On Thu, 7 Jun 2001, Walter Luffman wrote:
> I went to the APC website (www.apcc.com) and searched through the download
> area. APC offers both a simple shutdown daemon and various versions of its
> PowerChute software for Linux. -- none specifically for Mandrake, but perhaps
> one of the Red Hat downloads is generic enough to work. APC also offers a
> Sparc version of PowerChute, if that's what you need.
>
> > The better way to go is to get a 'smart' ups (again, I stronly advise
> > against APC, but if you get the APC SmartUPS at LEAST it usually works
> > with serial ports), which can give you all kinds of cool info, like
> > loading, battery health (I think), temperature, and stuff like that.
>
> No argument here that a "smart" UPS is bound to be superior to a more simple
> UPS -- when comparing similar items, "You get what you pay for" is true more
> often than not. But a home user may not need that much functionality.
>
> Note to anyone still running without a UPS: My area is blessed with
> reasonably reliable power, mainly because thunderstorms and tornadoes over
> the years forced the utilities to upgrade their infrastructure. But I still
> get the occasional spike or brownout.. Before I installed my UPS I just took
> my chances and accepted the occasional fried hardware as an opportunity to
> upgrade. Now the power entering my computer and peripherals is clean and
> rock-solid, as long as the interruption isn't too long. Even without
> unattended shutdowns I consider my UPS a very worthwhile investment. (I
> still upgrade my hardware now and then, but now the old hardware is
> usually in working condition so I can use it to upgrade even older equipment.)
>
