Verdiem Edison Power-Saving Software is Here, but You Can Do it Yourself

Everyone's praising the new power-saving, earth-saving software from Verdiem, an application called Edison. Here's a little blurb from the download Web site.

"Edison was developed by Verdiem, a company that has helped enterprises the world over reduce energy waste from IT devices. Now Verdiem is bringing Edison into your home-at no cost whatsoever. Download Edison and start saving energy today! With one little click
you can start saving energy and fight climate change. Absolutely FREE."

Well I hate to burst their bubble but you don't really need this extra application on your hard drive using up resources as it runs behind the scenes. You have the same options in your control panel power settings that do the same thing, without installing the third party software that Verdiem does. In the agreement you indemnify Verdiem from anything that happens to your computer as a result of the third party software that is in Edison. Verdiem hopes PC users will download 10 million copies.

Here are exact words from the License Agreement -
5. Third-party software. The Software contains or is distributed with software that is provided by third parties ("Third-Party Software"). Third-Party Software is not governed by this Agreement. Information about the Third-Party Software, if any, and the license terms, notices and disclaimers applicable to the Third-Party Software, are contained in the licenses.txt file accompanying the Software.
14. Transmission of Data to Verdiem. The Services may involve the transmission of data to Verdiem over the Internet, and you may not be notified in each instance to the transmission of information from your computer.

I find most license agreements vague, but ironclad in denial of their (vendors, distributors, etc.) responsibility. But that's the way it is.

I'm not saying that anything like spyware is involved, or that Verdiem is in any way connected to the codename: ECHELON program (the name for a worldwide signals intelligence collection system.) But why would they want you to download a copy (one of 10 million) of something that you already have on your system.

They have agreements in place with several US utilities for the Verdiem Surveyor software. Southern California Edison offers a $15 per PC rebate on SURVEYOR through their Express Efficiency program. Surveyor is certainly useful and efficient for large businesses that have many computers hooked into a LAN. Say you're a business that has 10,000 PC's. It saves the hassle of going into every pc on the network and adjusting the power settings. Most large corporations leave their computers on all the time anyway and should implement some energy saving plan, like discipline employees who leave their work station computer on overnight/weekend for instance.

Edison is the free home version of Surveyor.

I'm certainly not against "going green," or saving the planet. There are more than 1 billion PCs in the world to blame for an average of 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions every year, but you don't need to download additional software to "green" your home computer.

Here's how you can do the same thing for your (Windows XP/Vista) home computer without downloading the Verdiem Edison software.

Go into settings and bring up your control panel and click on "power options." A box will pop up and on the "power schemes" tab you will be able to specify when you want your computer to -
A: Turn off monitor
B: Turn off hard disks
C: System standby
D: System hibernate
These things turn off when there is no activity (i.e. clicking your mouse, keystrokes) anywhere from 1 min to 5 hours. I have mine set to turn off the monitor after 10 minutes of inaction, hard disks after 15 min. I go into standby after 30 minutes, and hibernation, (or sleep) after 1 hour. On the "advanced" tab you can check a box and have an icon put on your taskbar that will enable you to bring up these settings to change them without going into your control panel. Just click the icon on your taskbar. Thats it - same thing as the software Verdiem wants you to download. They do have a separate setting for non work hours, but when you're sleeping do you really need to leave it (a home computer) on?

Normally I just turn my computer off when I'm not using it, and I don't like to have my computer "hibernate" for long periods of time because it will eventually corrupt and damage the hard drive, (the head digs into the platters) it also interrupts other programs you might have scheduled. Hibernation is useful for a short period of time as everything is saved to memory and reboot time is cut drastically.

If you want to cut energy consumption and CO2 emissions do it yourself as I have described above. Or if you are lazy get the Verdiem Edison software, the control panel will even tell you how much money you are saving at the settings you choose. The risk of system crashes, freezes and other snafu's don't justify loading up my system with something I don't need so I can say I've "gone green."

Don't forget to slap an "I've Gone Green" bumper sticker on your car

All kidding aside, if everyone were to just turn off and unplug their personal electronics before going to bed, it would lessen the worldwide "carbon footprint" more than you think. I have nothing against Verdiem, but it just doesn't make sense to download something you already have on your home system.