Originally posted by Marble
I am curious, though, whether it is bad to leave my Powerbook on all night while plugged in. I'm on a university network sharing iTunes with lots of people, and I'd rather not stop my network services by sleeping it. Are there any disadvantages to this?
Not really, aside from the disk use that will obviously occur, you might also watch for heat (since laptops are generally less heat efficient when left on a non-heat-conductive surface)... but other than that, i don't see any reason not to.
as to the general thread, a couple of points: OS X does run daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance routines if the computer is awake at night. It certainly doesn't hurt to let it do this. Since most people don't want their computer powered up fully all night, my solution: turn "Spin Down HD when not in use" on in the Energy Saver control pane, and set the display to go to sleep after an hour or so. The computer won't technically be asleep, but it will be pretty close, especially if your computer doesn't have a fan in it. my machine does this automatically every night, so i don't have to worry about it at all. you can also do things like downloading/sharing all night if you use this method.
also, yes you can move your machine while asleep (or awake, really), as long as you are careful not to disconnect cables... USB for your keyboard and mouse aren't that important, but if you unplug a FW drive or internet connection while it's in use adverse reactions may occur. But, if your question is whether you can move it far-- like unplug it and carry it to another room-- you need to shut down, as sleep does depend on a tiny amount of AC power.
pnw
