Around the World with Telephone Plugs

Today I installed a new printer at home. Every few years you just have to succomb to the hardware industry and risk your entire electronic life by installing drivers, applications and who-knows-what onto your PC which will impact some obscure settings or favorites. This time, the Firefox browser was hit and no longer responds. (This phenononom, btw, is called Schwarz’s Law: Try to upgrade one thing and you will invariably downgrade three others.)

But I digress.

The really amazing thing about installing the printer today (actually it is a multi-functional unit with printer, copier, scanner and fax) was that Canon added telephone plugs for all European countries to the box. (Refer to photo.) I am now the proud owner of plugs for Belgium, Netherlands/Spain/Portugal/Greece, Germany, France and Italy.

This is actually the second time I have owned a collection of telephone plugs like this. Ten years ago you needed this assortment when travelling on business to download emails. I can still hear the screaching sounds as the modem tries to connect.

It’s been years since I stayed at a hotel which didn’t either have WiFi, high-speed in-room connections or at least a “standard” telephone jack (known as “RJ 11″) to hook into. As a matter of fact, it was just a few months ago that I cleaned out my office and dumped my old collection. “Nobody needs these dinosaurs anymore,” I said to myself.

Well, maybe someone does. At least Canon thinks so. It turns out that some countries still use these dinosaurs, even in new buildings. Wiki has a complete list of which plug is used for which country.

Any business travellers out there still lugging around dinosaurs? Where do you need them most? Anybody want my new set?