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Lord Groundhog
2003-02-26 02:26:36
There are times when obsession says leaving your computer just isn't an option.  There are times when hygiene says not brushing your teeth just isn't an option. 

Forget flipping a coin to choose, try this:



I bet some people think I made this up.  See: http://www.informanews.net/affnews.php3?p=0#id_news=1363

-- peace.  LG
Marv The Grate
2003-03-01 22:45:15
Why is it that this image scares me in a very real way?

Why curse the darkness when you can light a flamethrower?

Men At Work -Terry Prachett
Lord Groundhog
2003-03-02 19:02:42
quote:
Originally posted by Marv The Grate:
Why is it that this image scares me in a very real way?

Why curse the darkness when you can light a flamethrower?

_Men At Work_ -Terry Prachett


Could it be that it forces you to consider a particularly dark aspect of human nature that would be best left to your worst nightmares?  For example, it suggests that we really might be descended from a bunch of telephone sanitizers and advertising executives from Golgafrincham after all, rather than from some relatively intelligent life-forms.

-- peace.  LG
Tom King
2003-03-03 15:12:18
If any more copyrights, lefts, ups, downs, or slight-nudges-to-the-northeast are infringed upon, I'll have no choice but to be very stern with the lamp.  And you don't want that.  Ooooooooh no.  So leave Mr. Adams out of it or you'll have a large fluffy badger to deal with before you can say tchnrrkpittaxongg'trrr-grt'tschtrrtrrtrr-ping.  So there.

Chorus:

Quorn fudder quarnk quarnk
Quorn fudder quarnk quarnk
Stephen Brooks
2003-03-05 09:18:45
I personally think a USB shaver would be quite useful, for those times you have to go somewhere, realise you look like a brillo pad, but just _have_ to finish the Yahoo conversation you're having.  I guess that wouldn't sell as well because the people in the main market for USB-powered-household-devices probably all have beards.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
Lord Groundhog
2003-03-09 17:52:17
quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Brooks:
I personally think a USB shaver would be quite useful, for those times you have to go somewhere, realise you look like a brillo pad, but just _have_ to finish the Yahoo conversation you're having.  I guess that wouldn't sell as well because the people in the main market for USB-powered-household-devices probably all have beards.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C


Perhaps the USP-powered household devices market could start with products that would have greater consensus -- like, USB-powered micro-waves, food processors, espresso machines and the like?  Maybe a whole range of automated and modified kitchen appliances could be developed, with the necessary robotic auxiliary apparatus, so that you could just sit at your computer indefinitely.  At times which you preprogram, your computer automatically selects foods from the connected refrigerator-freezer, and instructs the robot to move the food into the connected microwave.  The computer would control the correct cooking, and the robot would remove it and serve it on a plate when the cooking cycle is complete.  At the end, the dirty dish could be placed in a dish-washer which monitors the load, and runs itself when it's full.

Of course this would be a bit Heath Robinsonesque at first, but in no time at all, someone will have redesigned it to maximize the whole set-up, aesthetically and ergonomically. 

Now that's progress...

-- peace.  LG
Stephen Brooks
2003-03-10 11:45:33
What's the point of powering all that off a USB port when you could power it off a mains multiblock, get more power (or you'll have a large fluffy badger to deal with), and still have the same number of wires?  I very much doubt my computer would be very happy if I tried to pull 900Watts for my microwave out of its USB socket Big Grin
I suggested a shaver because I think it's at least within the realms of feasibility that a shaver could charge up off a USB port given time.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
Stephen Brooks
2003-03-10 16:09:28
Grr.  On days like today I tend to think that I'd do more on my computer if I was only allowed to use it for 1 hour per day and had to spend the rest of the day working out how to use that hour.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
Lord Groundhog
2003-03-11 16:13:21
quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Brooks:
What's the point of powering all that off a USB port when you could power it off a mains multiblock, get more power (or you'll have a large fluffy badger to deal with), and still have the same number of wires?  I very much doubt my computer would be very happy if I tried to pull 900Watts for my microwave out of its USB socket Big Grin
I suggested a shaver because I think it's at least within the realms of feasibility that a shaver could charge up off a USB port given time.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C


Of course, there's no point in powering all that off a USB port.  There's no point in powering a shaver -- or a toothbrush --- off a USB port, either.  Either one can be powered from the mains, or from batteries for that matter.  I expect these already-existing options are at least equal in performance to running off USB.  If the USB port is your laptop running on its own battery, the idea becomes idiotic.  In any event, neither requires computation to operate, so why bother?

I'm sorry if I gave the impression that I ever regarded this USB house-hold contraption idea as anything other than a silly misuse of a USB port -- comparable, say, to installing an ash-tray on the handle-bars of a Harley.  I thought it was obvious that I was extracting the Michael.

-- peace.  LG
Lord Groundhog
2003-03-11 16:20:06
quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Brooks:
Grr.  On days like today I tend to think that I'd do more on my computer if I was only allowed to use it for 1 hour per day and had to spend the rest of the day working out how to use that hour.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C


Sounds like you have the germ of an idea for a spanking-new, oh-so-groovy new age management training course -- the kind where they teach you to arrange your desk with feng-shui and figure out your day's work schedule by consulting the i-ching. 

Of course, first you'll have to decide if shaving or brushing teeth with USB devices counts as part of that hour... Razz

-- peace.  LG
Stephen Brooks
2003-03-11 19:11:17
quote:
Originally posted by Lord Groundhog:
Of course, there's no point in powering all that off a USB port.  There's no point in powering a shaver -- or a toothbrush --- off a USB port, either.  Either one can be powered from the mains, or from batteries for that matter.


I wanted a shaver because typically the lead that comes with it is not long enough to go to a nearby wall socket, but it _is_ normally long enough to go round the back of my computer to where my spare USB socket is.  There are instances when such a setup would reduce the total length of wire cluttering up your room.

Therearetimeswhenbeingannoyingsaysthatputtingspacesbetweenyourwordsisnotanoption.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
Marv The Grate
2003-03-13 21:07:26
quote:

Could it be that it forces you to consider a particularly dark aspect of human nature that would be best left to your worst nightmares?  For example, it suggests that we really might be descended from a bunch of telephone sanitizers and advertising executives from Golgafrincham after all, rather than from some relatively intelligent life-forms. 


Odd you should mention that... I just got to that chapter in the Guide.  In fact the name and the avatar I use are both related to the online version of the Guide at Http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U28338/
You could say that HHGTTG is a very important aspect to my life.

Why curse the darkness when you can light a flamethrower?

Men At Work -Terry Prachett
Tom King
2003-03-15 09:20:37
I only just realised; that picture's fake.  Duh.

Chorus:

Quorn fudder quarnk quarnk
Quorn fudder quarnk quarnk
Stephen Brooks
2003-03-15 10:02:19
If it hadn't been Japanese, I'd've assumed it was fake initially.  However... the toothbrush components are covered by moulded clear plastic and the USB wire is covered by clingfilm, so it would probably be fake.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
Lord Groundhog
2003-03-22 17:04:39
quote:
Originally posted by Thomas King:
I only just realised; that picture's fake.  Duh.

Originally posted by Stephen Brooks:
If it hadn't been Japanese, I'd've assumed it was fake initially.  However... the toothbrush components are covered by moulded clear plastic and the USB wire is covered by clingfilm, so it would probably be fake. 


I only refuted the possibility that I faked the picture ... I never said it was genuine.  Oh well, I suppose if you don't believe a USB-powered toothbrush is genuine, I should forget trying to convince you that someone has invented a hamster-powered UPS for computers?

-- peace.  LG
Stephen Brooks
2003-04-05 17:07:05
Using a new form of reaction that converts Hamsters into Energy + Mice + an Anti-Groundhog Neutrino.

Today's weather in %region is Sunny/(null), max.  temperature -99999°C
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