Sleepless Mac

Shortly after I got my new Mac, I wanted to run it with the lid closed. I figured I'd close it on my desk, protecting the keyboard from dust and youngsters, and connect to it over the network from the office.

By default, it goes to sleep when the lid is closed, and I couldn't find a way to change that. Web searches turned up a kernel extension and also lots of talk about the possibility of the Mac overheating disastrously.

So, I called AppleCare to get an authoritative answer. The response was that a 15" PowerBook can do it, but my 12" PowerBook can't. That wasn't definite, but the rep I talked to found documentation easily about doing what I wanted with PowerBooks other than the one I had and concluded that it probably wasn't a good idea to try it with mine.

Now I leave it on my desk part way closed. It may keep some dust out, but the youngsters could fool around. Some evenings I come home to find that it was closed sometime in the afternoon. Sometimes I just close it myself.

I suppose my next step will be to leave it open but log out or lock the computer some way. That way meddling hands can't hurt it. It'd probably also make me feel more secure if it were ever stolen. Every other computer I've had in the last ten years has had security like that, and they were tangled up on a desk their whole lives, not gallivanting around the state, sleek and wireless.