step-daughter's laptop because her Mom refuses to monitor her internet use (she lives with her, and has posted some rather risque stuff on her Myspace). Her mom's ok with us installing software, but we're not sure what's best - we want more than a blocker, something that can actually log activity (we'll only check it periodically though) Any tips?

Rob Pegoraro: All the parental-control apps do log activity, but I haven't tested any of them in a while. (Vista and Mac OS X have built-in parental controls, BTW.) Any recommendations?"

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I have found a couple of shareware apps for Mac OSX. One that adds a site filtering/blocking feature is called Hostal. This is actually for blocking/allowing (not history logging), but others might find it useful.

Hostal does a very good job of blocking both images & sites from a list of pre-installed/well-known porn URLS, as well as many other commercial adware sites .... you can add new sites to it, as you can to the excellent shareware Little Snitch (which is more about intrusion/extrusion from what I understand).

It's a little bit similar to but not as user-interface-friendly based as LittleSnitch. You can use both together as complementary extra firewall protection -- especially useful when you have kids.

Hostal can need some tweaking to allow google ads and the amazon.com cart/cookies/access, but if the person has some tech inclinations both apps work well together in the main OSX admin account (setting children as 'users' not admin).

I think there may be something like these for windows, but not sure. I guess Avast and AVG also work well together for windows and I think you have covered those previously?

For ease of use and setting up via the ADMIN account, everyone on Mac OSX should use Little Snitch but it doesn't have all the known (as of the time of last update) porn sites and adware sites preinstalled like Hostal does.

I think there are also add-ons or plugins to better access/monitor the OS X browser logs but I don't yet know what those are.

MacUpdate.com, Softpedia.com VersionTracker.com are the three places I frequent to find OS X software, as well as the Apple.com site itself under utilities, downloads and whatnot.

I mainly use CNET's download.com for windows downloads for my mom's computer but softpedia and versiontracker both cover PCs also.

Re: history logs > for Macs there are some add-ons/stand alone apps that allow larger/longer browser history, one of which is called URL Manager Pro and makes it pretty easy to skim down a longer browser history than safari's short history default, plus you can export it to files, plus it can track history for the other popular browsers for OS X/Macs too.

Hope this helps somewhat. I too would like more info on how to better access/monitor the browser logs through the console itself.

The current version of Suse Linux has some really coll power controls. Aside from realizing that their not just for laptops. You can easily configure to OS to manage your processor with either speed or conservation in mind.

As for Windows I haven't had or at least noticed a problem with XP not going to sleep when specified but I don't fie up my XP partition that much.

60 watts for the Christmass lights Ouch! I keep wondering when LEDs are going to hit the market.
This article in the NY times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/technology/14basics.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=91bbe2a307ca373e&ex=1182052800&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1181934961-sP+RGdtLJ1xcxvUAhcqgOw

mentioned CO@saver http://co2saver.snap.com/ as a third party tool for XP and Vista.

Thanks for the CO2 Saver link. I don't need another way to search the internet bundled with a power options program, but I'll give it a shot anyway. It's frustrating to come back to the computer after several hours and see the screensaver still going even when you've set it up to stand by.

Norm said: "I keep wondering when LEDs are going to hit the market."

I've been using LED Christmas lights for the last two years now. I guess you don't have Canadian Tire in DC though :)

One of the things I miss about the UK is the ability to turn off power at the wall, rather than having to scrabble about under the desk...

When I moved into my first utilities-not-included apartment and became responsible for my own electric bill for the first time, I became fanatical about saving energy. I unplug EVERYTHING when I'm not using it. My TV, DVD player, and Wii are plugged into a power strip that gets turned off when I'm not watching TV. I leave my DVR on so it can still record when I'm not home, but the one good thing about Cox cable is that their DVRs have a power-save mode. My phone charger, iPod charger, and laptop are only plugged in when I'm using them, and I wash everything in cold water. The result: I only use about 260kW per month, which is an electricity bill of around $30! Unfortunately, I live in Phoenix and it's starting to get hot, so that will go up in the summer, but I never have the thermostat below 75, and it's usually around 78. Sounds virtuous but really I'm just cheap.

Hey Andy. I'm actually a lot closer to "The Great White North" than I am to DC. (Seattle; and I somewhat regularly head North to ski) So are you saying that Canadian Tire stocks LED Christmas lights around the holidays?

I may have found the source of my problem: the screensaver. Yes, even though I am using a screensaver that came with Windows XP, the sleep and hibernation modes don't always cooperate with it.
support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q306676&&GSSNB

Hi Norm, Yes - we got ours in one of the Vancouver stores.

Not to be too geeky here, but it is impossible that, "A Samsung LN-S4041D LCD consumed 215 watts in an hour." The watt is a unit of power (i.e., energy used per unit of time), while the watt-hour (or kilowatt-hour on your electric bill) is the unit of power consumed in a period of time. So if the TV drew 215 watts FOR an hour, it would have consumed a total of 0.215 kWh. Or, to put it in terms any driver would understand, the statement, "A Samsung LN-S4041D LCD consumed 215 watts in an hour," would be the equivalent of saying, "I drove 25 miles-per-hour in an hour." Just doesn't make sense.

Brian:

That's not being too geeky, that's being an attentive reader. Thanks for the note; I've corrected the entry. (I had the correct measurement in my notes, but I must have gotten a little sloppy in writing/editing this post.)

- RP