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Opinion
Power, Power, and Power
9/20/2006
By Terry Calhoun
How many power cords are enough? I’m beginning to think that a typical working professional who needs to reliably use info tech at work, at home, and while traveling needs at least four power cords for their laptop. (1.) One to stay plugged in at home; (2.) one to stay plugged in at work; (3.) one to carry in their computer bag, and (4.) one to plug into a power source in a car or truck.
I would add in how nice it would be to have one with an attachment to fit into an airliner’s power receptacle, except that in the decade I have been flying with laptop computers, I have never actually located such a power receptacle. In my own system of belief, those things are more fantasy than reality.
In a recent article announcing that Virgin Airlines was joining Qantas in disallowing Dell and Apple computers to be taken on board planes with batteries in them, it is mentioned that Virgin would provide adapters for those “lucky enough to sit in seats with power supplies.” Yet another purveyor of the myth.
Even as I wrote those words above about leaving power cords plugged in while not using them, I worry about wasting energy. I have searched in vain for figures on how much energy is used up by a laptop power cable that is left plugged in but not inserted into a computer. Is it like an “instant-on” television set that uses power just sitting there? Maybe. On my power cords the little green light glows and that’s taking some power. If you are interested in batteries with regard to global energy concerns, check out the PESWiki (Pure Energy Systems) site on Batteries.
However, also at issue is time and opportunity cost for the individual professional. The number of times I have arrived at work, set up my laptop, and then realized that the power cord was at home, are innumerable. And in nearly every instance I have had to drive (or bike!) home and get the power cord, or know that I will lose my technology, including access to the Internet and e-mail, partway through the morning. When you average something like 100 e-mail messages incoming per hour, you can get really behind very quickly.
It’s similar to leaving my cell phone, to which all of my phones forward, at home. Although that d'es give me an excuse to not listen to voicemail for a day; that I can sometimes live with. It’s not quite as bad as arriving at work without any of my dozens of pairs of reading glasses. Certainly it’s as incapacitating in terms of productivity, but leaving the glasses behind will invariably result in a headache unless I bite that bullet and head to the parking lot.
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