Of laptops and bricks

Well, I did it. I finally bought a bright shiny new MacBook Pro. It's very, very nice. And fast. I'd say it's cool, but the Intel Core Duo cpu actually runs rather hot. Apple really calls this a portable, not a laptop. Feeling the bottom of it I know why - it would be rather uncomfortable on your lap. Anyway, me like.

Setting up the laptop portable led me to crawl under my desk at work in order to connect/disconnect various power cords etc. As I tangled with the maze of wires under there it occurred to me that every device has a power brick nowadays. Here's what is currently residing under my desk - power bricks for:

• USB hub
  
• External hard drive used for backups (I'm such a good little nerd)
  
• Inkjet printer
  
• Powered computer speaker system (I like my iTunes)
  
• Cordless phone
  
• Voice over internet phone converter^*
  
• Answering machine
  
• Charger for my PDA (nerd, nerd, nerdy, nerdy, nerd)
  

Just imagine the heat these put out! I guess my feet won't be getting cold in the winter... And it was worse - I disconnected an external CD burner, with associated power brick, this morning because I don't use it much now.

I think there's a fortune to be made here. If someone could invent a universal power brick that you could plug several devices into simultaneously, I would buy it.



^* This sounds cooler than it really is. Voice over internet phone (VOIP) service is okay, but not wonderful. We didn't have a choice. The University, in it's wisdom, decided that the new building we're in had to be all VOIP. Of course that causes a few issues with things like fax machines (which don't work with VOIP) and emergencies with power outages (how do we call for help?). Minor issues according to the University hierarchy...