matsu

Charging backpack

Here’s how I put everything in place so I can charge my MacBook Pro and my Nokia cellphone while driving or riding my motorcycle without removing anything from inside my backpack. No modifications needed!
You’ll need:

• a backpack – mine’s a Samsonite, completely indestructible
  
• a (good) power inverter – I use an APC Travelpower – 75w
  
• a 3-way plug adapter
  
• the chargers you will be using (the cell phone charger is harder to remove from the backpack, as it stays with the inverter in the closed inner pouch)
  
• a cable to connect the 3-way plug adapter to the laptop charger (not pictured)
• some kind of tape to firmly connect the 3-way plug adapter and the inverter (not pictured)

Here is how you put everything together:

1. Study the internal layout of your backpack, find where the inverter should go (preferably a zippered pouch), and some open pouches for the cellphone and the laptop charger.
   
2. Attach the 3-way plug adapter to the inverter using some tape, so it doesn’t come loose with the all the movement, connect the cellphone charger and the cable that will connect to the laptop charger, in the flattest configuration possible. Wind the excess cable around the 3-way plug so the ends of the cables can just reach the right places.
   
3. Put the inverter/plug adapter/cellphone charger in the enclosed pouch, routing the cables to where the zipper ends.
   
4. Put the laptop charger in place (where it’s easily removed, so you can use it “normally”), and find the place for the cellphone. Make sure that the laptop charger cable can reach your laptop (which you should stow in a way to make the charging port accessible).
   
   
5. That’s all! When you’re driving (or riding your motorcycle, if you have a 12v socket where you store your backpack – a future modification I’m doing on my Yamaha Majesty), you just have to fish the inverter cable out to connect it to a 12v socket, and all your hardware will get the juice it deserves with no fuss, and no entangled cables! If you have a bluetooth handsfree car kit/headset, you can even use your phone without even opening the backpack.
   

Important note: make sure the inverter has enough power to charge everything – in this particular case, although my inverter is rated for 75w, and the MacBook Pro charger is 85w, it will not consume that much if it’s just charging a sleeping/turned off computer, leaving more than enough margin for the ±5w cellphone charger.

Ancient History

While surfing more or less aimlessly around the web, I came across a page about my very first computer, which was given to me by my parents as a birthday gift in 1983.  I started learning English by reading the user manual!  I also had the dreaded 16KB expansion module, and if memory serves me correctly, I don’t think I ever managed to load any programs through the tape recorder that I had.

Check the rest of the site, I’m sure it will be a trip down memory lane for a lot of people.

If you hate Christmas music…

…that ubiquitous brain rotting meme that gets stuck in your brain for months after the so called merry season, infecting your thoughts by being played in every elevator, store, shopping mall…. here’s the antidote! Via boingboing.net