Brian wrote:

Another factor is when you need it - When I need to
look something up, my computer is usually off. I hate
to boot up the old confuser just to look up a word.

I concur with your other reasons, but I have a different take on this
one.

For me, turning off the computer would be a lot like turning off the
telephone or the water supply. Yeah, I could... but why? I keep it on
all the time precisely so that I can do this type of thing.

At present I have a laptop on long-term loan, so noise and power
consumption are non-issues. If I didn't I'd get a machine with a
Sonata case and an LCD monitor, yielding about the same result.

I'm not suggesting that I'm right and you're wrong. But this is
another way to look at the computer.

My mail address is jsachs177 at earthlink dot net.