[plug] Pet Hates

[Craig Ringer]

simon wrote:

>really? its heat?
>  
>
For Lithium-ion batteries, yes. NiCd batteries have the behaviour you 
described in your rant re topping up, etc. Lithium-ion batteries degrade 
based on time and charge cycles - it doesn't matter how big the charges 
are. Lithium-ion barries also have a battery management system built in 
that prevents overcharging (IIRC over/undercharged Li-ion batteries have 
the nasty tendency to explode) so leaving them plugged in all the time 
is fine.

Most laptops, however, are way too toasty for such batteries. That's one 
of the reasons I have my laptop run its cooling fan even on low CPU mode 
(I love the way Toshiba laptops give you control of this) and force the 
fan to on when the lapop gets even a bit warm. It's also why I'll never, 
ever buy a P4 laptop - only Pentium M. My current PII/300 (runs at 
150MHz most of the time) does a great job, though, and has the battery 
sensibly well separated from the "hot bits" of the laptop.

Check out http://www.apple.com/batteries for some useful info. Be aware 
that they sell batteries, of course ;-) .

--
Craig Ringer