Re: Off-Topic: use laptop only as USB power supply

[Joe Greco <jgreco () ns sol net>]

> If you're at all handy with a soldering iron, this is a fun project to
> do what you need : http://www.ladyada.net/make/mintyboost/

Tekkeon's TekCharge MP1550 is a beefier version of this; it will work with
two or four AA batteries, and provides USB.  If you put rechargeables in,
it can also charge them via a secondary charging port.  This has become my
solution of choice for backup power for power-hungry cell phones that 
drain their batteries every other day.  The flexibility of being able to
stop at any store and buy a pack of AA batteries in a crisis is great.  For
me, it's passed the pocket-indestructability test of having survived more
than three months unprotected in my pocket, which typically does plastic
thingies in.

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.