Things to leave your computer doing overnight?

**anon** · 25.02.11, 22:43

Yes, I feel like creating threads today. Perhaps caused my disappointment of seeing the spam thread so dead when it used to get over 30 posts per day at its zenith, not so long ago (although it feels like it).

Anyway, the title says it all. I'm leaving my netbook running overnight, connected to the Internet, and would like suggestions on how to make it do something other than wasting electricity and using one of my ISP's allocated IP addresses.

This is what I'm already doing:

leaving a large jDownloader queue running to steal those files while I sleep
seeding my torrents (upload speed gets tripled during the night; already uploaded a few dozen GBs this way)

This is what I don't plan to do:

leaving IRC/any IM programs connected on "away", or auto-refreshing SB-I, to make it look like I'm always online. Absolute waste of bandwidth.
running SETI, Folding@home or that kind of programs. I don't want to strain my netbook, and I doubt we're going to find the cure for cancer that way. If we ever do, you'll have my most sincere apology.

Thanks in advance!

**Pickle** · 25.02.11, 23:41

I can't remember but i did a hdd test recently the result was funny, it is written that "your hdd works so much" :)
If i wanna do something with spinrite on hdd, i need to leave pc open for nearly 5-6 days, or if i want to defrag it still needed to be open at least 24 hours.

---------- Post added at 00:41 ---------- Previous post was at 00:40 ----------

Yes, I feel like answering your every threats today

cya anon

**SaintShaolin** · 27.02.11, 16:20

... But you can earn bonus points for idling in IRC (for some trackers)

Other things you could do overnight:
~ (extensive) Manual virus scan
~ encode movies/audios to other formats

**dreamer** · 27.02.11, 16:47

anon there's that program that uses your computer to search for a cure for AIDS or other disease. could be a great contribute to mankind

I use the night to earn bonus points on some trackers, to encode my videos when needed, to operate heavy torrent downloads.
this makes my PC be up for most of the time. if none of the above happens, I shut it down.

**anon** · 27.02.11, 18:22

Originally Posted by DownloadAddict

... But you can earn bonus points for idling in IRC (for some trackers)

I may actually consider that despite saying no IRC in my first post, but the only trackers I care about right now use pure-ratio based systems with no IRC or seeding bonus.

Other things you could do overnight:
~ (extensive) Manual virus scan
~ encode movies/audios to other formats

1. sounds good, specially considering I don't run an antivirus program to save resources. Will keep that in mind.
2. I haven't had to encode anything ever since I got the netbook. I simply watch the movies there.

Originally Posted by dreamer

anon there's that program that uses your computer to search for a cure for AIDS or other disease. could be a great contribute to mankind

I genuinely agree it would, but I don't think we're going to find it by synthesizing proteins or whatever it is that it does. Also that sort of stuff puts pressure on the computer's resources. I don't want to find a pile of ashes where the thing used to be when I wake up.

I use the night to earn bonus points on some trackers, to encode my videos when needed, to operate heavy torrent downloads.

Seeding and OCH downloading I'm already doing.

**hessler** · 27.02.11, 18:33

Originally Posted by anon

leaving IRC/any IM programs connected on "away", or auto-refreshing SB-I, to make it look like I'm always online. Absolute waste of bandwidth.

That is a pretty good idea considering what you said and also that it acts as a listening port, by which a hacker has a better chance to sneak in your PC

**anon** · 27.02.11, 19:00

Running IRC makes it listen on a port? I've disabled DCC.

Anyway, my router should take care of that.

**mammamia11** · 27.02.11, 19:22

you can start a seedbox in your laptop and give me access to it, good investment! :)

**anon** · 27.02.11, 19:26

If I had a much better upload speed and a separate IP, I may actually consider running a "seedbox" for some friends. But I don't want to, hm, contribute to ~~global warming~~ IPv4 address exhaustion.

**Pickle** · 27.02.11, 23:09

I connect my two computer each other with an USB cable at nights and i let them make cyber sex :) And the day after their sex party, they become very tired with high CPU cycles, high CPU temperature.
If one of them doesn't allow other, she gives hdd bad sector error (ohhh my darling i have a headache)

**retaehc** · 28.02.11, 08:34

Encode audio\video for portable device (IPad, IPod, PSP...etc)
OCR text for E-INK reader (Kindle, Nook...etc)
Compress files to external storage for backup

All CPU-intensive, you might found ashes.

**Resurrection** · 01.03.11, 05:07

Hehe....good topic...

I scrobbled my whole library onto last.fm over a long period when I used to leave my PC on at night for downloading...

I wanted to do that cause the bands/artist in the "Music Recommended by Last.fm" section are really good...

**MiCRON** · 01.03.11, 05:14

Great idea Resurrection! I'll give that a try.

Most of the time I just leave my PC turned on because I'm download stuff. If only I could let it organize my ebooks (import to calibre, fix isbn, etc) without my presence, that would be great.