JAN 31

Jamie Hyneman, the famously beret-clad Mythbuster, recently just wrote a fantastic list of lame-ass (and coincidentally environmentally disastrous) things about today's consumer electronics industry. It's great to see him coming to agree with EcoGeek from a completely different angle.

He bemoans the fact that there are no standard battery sizes for new lithium-ions, and you can never find the battery you want for the device you need powered. Jamie points out that no one would buy Chevys if you needed a Chevrolet battery to start the thing.

Useless software, preloaded onto computers, wastes space and creates a constant drain on your processor, and thus your power grid. "Obnoxious" electronics in cars only make the things go obsolete and break more quickly. And, of course, everything in a car is designed to be completely impossible for an amateur (or even a mythbuster) to fix these days.

It's a fascinating and entertaining look at how the gadgets of our lives only make us more frustrated and less capable people. But there are also a few good examples people trying to fix these problems. The problem of 10,000 different chargers for 10,000 different phones, for example, is nearly ready to be tackled:

Miraculously, the industry appears to be working on a solution to this problem. The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (omtp.org) is supported by a number of manufacturers that would like to see the micro USB become the stand­ard connector. It's too early to know if they will succeed; let's hope they do.

Comments (4)

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written by rob, January 31, 2008

He has got some very good points there, particularly about cars.
Recently, one of my neighbours headlamp bulbs blew on her two year old car. I said no problem, I'll swap it for you, popped up the bonnet to take out the bulb and found the whole unit was completely sealed, you couldn't even see the backs of the bulbs.
So I phoned the local motor factors and they confirmed you had to change the entire unit, cost £126 plus vat!!!!
Made me glad I have an old car, I can just pop the bulbs out if they blow and they cost just a few pounds to replace.

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written by Joel, February 01, 2008

Personally I love Mythbusters, but sometimes the waste on that show drives me nuts. Well, mildy annoys me at least.
Why would cell phone makers create phones that use same connections? They make easy money selling you spare/extra/replacement chargers.

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Li-Ion Battery Sizes
written by sdonham, February 01, 2008

Not having standard sized Li-Ion batteries actually has a reason behind it. Remember all those laptop batteries that were bursting into flames? The consensus (amongst whom, I have no idea) decided it was too risky to have Li-Ion batteries the same size as say... a AA battery. People are too prone to error and could put a Li-Ion battery into a charger designed for NiCad resulting in a very hot, uncontrollable burst of flames (I've never seen a Li-Ion fire, but I gather you cannot put them out, you have to wait until they burn themselves out).
The potential risk to life and injury caused by a Li-Ion battery, in comparison to a NiCad is much higher due to it's tendency to "explode" and not just melt.

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written by Monotonehell, February 02, 2008

@sdonham: Your argument is moot. There exist standards which exclude trying to plug one kind of thing into another.

We just need a different package for each standard.

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