Leaving computers on overnight = $2.8 billion a year

Thu Mar 26, 2009 12:13PM EDT

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Admittedly I don't think much about it at all. I leave my laptop running overnight because I know it'll take five minutes or more to get things going in the morning -- not just booting up, but launching the various apps I start the day with, downloading my overnight email, filtering out the spam, and otherwise "getting settled."

But all the power wasted while computers are sitting idle overnight adds up, and one study has finally tried to measure it. The tally: An estimated $2.8 billion wasted on excess energy costs each year in the U.S. alone.

On a CO2 basis, that's 20 million tons of carbon dioxide, about the amount produced by 4 million cars on the road.

The full report is available for download here (scroll down to "PC Energy Report US 2009").

But big numbers like that become almost meaningless in an era of trillion-dollar bailouts, so to put the wasted energy in perspective, the study provides the data in terms you can better understand: If you run a company with 1,000 PCs left on overnight, you can save about $28,000 a year if they are turned off after hours. That's not chump change.

Of course, it's also a fact that your PC will function better if you restart it regularly, and nightly shutdowns can help you avoid having to suddenly reboot in the middle of the day when you'd otherwise be productive. So even though this little laptop, by my math, eats up only about a quarter's worth of power overnight, maybe it's a smart idea -- and ultimately a time-saver, too -- to shut it down after hours after all.

Via USA Today

Survey: A third of children skip breakfast, many are obese

By LOH FOON FONG

KUALA LUMPUR: More than three-quarters of primary school children surveyed in a recent study hardly have vegetables and fruits in their diet.

The children also lead a sedentary life and more than a quarter of them are obese.

These are among the preliminary findings of the “Food habits and physical activity pattern of primary school children in Malaysia” survey.

The survey was carried out on Year One to Year Six pupils throughout the country (except for Malacca and Johor) from August 2007 to December 2008.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Department of Nutrition and Dietetics associate professor Dr Norimah A. Karim said the survey also showed that there was a growing number of rural children who were overweight and in some areas, the situation was worse than in urban areas.

The preliminary findings of the survey also concluded that of the 9,375 pupils interviewed, 2,802 of them did not have breakfast.

Most of them (45%) cited they did not have the time for breakfast, she said.

The other reasons given were: they were not hungry (22%), had no appetite (18%), did not have food (10%) and it was too early (5%).

“Three of 10 Malaysian children skip breakfast every day,” said Dr Norimah, who carried out the research with six other researchers from UKM.

Dr Norimah, who revealed the findings at a scientific conference organised by the Nutrition Society of Malaysia recently, said parents could give children easily prepared food such as fruits, milk and cereal.

The main aim of the study was to produce a nutritional status report on primary school children in Malaysia, which could be used as a reference for relevant agencies to raise public awareness.

The full report of the survey, which covers 13,000 students, including from Malacca and Johor will be announced in August.

This was a follow-up study, conducted between 2001 and 2002. Both were funded by Nestle Malaysia.

Stop ‘cut and paste’ research

By RUBEN SARIO.

KOTA KINABALU: The practice of just downloading information from the internet is among the key reasons in the deterioration of research quality among university students, Higher Education Department director-general Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said.

He said there was a tendency among university students to limit their research efforts to “cutting and pasting” when they should be doing a lot more in finding facts.

“Research must take on a holistic approach and not simply gleaning something off the internet,” he said when launching information and computer technology facilities at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) here yesterday.

Dr Radin said such a culture should be stopped as it did not reflect the core values of academic life. On the university intake this year, he said the number of applicants was almost double the number of places available.

Disclosing the figures, he said there were about 130,000 applicants for the 69,000 places at Malaysian public universities this year.

Of the figure, 28,000 were for students with the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia certificates while the balance were for those with Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia (STPM) certificates.

Dr Radin said the places offered to STPM certificate holders had increased by 1,000 compared with last year as various universities were offering additional study programmes.

Nigerian woman jailed for online scam

By M. MAGESWARI

KUALA LUMPUR: A Nigerian woman was jailed for a year and three months for attempting to cheat a government officer through e-mail saying he had won a “Microsoft 2008 Anniversary” lucky draw prize of US$1mil (RM3.64mil).

Peace Okotie, 26, a business studies student at a private college here, is said to be the first person to be convicted under the Penal Code for such a scam.

Okotie from Benin, who changed her plea to guilty after a witness testified at her trial earlier, was also slapped with four months’ jail for overstaying in Malaysia after her student pass expired on July 22 last year.

Magistrate Siti Shakirah Mohtarudin, however, ordered the jail terms run concurrently from the date of her arrest on Aug 27.

According to the facts of the case, the probe into the scam started after assistant financial administrator Buang Md Sayuti received an e-mail purportedly from a “Microsoft Internet promotion’’ dated July 14 last year, saying that he was a winner of the lucky draw.

When he checked his e-mail at his office on Aug 19 last year, it stated that the lucky draw was held on July 11 at the Stanford Bridge Stadium in London.

The next day, he received another e-mail saying that he was the fourth winner and would have to pay a processing fee of US$2,750 (RM10,018) to deliver the prize money to his house.

Buang received another e-mail on Aug 25, saying that all processes had been settled and the delivery would be made to him through one Eagle Finance and Courier Company in London.

Okotie claimed to be a representative of the delivery company. Upon her arrival, Buang was asked to pay US$2,550 (RM9,289) to her to enjoy an exemption from any inspections in Malaysia.

On the same day, Buang received a call from Okotie, who introduced herself as Sophia Young, and asked him to meet her to make the payment to get the “item” that was said to be kept at the high commission here.

Okotie gave him three days to settle his payment. She sent him another e-mail the next day, asking for a copy of his identity card and related documents.

Suspecting something amiss, Buang contacted police and arranged a meeting with Okotie at Kuala Lumpur City Centre at 2.45pm on Aug 27.

Shortly later, she was arrested for further investigations.

Pleading for leniency Tuesday, her lawyer B. Renuka said Okotie had been remanded since her arrest and could not afford to pay a hefty fine because she was debt-ridden in her country.

She asked the court to consider Okotie’s status and that she came from a poor family and had a young child to care for.

DPP Azimul Azami Mohd Nor pressed for a deterrent sentence, saying that it was a pre-meditated crime.

IMPACT tangani ancaman jenayah siber

ABDULLAH menandatangani plak selepas melancarkan ibu pejabat IMPACT sambil diperhatikan Najib, Hamadoun dan Pengerusi Pengurusan IMPACT, Mohd Noor Amin (kiri), di Cyberjaya, semalam.

CYBERJAYA: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi berkata, kerajaan di seluruh dunia perlu bersedia berdepan pelbagai ancaman jenayah siber yang merebak ketika ini.

Perdana Menteri berkata, ancaman jenayah siber boleh memberi kesan buruk terhadap kehidupan sebenar dan kepada aspek ekonomi, politik dan sosial sesebuah negara pada kadar lebih besar.

"Sebagai contoh, jenayah siber yang menyebabkan gangguan bekalan elektrik di seluruh negara atau kejatuhan sistem dagangan kewangan boleh memberi kesan, biarpun terhadap ekonomi yang paling kukuh," katanya berucap pada majlis perasmian ibu pejabat baru International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT) di sini, petang semalam.

IMPACT adalah usaha sama pertama seumpamanya di dunia antara jabatan awam dan swasta bagi menangani cabaran ancaman siber.

Ibu pejabat baru itu turut menjadi tuan rumah kepada Agenda Sibersekuriti Global, sebuah rangka kerja bagi usaha sama antarabangsa yang ditubuhkan Kesatuan Telekomunikasi Antarabangsa (ITU).

Hadir sama, Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak; Setiausaha Agung ITU, Hamadoun Toure dan Menteri Sains, Teknologi dan Inovasi, Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili.

IMPACT adalah ilham Perdana Menteri yang juga Pengerusi Lembaga Penasihat Antarabangsa IMPACT. Lembaga Penasihat Antarabangsa itu yang dianggotai pemimpin dunia daripada pihak industri dan akademik yang selama ini memberi sokongan kepada aktiviti utama IMPACT.

Perdana Menteri berkata, keadaan dunia yang dihubungkan kini amat terdedah kepada ancaman siber yang tidak pernah berlaku selama ini.

Katanya, ramai individu yang yang berniat jahat dan kumpulan yang cenderung mencetuskan ancaman terhadap komuniti dan negara dalam dunia sebenar.

Abdullah berkata, beliau bangga kerana Malaysia menjadi ibu pejabat IMPACT, sekali gus muncul kerjasama pertama dan tunggal di dunia yang membabitkan pemegang saham global di antara kerajaan, industri dan ahli akademik yang bekerjasama melindungi alam siber dan menjamin keselamatannya untuk semua golongan.

Students’ online application for public varsity tampered with

GOPENG: Three university hopefuls were shocked to find their online applications to public universities tampered with.

The former SMK Seri Teja students, who had just received their STPM results on Thursday, had all their eight choices filled with Islamic Studies.

To make matters worse, they were unable to amend the changes.
Stunned: Chow (seated) showing the changes made to his online application as (from left) Chai and Ang look on.

Chow Hon Mun, 21, said they could only make changes to the details on the online application website three times.

“I panicked when I could not make any changes and told my teachers about it,” said Chow when met at the Gopeng MCA service centre yesterday.

“My teachers then advised me to lodge a police report,” he said, adding that his first choice was engineering and that he had no intention of taking up Islamic Studies.

Chow added that recently he and his two friends had also received SMSes from an unidentified person who admitted to making the changes to their applications.

“I initially thought it was a prank but soon realised the person was telling the truth,” he said, adding that he was puzzled that the person had managed to procure confidential information about him and his two friends.

The other two victims were Chai Yick Loong, 21, and Ang Chun Heng, 20.

Chai said he wanted to take up an engineering course, and hoped the Higher Education Ministry could help them with their predicament.

Ang said he wanted to change the list back to his primary choices before the public university acceptance application ends on March 23.

“I hope the relevant authorities will upgrade the security system on the website so that it won’t be so easily hacked by people,” he added.

Gopeng MCA division chief Albert Chang said he would refer the matter to Deputy Higher Education Minister Dr Hou Kok Chung.

“We will help them gather all their result slips, application forms and official school letters and send the documents to Dr Hou through our education bureau,” said Chang.

He urged all public university hopefuls to check their online applications to ensure their forms were not tampered with.

How to tell, what to do if computer is infected (AP)

Computer-virus infections don't cause your machine to crash anymore.

Nowadays, the criminals behind the infections usually want your computer operating in top form so you don't know something's wrong. That way, they can log your keystrokes and steal any passwords or credit-card numbers you enter at Web sites, or they can link your infected computer with others to send out spam.

Here are some signs your computer is infected, tapped to serve as part of "botnet" armies run by criminals:

• You experience new, prolonged slowdowns. This can be a sign that a malicious program is running in the background.

• You continually get pop-up ads that you can't make go away. This is a sure sign you have "adware," and possibly more, on your machine.

• You're being directed to sites you didn't intend to visit, or your search results are coming back funky. This is another sign that hackers have gotten to your machine.

So what do you do?

• Having anti-virus software here is hugely helpful. For one, it can identify known malicious programs and disable them. If the virus that has infected your machine isn't detected, many anti-virus vendors offer a service in which they can remotely take over your computer and delete the malware for a fee.

• Some anti-virus vendors also offer free, online virus-scanning services.

• You may have to reinstall your operating system if your computer is still experiencing problems. It's a good idea even if you believe you've cleaned up the mess because malware can still be hidden on your machine. You will need to back up your files before you do this.

How do I know what information has been taken?

• It's very hard to tell what's been taken. Not every infection steals your data. Some just serve unwanted ads. Others poison your search result or steer you to Web sites you don't want to see. Others log your every keystroke. The anti-virus vendors have extensive databases about what the known infections do and don't do. Comparing the results from your virus scans to those entries will give you a good idea about what criminals may have snatched up.

Empat ciuman sehari panjangkan perkahwinan

LONDON: Penyelidik berjaya membongkar rahsia perkahwinan berpanjangan dan ia membabitkan jurang umur dua tahun, empat ciuman sehari dan mengadakan hubungan seks tiga kali seminggu.

Berkongsi dua hobi, memeluk pasangan tiga kali setiap 24 jam, mengucap ‘saya cintakan awak’ sekurang-kurangnya sekali sehari dan menikmati dua hidangan romantik dua kali sebulan juga boleh membantu memanjangkan usia perkahwinan.

Profil perkahwinan sempurna itu dikumpul oleh laman web perancang perkahwinan, www.confetti.co.uk. Lebih 3,000 pasangan suami isteri disoal selidik untuk mencari rahsia kejayaan mereka mempertahankan perkahwinan.

Jurucakap laman web itu, Carol Richardson, berkata: “Penyelidikan menunjukkan banyak komponen yang menjadikan perkahwinan itu sempurna, termasuk jurang usia yang sesuai, tempoh bercinta dan masa untuk berkahwin.

“Nampaknya, pasangan berkahwin pada usia lebih lanjut yang boleh dikaitkan dengan wanita lebih mementingkan karier, menyebabkan cinta dan perkahwinan jatuh nombor dua.”

Beliau berkata, jurang perbezaan usia untuk perkahwinan masih menetapkan lelaki perlu lebih tua berbanding wanita yang boleh dikaitkan dengan suami perlu stabil dari segi emosi dan kewangan.

“Selepas majlis perkahwinan berakhir, kajian menunjukkan betapa penting memastikan keajaiban itu terus hidup dengan ciuman, pelukan dan keluar malam bersama,” katanya.

Kajian mendapati perkahwinan paling lama bertahan membabitkan lelaki yang berkahwin pada usia 31 tahun - dua tahun dan tiga bulan lebih tua dari pasangan mereka.

Suami isteri juga perlu mengucapkan ‘saya cintakan awak’ kepada sesama sendiri sekurang-kurangnya sekali sehari dan melakukan hubungan seks tiga kali seminggu. - Agensi

Bagi memastikan hubungan sentiasa ceria, pasangan suami isteri perlu keluar makan bersama dua kali setiap bulan dan memperuntukkan tiga malam seminggu berpelukan di atas sofa bersama.

Mereka juga perlu sentiasa berhubungan - walaupun ketika bekerja - menerusi sekurang-kurangnya tiga panggilan telefon, SMS atau emel.

Dua percutian hujung minggu mengejutkan setiap tahun dan sekali percutian di luar negara setahun juga memastikan perkahwinan sentiasa kukuh. - Agensi