On Mon, Sep 13, 2010 at 19:47, Micky Hulse <mickyhulse.lists@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Motion sensing camera connected to a mechanical pointer stick aimed to
> trigger the server power button.
>
> On his way out of the office:
>
> Clap on/clap off Clapper connected to computer power cable.
It would be cheaper to employ the same method used on some
lawnmowers and required on Jet Skis and Skidoos: a cable with a clip
worn by the rider. The rider falls off, the cable releases from the
vehicle, disengaging the throttle and cutting the engine. The boss
stands up, his entire infrastructure collapses, everyone's connections
are closed, and all PCs subsequently catch fire.
Realistically, a simple desktop-based application running in the
system tray (presuming Windows) would send a kill signal to a
predefined script to issue safe closing routines to the database
first, then any other systems he wants to close out. It could even
have simple options to poll if there's a screensaver activated, which
would initiate the process automatically, should he choose to be
extremely paranoid. The same could be automated to work in reverse,
to automatically bring the systems up, when the local desktop session
becomes active (from hibernation, logoff, or screensaver), or even
with an override ("Pause Sessions") by right-clicking the systray
icon.
It's no surprise to several here that I'm not a big fan of
Windows.... but I do still like to stay on top of programming
languages, and at least give each one a try. Something of interest to
no one: my first full-production, open-source project that included
PHP was actually a combination of a PHP server-side script and Windows
client script, written in VB, back in 2000. It was named phpCourier,
and was used as a client-server CMS for simple news postings (before
"blog" became a catchphrase). It was downloaded a few thousand times,
and then I quit hosting it. I may actually have that server with
those files and a bunch of other old projects in my basement. Now I'm
suddenly interested in unpacking and organizing everything.
--
</Daniel P. Brown>
Network Infrastructure Manager
Documentation, Webmaster Teams
http://www.php.net/
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