I usually manage to get a phone signal these days when travelling on trains but, on long journeys, my laptop batteries often run out of juice.
No problem, you say…just plug the power cable into the socket provided…
Fine, except that the train companies can’t keep even electrical power supplied to carriages reliably (100 different safety warnings at ear splitting volume, repeated at every stop, but no damned electricity).
So, today’s invention is a micro wind turbine device that benighted passengers can poke out of the window of their carriage when the train company has spent all its maintenance budget on directors’ bonuses.
This might even take the form of a secondary cpu fan on an extensible cable that could sit in the window frame, attached to the glass using a rubber sucker or two.
the good old windmill!
problem will be that if everyone does this there will be so much drag that trains running late 😉
“Too many windmills” is a better excuse for lateness than “wrong kind of leaves on the line” !
Bit like the old RATs you get on planes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx4BeNwQ-b8&feature=player_detailpage#t=18s
Exactly, except I thought it might be nice to use an extra computer fan for the purpose. When not acting as a generator, it could provide double cooling effect for the CPU.