(Maybe this was supposed to be a reply, instead of a top-level post?)<p>Anyways, as little as 20 years ago, you'd routinely need adapters when traveling from one European country to the next. That's hardly an issue anymore, and I consider this a vast improvement.<p>You say you have problems when traveling to "other continents", without saying which continent you start from. I'll assume you're from North America, because then you're indeed a bit out of luck, as this map shows: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/WorldMap_PlugTypeInUse.png" rel="nofollow">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/WorldMap_...</a> However, that's a North American problem, not an international one.<p>As to your other point, I didn't cherry pick the examples, I addressed the examples from an article that argues the exact opposite.