At home I have an APC Back-UPS CS500 UPS (BK500) to ensure my systems have just enough time to power down gracefully when a poweroutage occurs (or keep working until the battery runs out). It includes a USB cable which you can connect to a machine (works perfectly with apcupsd) so the Operating System knows that the power is gone and you are running on battery power.

CS500 - picture from APC

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A while ago I bought a Sansa Clip Sport to replace my old portable music player. It is not the cheapest around, but I wanted one with a display so I can see and select specific files (since I also listen to audiobooks, as well as music). With 8GB of storage, MP3/WMA/AAC/Ogg/WAV/FLAC support, micro USB connectivity, a microSDHC port to add more storage space, pretty decent battery life and at a price just below 50 euro's, it seemed to to be the perfect match for me. The computers also recognized the device as a normal USB Mass Storage device (as it should be), which meant I could easily transfer files on to and off the device. But the fairytale did not last.

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