AS MUCH AS I appreciate Irish Rail's free wifi service on the mainline Cork-Dublin trains that I use several times a month, I think the generous placement of power points is more welcome.
I carry four mobile technology devices and need to use them hard when in Dublin on assignments. It's handy to know that I can plug them in under main train tables. I also plug into mains power points that are nestled near the back of many carriages too. I often leave my bag unattended and plugged into the Premier Class carriage sidewall. A small power strip inside my bag recharges two or three devices simultaneously. One of the devices is a Huawei Mifi dongle that I run open to all comers via O2-Ireland 3G service. In my experience, O2 is faster than the Fleet Connect wifi service aboard the Cork-Dublin train. I've used the O2-3G connection to run an Online Meeting Room while underway at 60 mph. The O2 connection seems more resilient than the free wifi aboard the train. Moreover, I cannot use my Kindle to download content via the Irish Rail connection because the dumb Kindle won't navigate to the default sign-in screen on the train.
I'm going to start updating my Foursquare check-ins with photos and seat cross-references to the power points I use most often. And I'm going to also annotate the carriages that make my power blocks hot to touch. As welcome as the free power may be, several of the points I've used between carriages have cooked two of my Dell power blocks, effectively burning them out within one year of their first use aboard the train. This has only happened when using power points in the luggage area or the ones behind the counter of the dining car.
