[geeks] Wireless Routers

nate at portents.com nate at portents.com
Sat Jul 8 12:36:00 CDT 2006


> Some of them appear to fit in the space of one outlet and rairly
> interfere.  I want to know why more can't be like that.

Cost.  The bigger, bulkier AC->DC converters are cheaper.  In the
beginning, it was partly the cost of technology, partly just that the
bigger, older tech converters were being made in such larger numbers that
they were that much cheaper, but both of those are slowly changing (very
slowly, as they've had the tech to build smaller and more efficient
converters for at least a decade).

Meanwhile, nobody in the western world has yet designed and marketed what
we really should have - centralized AC->DC converters in our basements and
DC outlets in houses/workplaces, so that we can gain the efficiency of one
large converter rather than many smaller, and less efficient bricks (or
built-in converters) in appliances.

There was a time when most of the appliances in a house were AC - that
time has passed.

- Nate



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