idle detection

[Ethan Blanton]

Mark Doliner spake unto us the following wisdom:
> Computers these days are pretty fast... I don't think it's unreasonable to
> wake up and check a variable every couple billion hertz.

Fast is completely unrelated -- it's about sleep states.  And, the
very reason we want to *be* in those sleep states is that the machines
are so fast that they waste tremendous gobs of electricity even when
doing basically nothing.

Ethan

-- 
The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
determined to commit crimes.
		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
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