                                apmiser
                                =======
Copyright (C) 2000, David L. Sifry All Rights Reserved.

This software is licensed under the GPL; please see the file COPYING
for more details.

Introduction
------------

apmiser is a tool for IBM Thinkpads that automatically controls the
APM power settings based on your usage patterns. I often got pissed
off at how slow the Thinkpads were when running on power-save mode -
IBM would slow the CPU clock to 1/4 the rate of the full-speed
CPU. This significantly saved power, but the performance drop was
noticable. Whenever I wanted to do a compile, I would run tpctl to
switch the thinkpad into full-power state, and then when I was done,
I'd switch back into power-save state. This worked for big compiles,
but even then, it was time consuming and sometimes I forgot to go back
into power-saving mode, which caused my batteries to run out
quickly. In addition, this didn't change performance when doing short
CPU intensive tasks, like sorting a mail folder, or switching virtual
desktops.

In response to this, I created apmiser, which is a little daemon that
regularly checks your CPU utilization. If you're on battery power and
it thinks that you're using the CPU, it switches you into full-power
state while you need the CPU, and then it immediately switches you
back into power-savings mode when you're finished with the CPU. I've
found that apmiser significantly increases my productivity when using
my thinkpad on battery power. 

There's more, too. Since most of the time people use computers the CPU
is idle, I've set up apmiser to help you to recharge your batteries
faster when you're plugged into AC power. If you're plugged into AC
power and your battery charge state is less than 95%, then apmiser
acts as if you're running on battery power. Tests show that this
speeds up my battery recharge time by almost 25% over the IBM default,
which is to run the computer in a full-power state all the time.

Go to http://www.sifry.com/apmiser/ for more information on apmiser.

Usage 
-----

All you have to do is run apmiser as root or any user that can call
tpctl and effectively make changes to the power management
configuration. To make apmiser verbose, you can run it with the -v
option from the command line, and it will tell you a variety of
things, mot importantly when it is activating and deactivating power
savings modes. 
