Xbox Series S/X draws nine to 10 watts of power 24 hours a day -- even when it's not being actively used -- compared to less than 1W if the standby settings are switched to "energy saving" mode...
I'm old enough to remember when you could turn devices off. An energy saving mode that uses 0 watts- imagine that!
Yep, nothing like a loud, affirmative clunk to let you know it's (supposed to be) on/off. (thinking in the context of IBM 51** machines and many PS/2s )
For a while I had all my home entertainment stuff on a powerstrip with a builtin timer, so between 1am and 4pm nothing drew any power (on weekdays. On weekends it would wake up at 8am), but now I'd be worried about how it would deal with sudden power loss. Not so easy to reinstall xbox-os if the drive gets corrupt
I don't know if they still have them, probably, but a few years ago they had cheap remote plug two outlet ones for $5 around Christmas. I got two, one for the tree, but they can be very useful for other things as well.
Not on only did those devices turn off completely, they also turned on instantly. Today, in the age of complexity and towers of abstraction, it takes a long time to start those devices, hence "instant on" actually means "never off". Itâ(TM)s a simulated instant on.
Vaguely. I do remember my grandpa's black and white TV in which the picture on the CRT was smaller when first turned on, but still viewable. The TV in our house was color and I'm sure transistor based, and it didn't have an "always ON" mode since even the remote only had an OFF button, but no ON button - the ON button was only physically on the TV.
ROFL. See if any contemporary console can run on 64KB or RAM+ROM. The answer of course is no, and it never will. I used to work on a fairly popular (amongst embedded folks) RTOS, which could boot in under 4KB or RAM. We used to sell a graphical automotive UI in 2 versions, RTOS requiring a single core and 1MB or RAM, and a Linux version, which looked identical, which requires a quad core + 1GB or RAM. Same framework, you can recompile into RTOS or Linux. All customer but one chose Linux, even though it mean
See if any contemporary console can run on 64KB or RAM+ROM. The answer of course is no, and it never will.
The reason is that games for those consoles now need more than that, because pretty graphics, and wanting to push beyond arbitrary limits that would otherwise be stopped at 64K. I recently played AI War 2, that game likes tracking around 500+ units at once just for one faction and there's enough variables that you'd slam against 64K even with a compressed data structure.
The Good Old Days (Score:5, Insightful)
Xbox Series S/X draws nine to 10 watts of power 24 hours a day -- even when it's not being actively used -- compared to less than 1W if the standby settings are switched to "energy saving" mode...
I'm old enough to remember when you could turn devices off. An energy saving mode that uses 0 watts- imagine that!
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Re:The Good Old Days (Score:5, Interesting)
For a while I had all my home entertainment stuff on a powerstrip with a builtin timer, so between 1am and 4pm nothing drew any power (on weekdays. On weekends it would wake up at 8am), but now I'd be worried about how it would deal with sudden power loss. Not so easy to reinstall xbox-os if the drive gets corrupt
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I hate the ones that does autoupdates overnight though and can't be disabled.
Re:The Good Old Days (Score:5, Insightful)
You can do that still. You can even have a remote control for it if you want.
Remote controlled power strips for this exact purpose have been a thing for a while now.
Home Depot (Score:2)
I don't know if they still have them, probably, but a few years ago they had cheap remote plug two outlet ones for $5 around Christmas. I got two, one for the tree, but they can be very useful for other things as well.
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You can do that still. You can even have a remote control for it if you want.
Remote controlled power strips for this exact purpose have been a thing for a while now.
Isn't there some option that lets you turn devices of without lifting your hand? Lifting your hand is still too much effort.
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Use your nose to control the switch/touchscreen. Hands free.
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Yes, smart power plugs do exist and if you have a smart speaker you can control them with your voice.
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And you could turn them on and off without a lengthy startup and shutdown routine. They were either on and ready or completely off right away.
Re: The Good Old Days (Score:3)
Not on only did those devices turn off completely, they also turned on instantly. Today, in the age of complexity and towers of abstraction, it takes a long time to start those devices, hence "instant on" actually means "never off". Itâ(TM)s a simulated instant on.
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You don't remember the old TVs that took a while to warm up the tubes?
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Vaguely. I do remember my grandpa's black and white TV in which the picture on the CRT was smaller when first turned on, but still viewable. The TV in our house was color and I'm sure transistor based, and it didn't have an "always ON" mode since even the remote only had an OFF button, but no ON button - the ON button was only physically on the TV.
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When I turn my Commodore 64 off, it's off. No hidden background activity there. And the best part is that it boots up in a second.
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ROFL. See if any contemporary console can run on 64KB or RAM+ROM. The answer of course is no, and it never will. I used to work on a fairly popular (amongst embedded folks) RTOS, which could boot in under 4KB or RAM. We used to sell a graphical automotive UI in 2 versions, RTOS requiring a single core and 1MB or RAM, and a Linux version, which looked identical, which requires a quad core + 1GB or RAM. Same framework, you can recompile into RTOS or Linux. All customer but one chose Linux, even though it mean
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The reason is that games for those consoles now need more than that, because pretty graphics, and wanting to push beyond arbitrary limits that would otherwise be stopped at 64K. I recently played AI War 2, that game likes tracking around 500+ units at once just for one faction and there's enough variables that you'd slam against 64K even with a compressed data structure.
Some of the later devices also be
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is unplugging at the power point still a thing - or are you lazy?
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consider.
xbox would have to sell those xboxes first