/images/_fe569f31-060c-4008-90fe-800aa73ad792.jpeg

The Little Bird

If you know who Varys is, you’ll know he’s nothing without his “little birds.” They’re the ones who listen to the whispers of power and then tell him all about it.

Well, my varys needs some listeners too.

/images/_4fe98e2b-fbb3-434a-a1c3-dd80dd391f61.jpeg

Varys - The Power Spy

For years I’ve protected my office server from the harsh indignities of sudden power failures by shielding it behind a traditional UPS battery backup. For more than a decade, this arrangement has kept my pixels glowing through half a dozen actual power outages, and any number of brown-outs and glitches. Over that same period, the internal battery has eventually died and been replaced twice. I don’t begrudge the battery for failing - it’s an ancient battery tech that has more in common with the battery in your car than the one in your cell phone - but the replacements are expensive.

So when the battery failed again this week, I decided it was time to re-evaluate.