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Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Playing a familiar cord

Published: June 29, 2010 1 minute 3 comments

Zits

Okay, this time it's personal. Zits happens to have used this gag the morning after I finally closed my eyes, clenched my teeth and plugged in what I hoped was the right power source.

Three weeks ago, my computer died and needed a system restore, which, you may know, wipes it entirely clean and brings it back to the pristine condition it was in when you bought it. You can't do this if you haven't backed up your files, unless you want to lose everything you've ever done.

Fortunately, I had backed up my computer to an external hard drive, which was sitting on my bookshelf. So I restored the system and then reached for the hard drive, only to realize that it requires a power source. At which point, I looked a bit like Pierce in that second panel. Or, at least, I would have if I hadn't recently moved, so that, instead of one big tangled pile of identical power sources and chargers, I had small tangled piles of power sources and chargers scattered in boxes throughout the apartment.

When I become emperor, all chargers and power sources will have the name of their implement engraved upon them. However, that has not yet happened, and I had no desire to accidentally fry my hard drive, so I went down to Best Buy in hopes that they would have an open version of my hard drive so I could see what the damn power source looks like. They didn't, but the fellow Googled it and, while there was no picture, we did find out what the output was. 

Yesterday, after three weeks of faking it and managing to get through as if I had access to all those files, I found what I hoped was the right cord and plugged it in. And, behold, the external hard drive came to life, its drivers were installed and my files were restored.

And so, a happy ending, but it has not changed my priorities for when I become emperor. I may even insist on color-coding.

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Comments 3

  1. Most devices (and power cords) list their power requirements and output. But they often have it printed (if you could call it that) in raised black plastic letters on the black plastic case – in other words entirely illegible.
    I have 3 physically identical MyBook 1TB external drives. Their power supplies are all different. Guess what fun THAT is? Fortunately I haven’t fried a drive yet. I think (hope) that they all actually draw the same power – all 3 of the power supplies are providing power in a “range”.

  2. That’s why I had the guy at Best Buy Google it (which I could have done at home, but I was there, so …) Once you know what power you need, it’s possible to find a power source that will provide it, though they sure use fine print! I’m not sure why the various implements can’t have that information on them, too, but it’s not something I’ve seen very often. (Yes, not losing the book would probably help. Haven’t found the box with the book in it yet, but now I don’t need it anymore, I’m sure it will turn up.)

  3. You can often find “the book” online. For example, when my oldest boy thought he’d left his phone charger several hundred miles east the night before leaving to spend a week several hundred miles west, I was able to determine that his model could be recharged from a PC using a USB cable and the right driver.
    Of course a sensible approach would be to tag the charging device as soon as you get it. No, I’ve never done that either.

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