Now that I have realized how useful the wiki could be for storing notes, I have decided to buy a new battery for the iBook. Less than one hour of unplugged time does not mesh well with several seminars or lectures a day.
Having a searchable, durable database of notes is worth the $160 cost of the battery. Also, since I will have two, I can continue to abuse the old battery by recklessly depleting it a third or the way, then charging it again.
Unfortunately, there is no chance of me actually getting it before this Friday’s climate conference in Reading.
[Update: 11 October 2006] I have cancelled the web order for the battery, as it seems like I wouldn’t actually get it until mid-November. I expect Apple is backed up on battery orders because of the Sony fiasco. I will just buy a battery in a shop, either in Oxford or London.
[Update: 31 October 2006] After 214 cycles, the battery seems to have suffered a critical failure. Now, even when apparently 3/4 full it will sometimes fail completely, causing the iBook to abruptly turn off. This is not a calibration issue; I have tried re-calibrating the meter several times.
Thankfully, I will be able to buy a new one in London in eight days.
[Update: 13 October 2008] My original iBook battery has now failed completely. It cannot run the computer for even a fraction of a second, the LED charge display on the bottom of the battery doesn’t work, and the computer often cannot detect that the battery is present.
Keep an eye out for wiki-vandals, if you are going to use it for storing notes.
Of course, MediaWiki keeps old versions, and it is easy to revert.
The real-world life of my iBook battery is now less than four minutes. The heat here has done a number on it.