Power Outage

This morning, we suffered a 1.5 hour power outage. It reminds me how sensitive technology is to the basics, such as electricity.

I have a UPS battery backup for my router and cable modem, since for convenience I might want to use the VoIP phone line for an hour or so, during the early part of an outage. This VoIP line is used throughout the house, but as I say - it's a convenient to keep it running.

My burglar alarm has it's own battery backup, so it will still work for a couple of days, dialing out on the land line.

The laptop(s) have a battery, but then they are only good for a hour or 2.

Reminds me that about a year ago, I spec'd out what it would take to go totally solar. The answer was $75k, about $20-25k out of pocket.

Oh, and Murphy was alive and kicking this morning as well. Since we have well water here, without electricity, there isn't much water pressure to do an entire shower. I called my neighbor to hook up a garden hose to his house (something I've done in the past) since he has city water. But he wasn't home.

Hey, I used to be a Boy Scout, right? Some water in the sink, boil some water on the stove (I am civilized, ok) combine in the sink and tah dah... I can at least sponge bathe and wash my hair... Water done, combined, all set to apply lather...

the power comes on.

NTP gets sued - Business Week

The company that initiated a patent battle with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is now being sued over credit for its patents.

Oren Tavory, a software developer, says he did it first. Tavory says he did much of the work developing the technology behind NTP's patents.

Time will tell if this has any effect on things or not.