iBeeZz
Iâve finally sorted out a workable solution for running cron jobs at night on my laptop. The problem is that I donât like leaving the PowerBook awake all night: Heat is pretty damaging to electronic components, and the longer the backlight in the LCD is on, the shorter its life. Itâs also a bit wasteful of energy, and I try to conserve energy whenever I can.
Weâve been using a utility called iBeeZz at work for a while now to shutdown and reboot a desktop machine we use as a server, and Iâve finally got around to installing it on my laptop. The built-in Energy Saver preferences allow you to shutdown the computer at a pre-set time, but you canât wake it from sleep automatically. iBeeZz has a lot of flexibility, and you can wake up, sleep, shutdown or startup at any scheduled time, while varying the behaviour on different days of the week. You can also arrange to quit an application, open a file or an Applescript, or you can launch iTunesâthus turning your Mac into a ludicrously over-priced alarm clock.
Good job we're not all the same!…