« Dinner and a Rain Storm | Main | A Suprise Birthday »

June 08, 2005

The Problem with Addiction

Ever seen anyone fight over a power socket? It is getting close to that here! There are 450 phycisists here, and I'd say about 60% of them have a lap top. Of those about 90% of them don't have batteries that will make it through the day. Combine that with a room designed with only a few wall sockets and you get.... fight! The organizers have supplied a few power strips, but no where near enough to statisfy demand.

I spent the first part of lunch walking around the area finding a hardware store (the lunch line was still there when I got back). When I asked for the power strip the guy behind the counter laughed. Apparently there have been a few requests. ;-) When I got back I plugged it in, and it looked like this:

Cimg1723_1

When I came back with food, 20 minutes later, already every single socket was in use (it is like a parking space in New York!):

Cimg1726

That got me wondering around the rest of the conference hall looking for crazy setups.

Cimg1727

At various places you could find people skipping lunch and trying to get some work done...

Cimg1728

This fellow knew his power might be removed if he left it alone. I was tempted to open it up and see what he was running...

Cimg1729

One of the back bleachers had a real mess of cables -- it extends both to the left and right off the edge of the picture. It was all supplied by a single wall socket (the stright cord in the picture above). That group must have had about 8 or 9 portables running.

Cimg1730

Cimg1731

Cimg1732

Another group working. Three computers, one socket.

Cimg1733

We can't live without the power!

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341cda0653ef00d83483b0be69e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The Problem with Addiction:

Comments

Solar power just got a lot more practical. :)

Sadly, this is all indoors! :(

Bwahahahahahaha!

/LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYY JENKINS!
//or something like that.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.