POS is intriguing and I am trying to wrap my head around it. I am not a programmer. I know Etherium is supposed to change from POW to POS this year. I have more faith in the ETH people than most others so this tells me that POS is a good direction to go in.

What I don't understand are the nodes. Does one have to have their computer online 24/7 in order to receive any financial distribution?
Are there shared pools....or maybe delegating to accomplish this for people with smaller amounts of the coins?

Thanks for your insights.