Too Many Computers!

I wouldn't say I have a lot of money. None of the PCs/Laptops have been bought in the last 3 years(except those from work) and my server was a throw away freebee (a pentium II). Also, my son's PC was a gift from his grandparents as was the Wii. As to selling them, they are worth more to us than I could sell them for.

Our electricity here is 220v, so that also consumes too much of our bills..

Add to all those wireless 1s and 0s flying through the air, what about the power being consumed?

Sounds like your network is buzzy as much as mine. All of my computers have a purpose. The kids computer is for the kids to play games, if they screw it up, I'll reload the OS. This is powered down when not in use. My computer is used primarily as a daw (digital audio workstation) and I usually have that powered down. My son's laptop is used and was given to him by his grandparents. That is use by him to help with homework and research and is usually powered down. My wifes' laptop is jointly work and personal(same thing) and she uses it all the time. The server is on all the time as it's an html server and a mail server. My work laptops are rarely on in the house. The printer is nearly always on. The reason that so many of my devices are powered off is that I read an article/report stating that when a PC goes in hibernation, it may stop spinning the hard drive etc, but, it still draws the same amount of power as it would if it was on and active, so, by powering them off, hopefully I saw some money. I should have also added that our 3 cellphones all have internet access, but, that is not through my home network. I do wonder somethings what all that stuff flying through the air is doing to me or those around me, if anything?

hehe. I'm wondering the same thing. We also turn off all our computers when we don't use them. I've also read it, that it still consumes electricity even in sleep mode, so turning them off saves us some money, and can help save the environment.

The only down side to turning off computers is that is potentially shorters the life of it. I can attest to this, as a few years back some bright spark at my previous company came up with the idea of saving electricity by turning off all the computers and monitors at night(those of us in IT tried to warn them). The idea lasted about 3 days, as it was costing the company so much more to dispatch techs and replace equipment that would not boot up the next day.

I know what you mean about printing in the trash. What a waste of ink. Many times I would find just random stuff printed off, laying by the computer, I wondered why they printed it off in the first place.

I understand having issues getting on the PC. That has changed a lot now, as in the worse situations we can usually get everyone on a computer. My son will only use his laptop now, so, that frees up the other computer for the kids. We only have one printer, which is a blessing as the kids are always printing off stuff, which quite often ends up in the trash.

My younger kids figured out printing a while back, but, if it didn't come off on the printer, they printed it again. It took a while for me to explain that sometimes the printer is turned off or it's out of paper. They are better now.

Sounds sensible. If you don't have any network devices in your house how do you get to the Internet? From work? Internet cafe?

Living in backwood anywhere may not be such a bad thing?

Through our satellite modem. HughesNet to be exact. By network devices I thought you meant a wireless network or a port that allows more than one computer to access. I live in backwoods Texas. We don't have internet cafes. Our library just now got a computer with internet access not too long ago.

Do you ever have to share it?

I do play the Wii at least once a week, I usually end up playing against one of the kids, so games are for all ages.

Nice I'm checking out those Dell optiplex desktops. Are they any good? do you have any problems with network speed? I didn't know you could do that with those devices.

My server is just a P2 Pentuim Dell Optiplex(?) running Linux, Fedora Core to be precise. I run apache for my web pages and I also have it set up as a mail server. The DS's and the Wii have built in wireless connections and you have to go into them and configure the network part of the devices to talk to your wireless network. There are some games, where you can play against others "online", but, not every game. The Wii gives you weather, news and an online shop(which is very limited at this time). You can buy from the online shop some games. There is also a browser for sale, which then allows you to surf the internet from the Wii and projected on your TV.

I read that one of he latest inventions that will hit the market soon are bluetooth TV's, whereby you'll be able to place you TV screen wherever you want to.

I presume your computer is low on memory when you are running programs that you are downloaded. IMO it's better to have a slower older PC with a lot of memory than a newer PC with less memory. You may just want to condsider adding more memory. I have over 512 in all my PC's and I rarely see memory issues.

Interestingly, since my kids have got the Wii, they spend less time on the computer and TV. Sounds weird, but, they now spend more time playing away from these electronic devices than before. I think the Wii satisfies their gaming desire quicker than the PC did and I think it is a good thing. Long live the Wii.