UPS I did it again
<p>I had to buy a new UPS for my desktop machine yesterday after the old one succumbed to battery death, so Cathy and I made a run to the local MicroCenter.</p>
<p>UPS designers have been pissing me off since forever with designs that require you to throw away the entire device when the battery craps out, unless you&#8217;re  willing to go to great length to avoid this &#8211; finding the exact right replacement battery from a specialty supplier, then taking the unit apart and reassembling it yourself.</p>
<p>This is never practical under time pressure, and I&#8217;ve never had the luxury of no time pressure when trying to cope with a dead UPS. Sure didn&#8217;t this time; my area was under a severe-thunderstorm watch.</p>
<p>Imagine my pleased surprise when I found a big stack of varied models branded APC that are not just significantly less expensive and with longer dwell times than when I was last UPS-shopping, but designed with removeable and replaceable batteries, too.</p>
<p>Progress does get made.  Dunno whether this is a standard feature on all UPS brands yet, but doubtless it will be within a few years.</p>
<p>Some of you may find my <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/UPS-HOWTO">UPS HOWTO</a> of interest.  I&#8217;ve shipped a 3.0 update with the glad news of replaceable batteries and a few other minor updates; it may be up by the time you read this.</p>
