The inbox is always full of usefulness:
Dear K-Lo:
You posted today that some Cornerites are without power.
Assuming that telephone service is not interrupted, are you all aware of what you can
do to keep your computers running during a power outage?
Buy a UPS (unterruptible power supply.) Essentially a big battery.
Buy a spare battery for your laptop.
Configure your computer to conserve power:
– Dial-down the brightness of the screen.
– Make the hard drive go to sleep after only a brief period of inactivity.
– Arrange your work to do all hard-drive accesses in bunches. (Compose a bunch of
emails or postings, and do not save or submit them until you have a bunch ready to
go.)
– Tell your AntiVirus software not to scan files on your hard drive.
– Close unnecessary programs, to prevent them from accessing the hard drive at odd
moments.
– Remove unneeded devices from your laptop. Even though you’re not using the floppy
drive and CD-ROM drive, they’re still eating electricity.
Buy a second UPS, and use it to power a small flourescent lamp during power outages.
(That’s for well-paid Cornerites, I suppose.)