We have really bad problems with the power on the island sometimes. It’s got a habit of going off without warning, often for long periods of time. This wasn’t a problem when I was using my laptop with GPRS over my cell phone for internet access. It’s a huge problem now I am using a desktop PC.

So I popped into our local (well only actually) PC shop the other day and ordered a UPS. It’s supposed to run my kit for up to 30 minutes. That’s ok, 30 minutes is plenty long enough to save what I am doing and shut the PC down gracefully. So I handed over 2.5k Baht, bought it home, plugged it in and didn’t think any more about it.

Then yesterday I’m sitting here, up to my neck in code, trying to get a pair of dependant list boxes working (we won’t even go there) and I realise I’m suddenly getting rather warm. This is because the fan I keep about half a metre away from me has stopped working, yep it’s a power outage, this is confirmed by the very weak beep that is coming from the UPS.

So I think I have a few minutes and I almost have this code fixed so I keep working. 30 seconds later the PC loses power, I swear I didn’t get more than a minute from this UPS! It’s bloody useless! I seriously doubt I would have had time to shut down my PC even if I had started the procedure as soon as the power went off. What a piece of junk.