I had an interesting divergent thinking challenge last week.
The power went out while I was working from home, as it has too many times recently, and the cable and phone went out too.
I assumed the cable was out because the power was out, but the cable company sent a message that they were working on the problem, and the power company didn't. It was particularly annoying because I was messaging my team at the time.
I looked around and assessed my resources. I had a cell phone at 20%. After about 20 minutes I remembered that I also have an electric car.
I thought these thoughts:
"Hey, I could use the Mini to charge up my cellular phone." I momentarily paused when I realized I'd have to struggle to get the garage door open without the power, then I realized no, no deadly exhaust with the electric car.
And then, "Well, if my phone is charging I could use my cell phone as a wifi hotspot and get the internet on my iPad." (The mini is a hotspot too, somehow. I see it sometimes on my list, but sometimes I don't. It didn't matter; I could link my iPad to my phone and get the internet, anyway.)
When the iPad connected to the internet, I started typing. Then I had my next genius idea: instead of sitting in the driver's seat and reaching over to type on the iPad passenger's seat, I could join my iPad on the passenger's side.
That blew things wide open, and I took my work laptop and hooked up to the phone wifi hotspot, and that actually worked, and I joined a zoom call from the garage of my house with no cable broadband or power.
Sadly, I didn't get the audio synced in the Zoom call before the power came back on in the house, and then twenty minutes after the Zoom call ended the cable came back.
I kind of want to test out the whole thing while the power is on.
That is brilliant. Good work. And hooray for not dying from exhaust fumes!
(now just don't think you can charge your car while the power is out...)
Posted by: KC | August 03, 2022 at 10:31 AM
KC - I keep that thing charged up at 100%, even if I've just returned from a five mile drive.
Posted by: theQueen | August 03, 2022 at 08:11 PM
This seems like a good practice! With dual payoff as you can use your car as a battery during power outages *and* you're always ready for a road trip. Well, a petite road trip, anyway.
(I assume that the power were out and if a situation were dire, your garage door could be opened manually? Ours can be opened manually if the thingy goes wrong, anyway, but it is pretty heavy.)
Posted by: KC | August 03, 2022 at 08:22 PM
KC - yep, too heavy. I remember the dark days before garage door openers.
Posted by: TheQueen | August 04, 2022 at 04:17 AM