As a techie for the last 3 years, I can tell you with absolute certainty that your computer will be of no use to you anyway when the constant stress of turning it off and on wears down components, and that running it all of the time will not cause a energy crises anywhere (save maybe California).
Taking 35 calls a night, 5 days a week for several years, I assure you that while there is no adverse affects from leaving it running all of the time, the smart money is on shutting it down, but not solely just shutting down. More than any other issue, the number one call generator is “unable to connect to the internet”. The downside of this is that an inability to connect to the internet is probably one of the toughest issues to troubleshoot. First, the idiot calling is on the phone with you, so after each step the user must hang up, attempt to connect, and then wait an indescriminate amount of time prior to receiving a call back from the techie, which generally comes in 5 minutes, but quite frequently, never, with the likelihood of the techie calling back exponentially decreasing after each hang-up and try it.
Assuming the user is able to follow directions long enough to diagnose a faulty modem, (which is a stretch as most of the time they become lost during the process of checking protocols and settings in the OS) the modem is disptched with an onsite tech to replace the faulty modem. I have spoken to onsite techs who have told me that they were supposed to replace 12 or more modems in a day, and never replaced any because when they got to the users’ homes, they discovered char marks or blown transistors on the modem board itself. Both of which are primarily the result of surge or lightening damage, which is normally not covered under a person’s OEM warranty. It is imperative that people understand that power surges through telephone lines cripple more PCs than anything except PEBCAK (Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard). So, no matter what school of thought you apply to; the leave it on school, or the shut it down school, at least make sure you unplug the damn phone line. It will make my job much easier!!
The Staff Report being commented on is (presumably): Should I leave my computer running when it’s not in use?
ddaug, when you start a new thread, it’s helpful to others if your provide a link to the column or staff report upon which you are commenting… helps keep everyone on the same page, avoids people duplicating comments, etc.
There’s something wrong with the link. Try this one: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturnoff.html
I think it’s got a stutter. Dex has three Ts in http, instead of the normal two. Or four, actually. It’s a little-known fact that the HTML standards allow for any even number of Ts in the http, so the following links are perfectly valid:
httttp://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturnoff.html
httttttp://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturnoff.html
But Dex’s link has an odd number of Ts, which is not allowed:
you are correct chronos, but only when dealing with hyperlinks, any more than 4 T’s when actually typing in a URL and you will get a DNS error.
OOops, sorry about that. I’ve fixed the link, thanks for calling it to my atttttttenttttttion. I gottttttta take elocution lessons to stttttop tha sttttttuttttttter. Or have my keyboard cleaned.
Since this is the SDMB, I’ll be a humourless pedant and point out that Chronos and **ddaug4uf ** are joking and that the scheme component (the http bit in this case) of a URI must be exact. The only recommendation is that uppercase should be treated as lower case (ie. “HTTP” should be treated as “http”). Details in RFC 2396.
Internet Explorer (Version 6, at least) will assume you’ve made a typo and correct it if you type more than one “t” in the URI. Mozilla doesn’t, simply telling you that there’s no such protocol.
OK, Mr. Humourless Pendant, what the heck is a URI? Should I expect web pages to start bending spoons with their thumbs, now? 
A URI is a Uniform Resource Identifier, which is the new name for a URL. Details are in the previously linked RFC. Hah! Bet you thought I’d made a mistake, eh?
Hmm…I oversimplified and left myself open to a pedantic attack on my post. URLs can be considered a subset of URIs is a more accurate statement.
Gack, my head hurts. I attempted to read the document, but I’m over my head. I’m so not a programmer, so while I could parse out parts of the content, sometimes technical terms got in the way of my understanding. Add to that the limitations of the document form, and using text characters when an actual table would have been easier to read.
As stated in the document, URI is a new hierarchy system being implemented to encapsulate URL with other systems of identifying “resources”. Resources may include people or library books, it states. ??? Types of protocols listed: ftp, http, gopher, telnet, mailto, news.
The paragraph in question regarding http protocol in the URI hierarchy:
You are correct, there is no other mention in the document about parsing the structure of the URL protocol, http. However, I don’t think it claims to define how the protocols work.
What this appears to be saying is this document defines the structure for all types of links so that browsers can parse the elements and divide out the components consistently. It does not specify how the particular protocols work. In fact, there are elements in each protocol that work independently that are identified in separate documents. Note that this document spells out dividing the elements with the : and slashes //, etc, and lists which characters can be used in addresses and which have functions so can’t be text character parts of the link (reserved). It does not say anything about how the protocol headers (http, ftp, etc) are parsed.
Note that by clicking on the links provided by Chronos with the extra t’s, my Netscape opened the new window to the proper location just fine. In fact, Chronos says the definition for extra t parsing is in HTML standards. This URI document does not change HTML standards.
I have no idea why an even number of t’s should be parsed correctly, but an odd number of t’s wouldn’t.
I’da thought it was obvious, Irishman: t for 2.
Is that a joke, or am I missing something?
Just in case anyone still doesn’t get it: When I typed that post, I turned off automatic parsing of URLs, and entered the (correct, http) addresses manually. Had the links actually been
httttp://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturnoff.html
and
httttttp://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mturnoff.html
they would not work. But if you hover over my original links, you’ll see that those are not the addresses I linked to.
Or did I just get whooshed by Irishman?
So, uhh, having made a fool out of myself over at GD, is it safe to say nobody really knows the answer to the original question, or what?
All this, and I still don’t know whether to leave the blasted thing on all the time or not. Yegads, can’t you tech people make up your minds?
Irishman, “t for 2” is a joke. “Tea for two” is a song. At least that’s the leap I’m making, halfway through one cup of coffee.
dantheman, I think it’s hopeless…
I’ll just fire up that tape of the Muppet Show where Ralph sings “Tea for Two” backwards.
“Eet roff oot, na oot off eet!”
No, that didn’t help at all. Darn.
Thanks, Chronos, for spelling it out for the slow. I finally did what I should have done before - I looked at your post in quote reply.
I’ve noticed that my older system, a P3-450, has recently developed the habit of turning off and on by itself. I now turn it off - and make sure it stays off by flipping the power supply switch - when I’m not using it.