using /dev/nvram to alter cmos settings

[brent harding]

Yuck, I wonder if /dev/nvram is the best approach, just to turn off a
couple settings on my laptop I don't need. There's probably security turned
on by default, that virus protection that will prevent a linux disk from
booting, don't know how the boot sequence knows which drive, cd or floppy
is in the machine, as I have to swap them out to switch what I'll use,
making it really hard to install linux from cd when booting from a floppy.
Is there a way I could see the cmos settings from another computer, hooked
to the parallel port, or over a modem or network interface? Most tasks that
I need to let run are intensive enough that I can't really do much else
when I'm doing them, like downloading files or listening to streaming audio
that takes up enough bandwidth it's not worth doing much else because it
takes forever. Setting my machine to turn on at a certain time is another
cmos exclusive that requires going in there to schedule the task to be
performed at a certain time, my laptop is probably the only system I have
that may support that, thought I heard about it somewhere, but can't find
any settings in windows to control it, so it's probably in cmos. I may need
to change things regularly to record internet shows that I like to listen
to, some later at night that I don't want to wake up and turn it on, get
online, and do it, once that power thing is straightened out, I'll only
need access to that automatic startups for when things come on, it'd get to
be a pain to have to have someone set up all my recording times so the
computer starts at the right time, and shuts down when the show ends, as
the same would need to be done if it were a VCR too, as no speech is
available.
Is it safe to just use a timer hooked to the regular computer that shuts
the power off when the time is to end, and use crontab in linux to initiate
the recording?