"I'll just unplug this. I'm sure it's not important."

[Dadeo]

Hard reboots (i.e. yanking mains/battery power) - An effective way to fix something that is frozen beyond response. How ever some electronics don't like it, and I beleive their is a small chance for it to cause damage to the devices, so I can understand why the DJ flipped.

Wifeo's company just lost 15 terabytes of data because of this combined with a bad UPS. Luckily, there was an offsite backup, and by offsite, I mean 6 hrs away. They put one of their IT guys on a train (so as not to risk damaging the backup by sending through the airport x-ray - I know it's a fallacy but not my call) and it took 3 days to restore it. They only lost a couple hours worth of work as it happened on a Friday afternoon.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

The only thing I can think of is that the wall outlet that he picked was near where he was sitting/hanging out with friends, and he didn't want to have to move.

He totally deserved to get yelled at, maybe next time he'll at least look to see where the cable is going. At most (way too hopeful here) he'll check for empty outlets or *GASP* charge his phone at home so he doesn't have to charge it in the middle of the freaking event.

[fireheart]

The Ipod/Ipad one is correct, cos they are all about compatibility (Ed - BWAHAHAHA). Nokia are also a great one for using the same power adaptor between phones (last time I checked anyway).

HOW EVER - Please be careful if using another brands mains adaptor. There are micro and mini USB plugs on most phones these days which are universal, but the main factor is the volt/ampage. Some brands do still run on their own power settings related to the battery, and getting it wrong can have warming to explosive results

I was referring to car chargers, not wall ones.

Also, while I have an adaptor for my phone charger, I have used one that was for an iPod wall charger in the past....

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Dude obviously needs a new phone. And maybe a new brain to go with it...

I think the phone is smarter than HE is.

[eltf177]

He totally deserved to get yelled at, maybe next time he'll at least look to see where the cable is going. At most (way too hopeful here) he'll check for empty outlets or *GASP* charge his phone at home so he doesn't have to charge it in the middle of the freaking event.

Personally I'd hope the DJ would get his sorry butt thrown out for such a stunt, it would certainly get the point across that you do _not_ touch the DJ's rig!

[Pixilated]

I was gonna say the DJ may have overreacted a bit, but understandably ... but that was before somebody pointed out what can happen if you suddenly cut the power to anything that involves a computer ...

So no, I don't think the DJ overreacted at all. I'm amazed that the customer just walked out. It suggests at least that he just wasn't thinking, as opposed to being a complete SC/EW package.

I don't care what political leaning you are, but seeing someone yank the plug during a press conference and plug in his cell phone to charge would be priceless. Especially for everyone's reactions.

One Secret Service take-down, coming up...

... in 3, 2, 1 ...

I'd pay to see that!

Agreed. Have people NOT heard of car chargers? I'm pretty sure that most smartphones these days have a USB car charger and/or similar ports so you can plug a HTC charger into a Samsung phone anywhere, as long as someone has the mini/micro USB cable. (and yes, if you have an iPod, you can plug your iPad/iPhone into the cable )

For someone to actually USE A WALL CHARGER in a place other than their home, work or a friends house, that takes balls the size of church bells.

I've got a cellphone that's at least 6 or 7 years old and it charges just fine in my car. If I absolutely had to charge it in a restaurant or bar or whatever, I'd ask first!

[Zoom]

For me, it isn't about whether permission is given (though perhaps it should), but whether the customer is willing to pony up some dough for the volts.

Even though it would probably be only 5 cents' worth or something.

[AnaKhouri]

At the bookstore people are constantly plugging in their laptops and charging their phones. It drives me crazy; I know the amount of electricity they are using is miniscule compared to what the store uses on a daily basis, but they're still using our electricity that the store is paying for!

If they'd just ASK instead of assuming, I wouldn't mind nearly so much. It's just the entitlement of it...

[Lyse]

I have used the outlet at coffee stores, but only after purchases. Never had anyone say anything - is it because they are too nice, or is it considered okay as long as you aren't there all day and you keep spending money? I enjoy going to my local coffee places, but don't want to be inadvertently pissing off the baristas.

It's been years since I was a barista, and I worked the overnight shift. We never cared as long as drinks were bought and the people were quiet.

[An Haddock]

DJ absolutely did not overreact. I go to karaoke once a week and being a computer guy I've come to be pretty familiar with the DJ's equipment. If he suddenly loses power, it could damage the hard drive or corrupt a file on the laptop he uses to play the music and run the software, not to mention potential damage to his external hard drive where all his songs are stored.

I've been in places before where I needed to charge my phone or laptop but I always ask.

[Argabarga]

Who the heck just waltzes into a venue and LOOKS for a used outlet to plug up too?! Oh, wait.. forgot where I was for a moment there. I mean, you said there were more outlets that had nothing attached, but this prize winning mouth breather looks for the one that's occupied? WHY?!

Because that one WORKS obviously, he's in a hurry and doesn't have time to sort out all the duds.

[ThirdGenRetail]

To play devil's advocate here... He might not quite be able to afford a new phone yet, so he has to get every minute of usage out of that one that he can. He may have been on-call for something, and had to have his phone have some sort of battery life, and if it's draining a battery fast enough that he's carrying a wall charger around to CLUBS, then his battery's pretty much shot. While we have a store here that specializes in batteries if I ever needed a new battery but the phone was fine(Batteries+, awesome place), I don't know about other places.

Also to be fair, some businesses have come to expect customers to want to use the plugs at SOME point. Like, there's a Starbucks in a B&N at one of the local malls, they have a whole TWO plugs people could use, and neither the Starbucks nor B&N staff seems to complain about it ever if someone plugs up. I'm also currently at a mall that's normally populated with plugs in the food court, but that's undergoing renovation, so I'm in a whole other part of the mall now. I typically run off battery power until I need to plug, and then I'm usually only plugged an hour, maybe two at that point because I'll leave here to catch a bus to work. This particular mall offers free wi-fi throughout the building, and I think they already figured "Well, this means people will bring laptops, which may need charging at some point"... So much so that last winter a guy was sitting there with a surge protector plugged into one of the outlets to charge all his stuff while he worked Point is, though, they seem to have figured it out that "People who are charging stuff while using our wifi are more likely to buy food here, instead of bring it... Ergo, lots of plugs, few complaints about their use".

HOWEVER. This does not excuse that level of douchebaggery that he's UNPLUGGING THE DJ'S EQUIPMENT to charge his phone. He could easily have ruined the whole thing beyond repair!

[PepperElf]

Wifeo's company just lost 15 terabytes of data because of this combined with a bad UPS. Luckily, there was an offsite backup, and by offsite, I mean 6 hrs away. They put one of their IT guys on a train (so as not to risk damaging the backup by sending through the airport x-ray - I know it's a fallacy but not my call) and it took 3 days to restore it. They only lost a couple hours worth of work as it happened on a Friday afternoon.

Holy crap.

Although I'm not really surprised about the UPS either. I've learned the hard way they can have a very finite lifespan. The ones on my second ship were suppose to last "x" amount of minutes. Suppose to. In reality they lasted less than one second.

Couldn't get new ones either cos we were old and very close to decommission. So, no one wanted to order us new ones. Not to mention the new ones would be a completely different model because our old ones weren't made anymore.


Only thing I can suggest for something like that is what I had on another ship... raids with lots of bays. One of my favorite raids had 9 drives each. Granted each drive was only 80G (pata too!) but... tell you what, when one drive died the rebuild only took 3 hours.

If anything ... that kinda works in a way too. Cos sure it meant you had to have one raid for every 1/2TB but... when it came to data loss, it really kept it at a minimum.

[wolfie]

Douchebag needs to be sure he only buys phones (and chargers) with small cross-sections and no rough edges (i.e. make sure the "prongs" of the plug fold in when not in use). After all, that way it won't hurt as much when someone takes exception to his EW attitude and shoves them up his ass.

[dalesys]

A UPS has what in it?

A sealed lead-acid battery! (90%+ of all the ones you'll find)

What is the lifetime of a lead-acid battery? (to when it will only store 50% of its rated capacity)

2-5 years!

A new 12V 7AH battery [84WH nominal] can provide 4.7W for 20 hours, 85W for about 30 minutes, or 250W for 5 minutes) weighs 5.8 pounds. If you can lift your UPS easily, even new, it won't run a big rig very long at all.

Moral: Replace the batteries in your UPS every few years.

[/EndBloviate]]