Habitually Good

I posted a while ago about how to gain an extra day per year. This post is to tell everyone how bad an idea that was. I posted that we should always stand by our laptops rather than hibernate them or shut them down. This way, when we open the lids again, it takes very little time to get up and running again. This is time that you save. However, I have come to realize that the idea was very bad on a couple of accounts at least:

Financial Loss - I was doing this for my new laptop ever since I got it. It’s been about an year since I got this laptop and my battery is DEAD. My laptop just doesn’t work without mains power. I had a very similar configuration laptop earlier for which the battery lasted me a couple of years and that wasn’t even a Centrino Duo (which this one is and so should use less battery).

Environmental Loss - this is something that I should have realized earlier. First, since I am always using a little battery, I need to charge it more often. So I am wasting electricity. Second, since the battery is dead so quickly, that means I need to dispose it off which also impacts the environment.

My suggestion to everyone is to hibernate their laptops instead of putting them on Stand by. Now I only put a laptop on Stand By if I am moving from one room to another or one building to another. If I have to close it for more than 10-20 minutes, I just hibernate.

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