Back-UPS garbage? (was: Quick survey -- UPSs on slave nodes?)

[Mark Hahn]

> Has any one of you actually used these to sustain a PC for any
> measurable length of time?  I'm not sure at what market this junk
> is aimed, perhaps suckers.

this is nonsense; APC is just as liable for the truth of their
marketing as everyone else.  their low-end UPSs are low-end in 
performance and robustness, but can certainly be expected to keep
real machines up for their rated minutes.  obviously a 450VA
is not going to keep a power workstation up for long, but you've
gotten what you paid for.

for at least the smart-ups level, they'll last for few years; 
eventually something will die, of course.  I've seen more than 
a few Serious, Enterprise machinerooms depedent on high-end APC.