Mobile Users Plug-in Anywhere They Can

jasonla writes "The New York Times looks at mobile technology users who leech power from restaurant and airport outlets while on the road. The article looks at the habits and 'culture' of people who use portable devices -- such as laptops, iPods and cellphones -- and what the businesses think of power hungry customers." As interesting as the phenomena of customers leeching power from the businesses they frequent is the self-imposed etiquette of many users.

Charging an iPod? That's NOTHING

[multipartmixed]

Back in January 1998, when a good hunk of Canada had no power due to an ice storm, I couldn't go to work because we had no power at the office. I also had no power at home, and was bored out of my tree.

So, I grabbed a pair of APC BackUPS 400s, threw them in a knapsack, and walked to the local pub (which DID have power). Plugged 'em in, had a few beers, walked home, watched TV; repeat.

I tell ya, though, my back was kinda sore. Those things ain't made to be portable!

On permission

[The Slashdotted]

Whenever I've visited a resturant, I've asked permission 99% of the time.. unless it's an emergency. (What's an emergency to you?) I've been turned down some times, but remind them you'll buy more, or *gasp* pay a dollar or two for the privelige.. Once in Arby's I was denied permission, and got a wierd look.. Then the manager thought better, said not to put the cord of the floor, and I bought food to go.

Not really a problem, giving the billing structure

[lxt]

As far as cost goes, it shouldn't really be too much of a problem for many businesses, assuming they are charged on the same basis as the power companies do here in the UK. Companies (at least, the theatres I work in) are not charged according to the number of units used, but by the maximum amount of power they use during the billing period. For example, during a theatre show we use a hell of a lot of power, and the power companies takes this peak rate and charges us across the board at that rate. I don't know whether this is just limited to certain businesses.

Re:Pah!

[acariquara]

Good call. I don't know how's stuff in Yankeeville, but here in Brazil it's commonplace in airports, for example, to have tables with lots of electrical outlets specifically for the purpose of charging cellphones and laptops for on-the-go users. No charge. And it's not even inside a coffeehouse or whatever, it's clearly marked at the waiting room.

I guess courtesy is out of order at the good ol' US of A.

(and no, this is not a troll, more a rant...)

more like mosquitoing power

[Anonymous Coward]

$hit on a $tick!
Someones laptop, even if a 100W power hungry Alaskan mosquito is gonna use what? At 14 cents/kWh, 2 hours is only 2.8 cents. I've seen fat business guys at the airport drop a couple of bucks in change when they struggle toward an erect posture after sitting with their laptop. At this point they are too stiff to bend over and pick up their change.

You want leeches?
Atlanta airport concessionaire contracts as political payoff and nepotism. Handily exempt from 'living wage' requirements of city businesses. Now that's leeching on a scale that puts the world total portable device mosquitoes in 'drop in a bucket' perspective. Besides, why the hell would a business offer free WiFi for customers and then worry about a buck or two a day, max, in power nibbling?

Coffee shops

[raider_red]

I'll plug in at coffee shops from time to time if my laptop's battery is starting to go dead. I've always considered buying coffee there to be a form of rent fo rthe table space I'm using. Power is just an extension of that.

Moons Over My Hammy and a movie....

[Mork29]

My friends and I would specifically go to Denny's instead of the IHOP across the street, because they had a booth with an outlet. We would plug in and watch movies while we ate and hung out. It was 3am so nobody minded us hogging a booth, and the manager would come and sit with us and watch the movie when it was slow enough or the movie was good enough. We cost them $.50 in electricity and made them much more than that in business. I don't feal guilty for it....and the manager never minded....

Airports and charging

[sczimme]

I have to admit that I do this all the time, especially in airports-- and it is getting harder and harder to find places to recharge.

That's strange: the only place where I can consistently find a free* outlet is in the airport. I have on occasion carried a small outlet strip in my bag just in case all the outlets are taken, but this has not been an issue. (Someone using a laptop probably wouldn't mind unplugging for a few seconds while you plugged in the strip (so you could share the outlet), unless he was a complete turlingdrome.)

I also fly on newer Airbus aircraft whenever possible. The 300 series have DC power outlets in the armrests of all the seats (yes, even in coach/steerage). If I know I'm going to be on such a flight for an hour or more, I won't bother looking for an AC outlet in the terminal. I picked up one of these [fellowes.com] for use on the road. (The auto-DC-to-airline-DC adapter is the C-chaped item at the bottom of the picture.) Airline DC outlets are standardized (I forget the name of the connector) so any vendor's adapter should work.

* "free" as in "no people". In this context, I suppose "free as in beer" would also apply.

Non issue

[t_allardyce]

Ok lets see now: My iBook charger outputs 24.5v @ 1.875A. Based on an electricity price of 5.5p per KHW (I plucked that from the first thing I could google) which is pretty high and probably lower for commercial outlets.. anyway i digress.. thats 0.003p per hour. Now lets take an average cup of Starbucks and break it down:

Price: ~£2.50
Costs: ~£0.80

and there for the amount of time I would need to sit there charging my laptop before they started loosing money:

~680 hours or about 1 month!

Obviously that makes some assumptions:
a) I would only buy one cup off coffee for the whole month and would live off drinking out of the toilet for the rest of the time (an improvement)

b) They probably wouldnt let me stay overnight

and

c) I would actually have to go to Starbucks for more than an hour - the time after which you can no-longer stand its nuvo art fake prints and dirty seats.

This is so no big deal, its in all these places interests to just let people plug their laptop in for an hour or so, the WiFi and coffee price will more than make up for it.

Safety issues?

[scottme]

What if some punter comes in with a defective charger that fuses the outlet circuits or worse, starts a fire?

Some establishments (my kid's school for example) don't allow any electrical appliances to be used unless they have been through a safety check.

The same concern may apply at hotels etc. I wonder what the liability position is. Is it the establishment owner or the owner of the defective device?

Re:Pah!

[Tony Hoyle]

In the UK even the trains have these power points - specifically marked 'for laptops'.

The airports are full of them... in the 1st class lounge you even get a desk to work on, and they provide a Wireless LAN.

I've not seem them in resaraunts yet but I probably don't frequent the right establishments.

Denied at a Conference

[phlack]

I was attending HP World 2004 [hpworld.com] in Chicago last year. I plugged into the wall to try to get into their wifi network that they set up throughout the center. Well a rather self-important (and large) convention center security guard came up and barked at me, saying I'm not allowed to plug it, because they don't provide free electricity. This was at a COMPUTER CONFERENCE! (yeah, I'm sure that laptop cost them plenty to power, compared to the escalator next to me that was running to a floor not being used) Ironically, I was also with a convention IT staffer, as well as a conference staffer, trying to help me out with something, and neither one of them could talk sense into the guy. They did both agree to talk to their various supervisors about it; dunno if it did any good.

I spoke with one of the leaders of the conference about it (figuring I wasn't the only one who got yelled out), and she told me it was most likely due to union issues...the union apparently was very strong there and the conference staff wasn't allowed to pull any cables...they needed union convention center staffers to do it. What that has to do with me plugging in a personal laptop is beyond me. Should I have gotten a union rep to do it instead?

I'll chalk it up to lack of intelligence on the guard's part, but I had no further problems. 'Course, whenever I saw that guy, I immediately unplugged.

Re:what about the other leachers?

[xenicson]

You do realize that there are fees associated with taking a flight to and from an airport right? Same as Starbucks, if the airport is losing money because of their travelers charging laptops, they'll either cover them up or raise landing fees.

Re:what about the other leachers?

[Anonymous Coward]

But airports have outlets in the men's room for shavers, etc. They have free wifi in some airports. And the airports do get big truckfuls of money because there are landing fees and per passenger fees.

In fact landing fees are a form of extortion used against first world countries by third world countries, I think middle east and African countries charge thousands of dollars for a cargo plane to land and then even more in taxiway "parking" fees.

Re:what about the other leachers?

[kfg]

More and more consumer-facing industries are turning on their own customers because the customers are behaving different from what they like or expect.

You can largely blame this on the proliferation of business schools. Business school "trained" people will call a customer a "consumer" right to his face, which, not only ought to be unthinkable, but abuses the theoretical model for which the term is legitimately appropriate.

You see it in the use of the word "product" too, even for things that aren't even really products.

The theoretical business language, and the mental distance from the customer, who is a real individual person standing in front of you, that this creates is causing all sorts of social ills.

Even the "consumers" are using the language themselves now.

"Thank you for the guitar lesson. I really like your product."

"The ship in a bottle you made me was far more than I expected. I really like your product."

What on earth causes them to refer to my ships in bottles as "product?" It's a ship. In a bottle. And you already said that.

At least that really is a product in the theoretical model though. The guitar lesson thing has me really stumped.

I'm sure there are some I'm forgetting, but I'm just now consuming my morning caffeine.

Lot of that going around right now. Just check out my spelling and grammar so far this morning.

KFG

California runs on image.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

There's a friggin 24/7 coffee shop in MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN but I cannot find *any* here in the goddamn SILICON VALLEY. There is something seriously wrong with this picture. :P

Some Silicon Valley cities require you to hire an off-duty cop as an armed guard if you want to be open after certain hours. (California's gun control has led to high crime rates and overnight stores are easy targets. The cities in question have used this as an excuse to set up a graft mechanism for their police officers.)

Others just zone things like that out of exisesence - so you need to be grandfathered or get a variance from the zoning board to go 24/7.

California runs the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry noticed that computer geeks keep late hours, jumped from that to the conclusion that Silicon Valley had more night life than the rest of the world, and promulgated that image.

I moved here from southeastern Michigan, which really DID have lots of stores open 24/7. (When I left there was a drugstore near my old place with a 24/7 MANNED AUTO PARTS counter! Rebuilt waterpumps at 3 AM if you needed 'em.) It was quite a shock to discover that Silicon Valley actually rolled up the streets at night.

Unfortunately, some DO care

[jangobongo]

They don't bat an eye at helping yourself to serviettes or sugar...

I've worked at and eaten in restaurants (mainly the fast food types) where they care a great deal about how many little packets you get/take. One place I worked for kept all the condiments behind the counter and customers had ask for them. The employees were given guidelines as to how many ketchup packets per order of french fries, etc., we could give out.

Some of these place's profit margins are so small that every penny matters to them, unfortunately.

Re:Leeching????

[halcyon1234]

They don't bat an eye at helping yourself to serviettes or sugar but a little juice gets a 'leeching' tag?

Intersting note: On campus, there is a cafe that charges for napkins, cream, water refils-- anything. They "get away with it" because they're the only cafe on campus (it's a small campus).

Of course, the minute they implimented that policy, every resteraunt in a five block radius saw a huge jump in buisness.

Or as the students put it: "You want me to pay $.25 for a napkin? Fuck you, I'm going across the street!" =)