Laptop USB powered Pi and power outage

I’ve commented that my Pi is powered from one of the laptop’s USB ports. I’ve also suggested that means the laptop is, effectively, acting like a UPS – but when I’ve said that, I wasn’t being entirely serious. (I don’t know much about USB, but I suspect they’re providing less power when the laptop is running on batteries – which mine rarely does these days due to its age; the batteries aren’t much cop any more.)

The power tripped out here earlier.

All but one of the LEDs in the Pi went out – the only one that remained on was the red, so it looked as though it had just been powered up, before the OS boots.

After I restored mains power, by the time I returned to the Pi it was lit up as normal – so I assumed it had rebooted. However, it wasn’t until an hour later that I finally went to use it again.

When I flicked the screen over to DVI input, I was a bit surprised to see that RISC OS was exactly how I had left it, before the power went out.

That’s a bit handy.

Ditto here. It used to be an entirely self-contained setup (composite video to a USB video capture box), but now I’m using a flat panel display it’s not quite possible to use the machine “in the dark”.
It should, however, be enough to get to a command line, force a *Close followed by a *ShutDown prior to pulling the plug.

The power tripped out here last night, for some random unknown reason. All the LEDs remained lit as usual, RISC OS kept on going, and when I pushed the big black button to re-enable power, the only inconvenience was waiting for the Livebox to restart. But, then, my netbook only has three USB ports, so I’m quite used to disconnecting the Vonets adaptor when I want to plug in a harddisc or somesuch.

Some day I’ll get a little USB power adaptor gizmo and I’ll run it all from the mains. Maybe I ought to get a small UPS too?

PS: “Power outage”? :-P

PS: “Power *_outage_*”? :-P

I’m not sure what point you are making here, other than that you might be suggesting that a sudden and unexpected loss of power is not a power outage.

The power tripped out, meaning there was no power being supplied to anything electrical – other than from the batteries on the laptop. The only thing would have therefore remained usable was the laptop itself, if I’d lifted the lid on it. Everything else was completely unusable due said sudden and unexpected change from a power supply to a power non-supply.

The power went out. That, to me, is a power outage

I’ve never heard its use as in defintions 1 below, but 2 frequently!

From:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/outage

out·age
n.
1. A quantity or portion of something lacking after delivery or storage.
2. A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electric power.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

outage
n
1. (Commerce) a quantity of goods missing or lost after storage or shipment
2. a period of power failure, machine stoppage, etc

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

PS: “Power outage”? :-P

I think Rick is commenting on yet another american usage. Normally, we in the UK say “power failure”. The two on-line dictionaries which Chris refers to are both from the USA. Personally, I object to the use of “power” in this context – even though we have referred to “power stations” as long as I can remember. It sets my teeth on edge every time I hear someone use power when they mean energy; in this case, electricity. You might have an electrical supply available but, unless you connect a load, there is no power associated with it.

John (just a BOF, getting it off his chest)

I’d use power failure for something a little more permanent and/or catastrophic.

Just because outage is an Overpuddlianism, I see no problem in its use – just as I see no problem in using words of French, German, Latin or other origin. All of these enrich the language.

Overpuddlian spellings, OTOH, are a different matter altogether. These simply corrupt the language.

The definitions Chris provided, BTW, can also be found at the link I put around the word ‘outage’ above, along with another variation.

Actually, I meant to use “power cut”, not “power failure” – my excuse is my age!

I agree with you about enriching language and I’m all for it. What I dislike are pointless replacements for perfectly good english words and phrases. I also agree about spellings. The main problem is the rate at which these americanisms are adopted, usually by impressionable people who seem to think these words/spellings are “cool”. And don’t get me started on the american pronunciation of harass and harassment. Anyone would think the word hadn’t existed in British english before it came to prominence in american television dramas and films.

Perhaps this isn’t the right place to let off steam about these bugbears of mine.

John

As John said – why use a clunky Americanized¹ phrase when a perfectly good British English phrase exists – we say “power cut”, don’t we? When I hear of “outage”, it usually follows the word “service” and is part of a canned excuse…

I agree with you about enriching language and I’m all for it.

I did giggle to myself during the news reports of the Greek bail-out when everybody referred to the portions as “tranche”, complete with fakey-accent “trahhhnsh” way of saying it. Over this side of the Sleeve², I can get gateaux in tranches. ;-)

usually by impressionable people who seem to think these words/spellings are “cool”.

And web browser authors and standards committees who flatly refuse to accept that there is anything outside of the US. Try using “colour”, in HTML tags, for instance, and see how far you get. Ditto “centre”.

And don’t get me started on the american pronunciation of harass and harassment

I won’t. I would probably say “ha-rass”, but given my background, that isn’t really a surprise.

While we’re at it, don’t get me started on “diss” and “thru” and all the other they-were-a-real-word-once-really words. ;-)

Anyone would think the word hadn’t existed in British english

…who nicked it from the Frenchies. Apparently it comes from a word that means “to set the dogs on”. Hmmm… Might make those American shows seem a little more amusing when they use it in the context of “stop bothering me”.

Perhaps this isn’t the right place to let off steam about these bugbears of mine.

See you in Aldershot?

¹ With a ‘z’, of course!

² That’s what a “Manche” is, and that’s what they call the Channel.