Posts by BenWilson
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Up Front: Ups and Downs. And Side-to-Sides., in reply to Bart Janssen,
Worth knowing since that would mean you really need to turn it off even if you aren't actively using it in order to save battery.
Yes, although you won't get calls in. I'm not sure what happens with txts...do they queue up when your phone is off? Anyone? Bueller? If so, that could definitely stretch it out. Turn it on for 5 minutes every hour to get all the messages. Turn on flight mode, draft all your responses. Turn off flight mode and send them all. Turn off.
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Good piece of advice from Telecom - change your voicemail to say you're OK (if you are), where you are, an alternate number. Will save your phone and help relieve network congestion.
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given the much-higher-than-normal* number of texts I was sending, perhaps not surprising.
Texts are extremely low bandwidth - the transmission of them would not be chewing up much power. It seems likely to me that the rapid power drain would have been from the phones trying to stay connected to the network, which was under very heavy load. I don't know if it was also damaged, if so that would have also contributed.
Also a small 150W Inverter that can convert 12V DC to 240V AC is a useful thing to have when the power is out - can use a normal cellphone/laptop/psp/whatever charger then.
Yes, it's a pity they're such expensive devices, whereas car chargers are cheap as chips. Some of them are dearer than a small petrol generator.
I seem to recall something about continually having to renegotiate 3G data connections – ie, situation normal on Vodafone in some places anyway – also being a major battery drain.
Recently discovered this with my new Android smartphone, which chewed the entire battery in one day at Foo camp. It gives a breakdown, and it was mostly down to WiFi. But 3G chewed a lot too. It hasn't happened at home, where I mostly use my own WiFi network so I presume it was contention with all the other smartphones there to connect, and simply all those signals on the same frequency demanding a higher output.
The processor itself also burns a lot of power - mine's over 1GHz. Use less apps if you want to save power.
There's a lot to be said for simple phones in emergencies - keep your old one, turn it off and leave it on a charger somewhere. Keep your numbers in your SIM, and swap it out if your main phone dies.
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Also, to add to the list of great things to have in your house for emergencies: wet wipes.
Word, never knew how awesome these are until I had kids. Now I've always got some in my bag. Also, alcohol based hand cleaner. I got a small one in my bag, one in the car, one in the bathroom, one in my office. Not only do they mean you can clean when there's no water, but they are also amazing at cleaning really strong dirt, like grease on the hands. It's also flammable, so it makes an accelerant if you're down to burning wood to make heat, and having trouble getting it started. Be bloody careful though, the flame is invisible, and the gel sticks.
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Pretty sure...that's why you lose power so much faster when you're in low coverage areas, like out in the country. Feel your phone next time - it gets noticeably hotter.
Phone are transmitters after all, and the distance they can signal is closely related to their power output.
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So good to hear you again, Emma.
So barbecues have turned out to be the disaster appliance of choice? I was thinking on Tuesday that in-car phone rechargers might have proved very valuable too. A car battery can charge a cellphone a lot of times, and if the car's still working, the fuel means they can do it pretty much indefinitely.
Some people suggested solar and hand-cranking chargers, but I think that you don't want to be relying on it being sunny, and hand-cranking isn't so easy when you're exhausted.
Everyone seemed to suffer from rapid battery loss on Tuesday. I'm guessing that was from multiple competing signals, and maybe damage to cell sites causing every phone to have to push out further.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Danielle,
You thie
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Matthew Poole,
Unless you acknoledge that, it's pretty hard to make sense of the world.
Yup, if you want to see genuine lack of humanity, switch to following the events in Tripoli. While NZ has pretty much 100% rallied to help the victims here, death squads roam the streets there shooting indiscriminately at anyone outside, while an insane leader babbles about dogs stealing his revolution.
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Muse: Shelf Life: The Dying Elephant in…, in reply to Jacqui Dunn,
I saw those, wondered if it was graffiti. Then I realized the words said "Clear". So people wouldn't have to waste time checking if there were people in the cars, I presume.
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Hard News: Again: Is everyone okay?, in reply to Ross Mason,
From what I understand the fluctuating count arises from counting as dead people who can be seen but not reached. But also because no one has sat down and worked out a death count methodology, it's just not a priority. Someone shouts into a building, hears one person in there saying there's a dead person near him - what do you count? You're more concerned with the person still shouting, and how to get to them.
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