A barista in Austin quietly told me to always plug my laptop into a wall outlet, not a power strip.

He said he'd seen three people lose work that week when the strip got bumped and they didn't have their battery set to save automatically, so now I always check my power settings before I open a single tab.

2 comments

2 Comments

brooke48415d ago

Totally feel this. Watched a guy at the library almost cry when his foot caught the strip cord and his essay vanished right before the deadline. My own laptop battery swelled up once from being plugged into a sketchy strip all the time (cheap parts, I guess). Now I hunt for the actual wall like it's a quest, and I set Word to save every two minutes, no joke.

miller.jason15d ago

Man, that barista is a genius. I fried a cheap power strip in a coffee shop once and it took out my whole surge protector, lost a client proposal. @brooke484 is right about the sketchy parts, they're basically time bombs. I'm so paranoid now I'll sit on the floor next to an outlet before I trust a strip. Auto-save is the only thing standing between me and total despair.