On 6 Mar 2004 at 9:34, Anne Neighbors wrote:

> I would like to know if it is a good practice to leave your computer
> on during the day if no one is in the general area to take notice of
> it.  I live alone and always turn my laptop off when I leave the
> house, but now I'm having second thoughts.  Do you think I should
> leave it on all day, whether I'm around or not?

  Laptop designers try to conserve size, wieght, and power consumption, and
the result is that laptop computers are sometimes barely adequate in their
cooling.  Most rely on the small airgap under the machine when it is placed
on a hard, flat surface.  Unless it has a "sleep" mode that works well, a
laptop placed on a soft or uneven surface can pose a variety of heat-related
risks, up to and including a fire hazard.

  Other than that, I don't see a problem.  I occasionally need to leave a
laptop, running monitoring software, running for a week or more without any
ill consequences.

David Gillett

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