[LINK] German police drop iBook power rustling charge

[Viveka]

On 28/02/2004, at 2:38 AM, Tim Lister wrote:
>  Jan Michael Ihl faced the full weight of the law for stealing 
> electricity valued at €0.002 from the terminus in Kassel when he 
> connected his Apple iBook computer.
>  In Japan last year, a 38-year-old was caught red-handed after 
> unplugging a business's neon sign and using the socket to recharge his 
> mobile phone. A 22-year-old student was also charged for disconnecting 
> a vending machine in order to power his portable stereo. Both men are 
> estimated to have stolen around $0.0094 worth of electricity. ®

This is a *business opportunity* :)
Someone should make a coin-operated power point switch. Every business 
could have one. Alternatively, free power points with coffee may have 
broader appeal than internet access, now that we're so laden with 
devices. The palmtop I'm trying to buy at the moment has built-in 
batteries with a 3 hour battery life (because it  includes a GPS; it's 
the Garmin iQue. It's unavailable in Australia because Garmin are 
taking a long time updating their Australian street maps. Probably not 
helped by the high price of Australian government-originated geodata, 
in contrast of course to the US, where all such data is free and has 
spawned an incredible array of innovative services and clever hacks. 
Declaration of interest: I'm playing with geodata myself at the moment, 
and have found it much easier to demo with US rather than Australian 
data).

V.
--
Viveka Weiley, Design Director
Ping Interactive Broadband pty. ltd.
http://www.ping.com.au