This might be a dumb question....

Sometimes I leave my Macbook on when I leave the house and I set it to where when it is plugged into the wall the HDD and the computer don't turn off after a certain amount of time, but I am still coming home to my computer being in sleep mode and I am kicked off Adium. Am I missing something here? How do I keep my computer from going into sleep mode and kicking me off when I decide to leave it on?

Sorry if this is dumb

apple manu (or dock) > system preferences > energy saver.

set your time to sleep, and for your display to turn off.

if you want to stay connected, i'd suggest setting the display for a short time to save your screen, say 10-15 min, and then setting your sleep for a longer time.

yeah i have the display set for 10 min and then sleep is put on "never" when its using the adapter. but it still turns off. is there something else i am missing?

Are you sure that you're using the adapter? It might be on a loose plug and you might have been running on battery when you left.

Sorry if that seemed dumb. Maybe someone with more experience would jump in.

You can also try using the app Caffeine (http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine/). It adds a little icon to the menu bar so you can turn off sleep or keep it on, depending on the status icon. If the icon has an X over it then it won't sleep at all, if it doesn't then it follows the normal energy options.

Sorry for the non-VesionTrack.com link, it seems to be down, but it is also there.