[LINK] German police drop iBook power rustling charge

[Ivan Trundle]

On 28/02/2004, at 8:15 PM, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:

> Viv, that is truly brilliant. Get the patent quick...

Not that brilliant, guys - have none of you spent time in Britain? 
Coin-operated electricity has been around for yonks (refer to early 
Goon shows for verification, but you only have to spend some time in a 
London bedsit to understand the value in having plenty of 50p pieces on 
hand...).

Warmly

iT



>
> Seriously, a public power outlet is nearly a requirement with mobile 
> phones,
> laptops, iPods and the rest. Mind you, it would be a nice idea to have 
> a
> little more standardisation on the DC side first. Sitting here, I have
> powerpacks delivering 9V dc, 12V dc, and 14V dc (printer, DSL modem, 
> dialup
> modem). An IBM laptop at the office takes 19V dc from the plugpack.
>
> Etc!
>
> RC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Viveka
> To: The Link Institute
> Sent: 28/02/04 11:19
> Subject: Re: [LINK] German police drop iBook power rustling charge
>
> 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
>
>
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