Relativity

I’m sitting here in Hong Kong airport with less than half an hour to knock over some emails and wake this blog up again (or myself, whichever comes first). Why only half and hour? Is the flight home leaving soon? No. As a matter of fact I have another three hours sitting in this bar to while away my life.

The half-hour limit comes from the battery life on the old Lenovo. Great little laptop, but after a couple of years the battery has had the fritz. Now why is this surprising? It’s not, and that’s just the point. Everyone tells me that since I live in front of this screen it’s not surprising that my battery has died after a couple of years use. Why not just plug it in and charge it for a while? Simply because I’ve been in China where the power connectors are the same as Australia but in Hong Kong (even though it’s part of China), the power adapters are a hangover from Britain and I didn’t pack that adapter.

It’s perfectly normal and acceptable to everyone who owns one. Same goes for the mobile phone. I actually don’t even get two years out of a battery on that thing (which will be very interesting to see how long the new iphone actually lasts since apparently I can’t change the somewhat disappointing battery on that one).

So am I just waffling until the little yellow triangle tells me to go back to the Tsing Tao? No. I’ve spent a week rolling around Asia promoting various Adaptec products (which is what they pay me to do), and when I tell people that batteries on RAID cards don’t last the same life as the card … they all laugh at me.

When was the last time we changed a battery they ask? When was the last time we checked the battery? When in fact was the last time we took any notice of the battery? It’s part of the system and is fine. What’s this rubbish about batteries not lasting?

Well guess what. Batteries don’t last. Just like the mobile, or the laptop, or the (… fill in your own electronic device here), the battery on the RAID card doesn’t last.

So why did I entitle this “relativity”? Was it because I just saw a nodding little Einstein on the movie on the last flight (which was quite funny)? No, it’s because I’m always amazed that people (who are sometimes relatives of mine), have relatively naïve ideas on the relative features and capacities of two quite similar products, even when they are in completely different environments.

So guess what. Batteries don’t last. End of story.
The dreaded triangle has arrived so I’m back to the beer.

Ciao
Neil