640 Charge!

640 Charge!

The charger always outlives the chargee. You know you have a drawer full of them. We all do. Ten, 15 years of cell phones, palm pilots, laptop computers, electric shavers, cordless screwdrivers, cordless drills, cordless floor sweepers, cordless hand vacs, wireless home phones, cordless carving knives, portable clocks,iPods, Walkmans, portable guitar amps, GPS systems, Tasers and who knows what-all else.

Everything that can be recharged comes with its own charger. And no two are alike. The voltage of these things varies by teeny tiny amounts. But every plug is different. And each comes with a stern warning in the style of "DO NOT USE ANY BUT THE SUPPLIED CHARGER OR YOU WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY AND DAMAGE YOUR DEVICE."

They can fix an election, a race, a game, a commodity price, but they can't fix a voltage or a plug and socket?

Why don't the guys from, say, Motorola and Samsung play a round of golf together and over cocktails at the 19th hole find a way to make all their telephones work on the same voltage and require the same plugs.

An equally important question: why do many of us keep all these stupid charging things when we know there's no other device on earth that can use them? The device may wear out, but the charger never does. And who can throw out a perfectly good (and often expensive) piece of equipment that is good as new?

Here's a widely known fact that should be a universally known fact: When you get a new cell phone, your number is transferred to it and you cannot make most calls on the older one anymore. Note, most, not all calls. A "dead" cell phone still can reach 911, even if there's no phone number associated with it. So you can donate the phone and someone who might need to contact emergency services can still use it -- and at no cost. Calls to 911 are airtime free.

You not only do some good, but you get rid of an unneeded charger in the process. That's gotta be worth something to you.

That doesn't help with the palm pilots, laptop computers, electric shavers, portable guitar amps, GPS systems, Tasersn and who knows what-all else. But it's a start.

Shrapnel:

--This past weekend, there was a terrible snowstorm hit the east coast. It dumped two feet of snow on places like New York, Long Island and New Jersey. And coming on the last Saturday before Christmas, it struck a blow to the poor retailers still trying to make ends meet in the face of the Bush depression.

--The man who really put broadcasting consultants on the map, Frank Magid, has not fully vanished as many in the news business had hoped and believed. Quite the contrary, Mr. Happy Talk/Dumb It Down not only thrives, but has expanded his "services" to include theinternet and mobile communication devices. How did we ever get along without this guy and his minions?

--A number of people have inquired about the impending publication of WestraDamus' retrodictions for 2009. Rest easy, troops. They will be here either 1/1/2010 or 1/4/2010 depending upon how deeply in the bag the Non Prophet gets on 1/31/2009.

I'm Wes Richards. My opinions are my own, but you're welcome to them.®

©WJR 2009