Exciting news out of Osaka, Japan!

Semiconductor maker Rohm Co is promising to vanquish vampires, those gadgets that consume power even when they're supposedly off. The company has developed a large-scale integrated (LSI) circuit that requires zero electricity as it waits to be reawakened.

Productions starts next year. In Japan, the company estimates that 15 billion kilowatt hours are wasted on electronics that are just sitting around, waiting.

Soon you won't have to crawl under your desk to shut off your power strip. Not that you do it now, but if you did...