Ryanware

If you have a simple UPS battery backup system of some kind you’re probably familiar with the beeping noise it makes when there’s a power outage or surge or whatever. Those dang beeps can get pretty annoying if they beep for too long. Now, take that little speaker out of your UPS system and dunk it in water, cook it in a microwave, and drop it out of an airplane. Okay, so a speaker put through that probably wouldn’t work at all, but if it did I’m pretty sure I know what it’d sound like. It’d sound exactly like the little speaker in my UPS system.

I’m pretty sure the battery in this thing is completely worthless. Normally, one would just get a new battery, but in this case I’m gonna go for a completely new UPS backup thing all together. I don’t want to hear that dying robotic cat noise anymore.

It’s been making the horrible noise for quite a while. In the past I’ve removed the battery, re-connected it, and plugged it back in and it works until the next time the power freaks out. There’s been a pretty steady wind going all day today (which I love, I love the wind!). A few minutes ago the power surged three times (I’m guessing due to sudden increase in wind or something), which apparently was more than enough to destroy my poor UPS battery backup once and for all. Now when I plug it back in, the horrid “I am a dying alarm speaker, let me die in peace” noise starts immediately and will not stop. Time to finally let it go.

My dear UPS battery backup, I will not plug you in again. Rest in peace.

Any suggestions for battery backups? I don’t need anything crazy.

Not yet anyway. I think some people would have it that way, but I’m not too sure what I think about it. Not that it matters since my head seems to think that computers == internet. Read on.

The Internet is a lot like electricity. No, I’m not saying anything about how it moves around on wires. I mean it’s like when there’s a power outage. Even though you know there’s no electricity you still flip the light switches when you enter dark rooms (or maybe I’m alone in this). When my Internet connection goes down it’s the same thing. I know the Internet is down, but I still try repeatedly to use it just as I try to flip light switches when there’s a power outage.

The power company came yesterday and was supposed to be turning off our electricity so I prepared to shut everything down when all of the sudden the Internet stopped working. I didn’t realize I had plugged the hub into another power strip so when that computer was turned off it shut off the hub putting an end to the Internet. I moved the plug to another location, but lo and behold the Internet had decided not to work. Well, there’s a reason for this involving the hub, a router, and MAC addresses and if you really want to know about it you can e-mail me. The purpose of this is to tell you my little story. Yes, another little story. Not the little story I just told. So anyway, the power company never did shut off the power. I worked for a while without the Internet, but then decided maybe I should clean things up a bit around here (translation: I was looking for a flow chart and spec sheet I had hand written). I then came across a quote I thought would be good to post this coming Sunday. So I thought “I’ll just enter it in now and set the post time for Sunday.” I sat down at the computer to do just that when I remembered the Internet wasn’t working. Do’h!

It gets worse. After remembering I couldn’t access the Internet I still wanted to at least write a note for myself reminding me to post the quote. About this same time I thought about the light switch power outage comparison and thought I’d write a note about that for later as well. So I got a piece of paper and started writing “The internet is a lot like electricity” when I realized that I was sitting infront a perfectly functional computer that I could type a note on. I felt what I will call a “stupid sensation” which is probably very similar to what executives of large companies must feel after they have an interview with the press.

To me, the Internet and the computer are one. If the Internet is down my mind tells me that the computer is useless. So maybe someday when they really are one I won’t even notice the transition. As for now though, I’m just glad I can use the Internet again.

Be sure to check back Sunday for the quote.

Oh, and I still haven’t found the flow chart and spec sheet.