E-On Powerdown

[The Dong]

It's a plug, a three way socket plug, it's free if you receive any type 
of benefit or happen upon an in shop promo. In my area, an energy group 
called SCARF hand them out, along with low energy bulbs.

http://ianpack.blogspot.com/2009/03/money-saving-tip.html

It's not the money/energy saving aspect or surge protection that makes 
it of use to me.
What I have done is:

A main 4-bar with the E-On AND network hub/wireless and anything else 
that needs to stay on plugged in.
On the E-On main socket, the computer.
On the two peripheral sockets on the E-On goes another two 4-bars with 
everything else plugged in.

So, when I switch on my computer, everything else gets power.
But when I shut down the PC or go to sleep mode, I can have up to 3 
things that stay on, like the network/internet, but all else is shut off 
automatically. Lazy as f'ck. Beware shutting off your sampler mid edit 
before saving ;)

It's meant for a TV/Hifi arrangement to shut off peripheral devices when 
you put a device (TV mainly) into standby. I found out though, that it 
DOES NOT work with my set top box, it has no earth in the plug, so I 
presume any device with no direct earth will be useless as the main 
device without some imaginative rewiring of mains (this probably 
includes 95% of laptops)

It may not sound like a lot, but for free, it's worth it ;)
Gadgets...