Too many unused applications on the dock

webexplorer · 11-01-2012, 08:24 PM

My mother always forget to quit the applications every night such as Mail, Pages, Safari, Calendar, and a few other apps. They are on the active dock because these softwares hang on all night that are in the memory. It is just like a water is dripping from a faucet as wasting the electricity as well.

She likes to record some TV shows using an EyeTV3 app on her iMac when she goes to bed.

Is there a time program to let her computer to quit these softwares and let the EyeTV3 running at night?

She has an iMac i5, and it runs on OS 10.8.2.

DeltaMac · 11-01-2012, 09:31 PM

Your system tends to take down inactive apps to low power. They don't quit (as far as I know), but they "go to sleep". Plus, your system automatically takes memory from inactive apps, if it is needed for other tasks.
I think you are too suspicious that apps that are not in active use, are also somehow "wasting" power. There would be little power consumption, beyond EyeTV, and whatever it needs.

acme.mail.order · 11-01-2012, 09:42 PM

Don't worry about it. Unless the application is using massive amounts of CPU and disk transfer it won't have any noticeable effect on the power bill. Dormant applications typically consume 0% CPU, a notable exception are web browsers with javascript and flash advertisements running in a loop.

webexplorer · 11-02-2012, 09:13 AM

Interesting. Thank you.

11-01-2012, 08:24 PM	#1
webexplorer Triple-A Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 60	Too many unused applications on the dock My mother always forget to quit the applications every night such as Mail, Pages, Safari, Calendar, and a few other apps. They are on the active dock because these softwares hang on all night that are in the memory. It is just like a water is dripping from a faucet as wasting the electricity as well. She likes to record some TV shows using an EyeTV3 app on her iMac when she goes to bed. Is there a time program to let her computer to quit these softwares and let the EyeTV3 running at night? She has an iMac i5, and it runs on OS 10.8.2.

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11-01-2012, 09:31 PM	#2
DeltaMac League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 7,958	Your system tends to take down inactive apps to low power. They don't quit (as far as I know), but they "go to sleep". Plus, your system automatically takes memory from inactive apps, if it is needed for other tasks. I think you are too suspicious that apps that are not in active use, are also somehow "wasting" power. There would be little power consumption, beyond EyeTV, and whatever it needs.

11-01-2012, 09:42 PM	#3
acme.mail.order League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Tokyo Posts: 6,046	Don't worry about it. Unless the application is using massive amounts of CPU and disk transfer it won't have any noticeable effect on the power bill. Dormant applications typically consume 0% CPU, a notable exception are web browsers with javascript and flash advertisements running in a loop.

11-02-2012, 09:13 AM	#4
webexplorer Triple-A Player Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 60	Interesting. Thank you.