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Imagine your home or work office as a hospital. One of the patients is a very close friend, your computer. You go to visit him one sunny Sunday afternoon. You walk into his hospital room and see him lying in the bed with alien tubes coming out of his ports, DVD drive, cooling fan and God knows what else he has in his console.

When you touch him and say "Hello, Buddy!" he growls and snarls and yells "You're the reason why I'm here, you nitwit!" You jump back, startled, and ask "What do you mean I'm the one who put you here?" Then like a menacing pit bull, he barks his rage at you.

"Yeah, you gave me all these diseases diabetes of the motherboard, high blood pressure in my CPU, heart disease in my power supply." "How'd I do that?" you respond. "Let's see, where shall I begin," your enraged computer buddy fires back.

"How about energy consumption, dumb bell!

"If you had just looked a little more into green computing, I wouldn't be here! Don't you know that the improper use of computers increases energy consumption and places a heavy burden on the environment and computers?

"Consider computer operating costs.

"We computers are very sensitive, my man. We generate a lot of heat and require a lot of cooling, which adds to energy costs. Every month these costs could exceed hundreds or thousands of dollars. If you had only made a commitment to energy conservation, environmental stewardship and responsible computer use, I wouldn't be bedridden and you wouldn't need to spend all those dollars fixing me up.

"Did you ever consider how much energy a computer system like me uses?

"Well, let me clue you in, moron! A typical desktop PC system is comprised of the
computer itself (the CPU or the "box"), a monitor and printer. My CPU requires about
100 watts of electrical power. Add 50 to 150 watts for a 15-17 inch monitor. The power requirements of a conventional laser printer could exceed 100 watts printing, though much less if idling in "sleep mode." Ink jet printers only use about 12 watts while printing and 5 watts while idling.

"Consider what happens when these costs are multiplied by many thousands of computers in a large central location. Can you now see why I am in here, how energy
wasted dollars can mushroom like the cloud from an atomic blast? Man, if I wasn't so
sick, I'd kick your butt.

"The only reason I don't is because there are ways to fix me. Note the following twelve:

1. Cut down the length of time a screen saver image appears on the monitor to a minute or less. If the image

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