Max's Cool Beans
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Duane Benson
I'm not going to comment on ironing, but I do like that wall outlet. At $50 or ...
jiang.qian
Use other smart phones, tablets, the charge cable is $1 each, you can put one in ...
Power2U – What a jolly good idea!
Clive Maxfield
9/20/2012 2:53 PM EDT
I have an iPhone and an iPad. My wife has an iPhone and an iPad. And our 17-year old son has an iPhone and an iPad. The incredible amount of use we get out of these devices means that they all need to be recharged on a daily basis.
I keep my chargers in my backpack and I tend to recharge my iPhone/iPad here in my office (plugging them in plays a small part of my "getting going morning rituals" while my computers are powering up and the coffee is brewing).
[Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.]
By comparison, every evening my wife and my son play an endlessly complicated game of "hide and seek with chargers," with accusations flying as to who moves whose charger and cries of "Well, this one is certainly mine!" Quickly followed by "No, it certainly is NOT!"
But wait, there's more… We have an open-plan family room that merges with a breakfast area and leads into the kitchen. All told, we must have close to 25 to 30 power outlets in this combined area. This makes it all the more surprising that it's the dual power outlet on the side of the kitchen counter forming the entrance to the kitchen into which they always plug their iPad/iPhone power adapters.
When they aren’t using them, the cables and adapters are often left hanging out of the power socket trailing on the floor, just inviting people to step on them and crunch them up.
And it gets even worse, because every evening before he goes to bed, my son drags out the ironing board to iron his clothes for the following day. Of course he doesn’t do this in the laundry room (that would be too easy). Oh no, for reasons known only to himself, he has to place the ironing board on the side of the kitchen counter forming the entrance to the kitchen. Do you see where this is leading…
Next: The solution...at last
I keep my chargers in my backpack and I tend to recharge my iPhone/iPad here in my office (plugging them in plays a small part of my "getting going morning rituals" while my computers are powering up and the coffee is brewing).
[Get a 10% discount on ARM TechCon 2012 conference passes by using promo code EDIT. Click here to learn about the show and register.]
By comparison, every evening my wife and my son play an endlessly complicated game of "hide and seek with chargers," with accusations flying as to who moves whose charger and cries of "Well, this one is certainly mine!" Quickly followed by "No, it certainly is NOT!"
But wait, there's more… We have an open-plan family room that merges with a breakfast area and leads into the kitchen. All told, we must have close to 25 to 30 power outlets in this combined area. This makes it all the more surprising that it's the dual power outlet on the side of the kitchen counter forming the entrance to the kitchen into which they always plug their iPad/iPhone power adapters.
When they aren’t using them, the cables and adapters are often left hanging out of the power socket trailing on the floor, just inviting people to step on them and crunch them up.
And it gets even worse, because every evening before he goes to bed, my son drags out the ironing board to iron his clothes for the following day. Of course he doesn’t do this in the laundry room (that would be too easy). Oh no, for reasons known only to himself, he has to place the ironing board on the side of the kitchen counter forming the entrance to the kitchen. Do you see where this is leading…
Next: The solution...at last
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David Ashton
9/21/2012 4:37 AM EDT
@Max (ref your son): "(strangely, he never unplugs anything that he is charging)".
So anytime he leaves something of yours unplugged, you go unplug something of his. As Gandalf said in Lord of the Rings, "The burned hand teaches best...."
But these outlets are a good idea. With the problems you've outlined, I wonder you didn't invent them first..??
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Max the Magnificent
9/21/2012 9:34 AM EDT
@"So anytime he leaves something of yours unplugged..."
He never gets the chance, because I don't leave any of my chargers anywhere that he (or my wife) could see / move / lose them (grin)
@"I wonder you didn't invent them first."
This is one of those things that as soon as you see it you think "why didn't I think of that?"
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Earl54
9/21/2012 3:53 PM EDT
Off the main topic, but most amazing, is the part about your son ironing his clothes. I would guess that either your son goes to a private school with strict dress codes, or is old enough to have a job with the same codes. I also surmise that his parents have done well at delegating.
My youngest (now 17) was curious about how to wash clothes when he was about 3. My wife taught him how, and he has been doing his own laundry ever since. Once he could do it, his older siblings were told that if Richard could, they could too. They were not happy with him. He has never cared about appearance enough to iron, though.
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Max the Magnificent
9/21/2012 4:05 PM EDT
@Earl: "He has never cared about appearance enough to iron, though."
Me neither (grin). But then, my usual mode of dress is shorts and a Hawaiian shirt -- and I work in a one-man office.
No, my son doesn't go to a private school, but he does like to have his shirts ironed, and he knows that the only way that's going to happen is if he does it himself.
I tricked him. A year or so ago he wanted money for something so I told him I would pay him to iron my shirts. I demonstrated how to do it on the first one, watched him do it on the second one, and then left him to it.
But the next time he had a bunch of laundry and he expected his mom to iron his shirts, I pointed out that he knew how to do it himself (grin)
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Earl54
9/21/2012 4:19 PM EDT
Oh, that was sneaky. I like it :-)
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Bert22306
9/21/2012 5:02 PM EDT
Anyone who has a son who irons his own clothes, quite honestly, has NOTHING to complain about!
In any event, not sure why you haven't moved the Apple-toy charging strip to one of the other 29 outlets in that kitchen-den area? Or would your son pick that outlet again, on purpose?
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Max the Magnificent
9/21/2012 5:46 PM EDT
@Bert: "...not sure why you haven't moved the Apple-toy charging strip to one of the other 29 outlets in that kitchen-den area?"
The answer to that one is easy -- I haven't got one yet (grin) ...but one is on the way and I will post a follow-up blog with "before" and "after" pics
My wife and son are creatures of habit -- this is where they plug things in -- it's beyond my powers to change...
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jiang.qian
9/24/2012 11:24 PM EDT
Use other smart phones, tablets, the charge cable is $1 each, you can put one in each corner and easy to borrow from anyone else.
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Duane Benson
9/25/2012 7:54 PM EDT
I'm not going to comment on ironing, but I do like that wall outlet. At $50 or less for a two-pack, that's not a bad price. The last time I bought a wall-bug charger, it cost about $20.00. It has a bit more utility in that I can take it with me when I travel, but I think that's more than offset by the fact that it doesn't use either of the AC plugs.
I may have to buy a few of those.
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