The NYT has a great piece about electric plugs. It is indeed le nerf de la guerre as we say in french; I mean the crux issue when you're out of you're regular living/working bubble.

Every day, millions of people are finding themselves scurrying about in search of wells of electricity they can tap so their battery-powered mobile devices can remain mobile. Dependence is growing on laptops, cellular telephones, digital music players, digital cameras, camcorders, personal organizers, portable DVD players and the latest hand-held gaming devices - most of which operate on rechargeable lithium-ion batteries - and finding available electrical outlets away from home and office has become more urgent.

Where do I put the stuff below? Thus, some people develop a passionate ethnography of electric plug situation. I really fancy this kind of technosocial situation:

Sean Spector, a vice president and founder of GameFly, an online video game rental service, said he tries to book flights that have power adapters near the seats so he can plug in his electronic gadgets.

I tend to wander around before seating at the perfect place in the train to be clsoe to a power plug. Unfortunately as I travel a lot both in France and Switzerland, I noticed that only french trains provide them (not all).