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<title>The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers LG #71</title>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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<H1><font color="maroon">The Foolish Things We Do With Our Computers</font></H1>
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<H4>By <a href="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">Mike "Iron" Orr</a></H4>
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On September 6, I, um, dropped a fork on my hard drive while it was running.
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I asked The Answer Gang and Nick Moffitt what other foolish things they've done
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with their computers, and here are the responses.
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<H2>The Case of the Dropped Fork</H2>
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<P> I keep my computer's
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cover open to avoid overheating. A fork fell off my desk, through the
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computer case and landed on the hard drive. The other half of the fork landed
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on the, um, power supply. Fortunately not *in* the power supply.
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<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGHT="24">
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I extracted the fork--being glad I didn't get a shock--and then discovered I
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couldn't save my nedit files ("read-only file system"). The disk light stayed
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on continuously. I ran 'mount' and got an input/output error. Suspecting the
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drive was fried, I wrote down all the changes I'd made to my Python files in
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the nedit windows. I tried "su -c mount /Backups" to mount my backup partition
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on the other drive, but it wouldn't do anything. I got most of the way through
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writing down my changes when nedit aborted. I closed what I could and tried to
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quit the X session, but the computer froze. I pressed Reset, but it wouldn't
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get past the BIOS. I turned off the computer, waited a bit, and turned it back
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on. This time it booted OK.
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<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGHT="24">
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<IMG ALT=":)" SRC="../gx/dennis/smily.gif" WIDTH="20" HEIGHT="24">
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<P> The computer ran for a couple days, then then it started crashing in
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the middle of the night and on bad days I would get two Oopses a day.
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My roommate
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strongly hinted I fix my computer, because he works at night and depends on it
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being the Internet gateway for his Windows boxen. I wanted to install <A
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HREF="http://www.rocklinux.org">ROCK Linux</A> and try it out, so this gave me
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an excuse. But I couldn't get through the installation routine without an
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Oops. It didn't matter whether both HDs were connected or only one. Thinking
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something unknown might be wrong with the computer besides just the hard drive,
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I got the parts to build another computer: AMD Duron 800 (more than twice as
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fast as my K6 350 woohoo!), the cheapest brand-name HD (10 GB), and a PCI
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Ethernet card and sound card (because my new motherboard didn't have ISA
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slots), and an ATX case. Next month, I'll write about my adventures
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installing ROCK.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************* -->
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<H2>The Viking Ship</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:nick@zork.net">Nick Moffitt</A>
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<P> I haven't got any blunder stories for you, but here's
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something we used to do with computer hardware back in high school:
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<P> My brother's school at the time had a bunch of surplus IBM
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model Bs (predecessor of the XT I think) that I took home. I only had
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so many outlets in my room (I had used up all the plugs I dared, and
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was using oil lamps to light the place, but that's another story), so
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I had no use for most of them myself.
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<P> My friend Jason had a bunch of clock-chip crystals from some
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card that ran at 66MHz or something. He probably got them from Boeing
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Surplus, where you can buy drill bits by the pound, hard hats for a
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dollar, and Ultrasparc pieces as-is. At least, that was the way it
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used to be.
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<P> So we built a crude Viking ship out of spare plywood and set
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a model B atop it. I ran an extension cord out into the yard to power
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it, Jason inserted the crystal, and we watched, entranced, as the poor
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4.77MHz chip slowly slagged itself. It smelled to high heaven, and
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the boat didn't catch on fire, so we resorted to setting flaming peeps
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adrift in his bathtub for our Viking funerals.
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<P> "What do you suppose the reaction will be once they reach
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Valhalla?" Jason asked.
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<P> "OLAF LOOK! BUN-NY!" <stomp> <squish>
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<H4>Iron writes:</H4>
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When I worked at an ISP, we got our servers from the Boeing Surplus. The owner
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would buy ten of them at once, whatever model they were selling at $30 each
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including monitor. The first time, it was these miscellaneous stray 386s. Two
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years later, it was Dell 486s.
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<P> At Bumbershoot (a multi-arts festival every Labor Day weekend), in the art
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exhibit was a set of ferry-boat models made out of driftwood with scrounged
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parts, with white Christmas lights inside. They actually looked pretty cool.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************* -->
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<H2>Upgrade Hell</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:stern@starshine.org">Heather Stern</A>
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<P> Gosh, so many years in computing, hard to think what was the dumbest
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thing... oh yeah, we can narrow it down to just Linux.
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<P> Heh.
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<P> I think the dumbest thing I've done with my laptop is upgrade it all in
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one day before I needed it for something... but doesn't everyone do THAT?
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Face it, upgrades are dangerous.
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<P> But you know, if you ate whole herrings like Tux you wouldn't have had that
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fork bomb.
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<P> <badum Ching!>
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************* -->
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<H2>I/O Cards</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:pilolla@gateway.net">Chris Gianakopoulos</A>
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<P> My dumbest computer act was unplugging and reinserting I/O cards in my
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S-100 (CP/M) system because I didn't want to wait that long 3-second
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duration for CP/M to reboot when I was fixing my hardware. After about 40
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Acts of Boldness, I finally plugged in the I/O card not quite so straight
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into the socket and there were lots of sparks.
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<P> I just took it apart, and after two weeks (front panel dangling on the
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floor), I decided to fix the thing. One killer, though. The computer
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would randomly crash and the front panel lights (it was an Altair 8800
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with an 18-slot motherboard), would just light up. After 4 months, when
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it got in one of its moods, I got a frequency counter and saw that the
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system clock was superposed where it should not have been. Looking up the
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signal definitions and the connector pinouts, I saw that there was a piece
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of copper (from my hot-swapped I/O card connector fingers) shorting the
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system clock to some other pin (I cannot remember the signals except that
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one of them was the bus clock). Yes I was electronically oriented (a real
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computer hacker), and that's what made me so careless.
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<P> Not only that, but I was unplugging and reinserting the
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I/O card without removing power from the computer. How cool I was!
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<H3> <A HREF="mailto:jkarns@csd.net">John Karns</A> writes:</H3>
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Hmm, you just dated yourself [about the Altair 8800]--and to join you, I'll
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admit that I remember those! I think it was the same model Altair that one of
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my college classes was assigned to write a low-pass filter algorithm
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for--assembler debugging was a bear, as programming tools were non-existent--at
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least for us.
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<H3> Chris writes:</H3>
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Those were the days of CP/M. But, now we have Linux, so that we have
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those days and more!
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<H3>Iron writes:</H3>
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Especially with all those emulators Linux has.
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<H3>John writes:</H3>
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<P> I still have a 486 / 100 on which I ran Slackware. Although I haven't used
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it in a while, it actually runs X tolerably well, thanks to the SCSI HD.
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<P> I just wish they would offer SCSI on laptops - every time my system does a
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disk buffer flush, there's a short and noticeable pause if I happen to be
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moving the cursor around the screen to remind me that I'm running an IDE
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HD. IMO, using a SCSI HD yields a gain similar to having ample RAM in
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the machine - helps smooth things out.
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<H3>Iron writes:</H3>
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What does "superposed" mean? [Regarding the system clock that was
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superposed where it should not have been.]
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<H3>Chris writes:</H3>
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<P> I read too many linear systems books. Some books will call the term
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superposed, and other books will call the term superimposed (more
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intuitive). Anyway, it means one mathematical function algebraically
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summed with another mathematical functions. For example, you might have
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a 5 volt DC signal with a 240 millivolt sinusoidal signal riding on top
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of the 5 volt signal. So, you would have a sine wave with an amplitude
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of 240 millivolts and a DC offset of 5 volts.
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<P> I suspect that you understand what I just said. You were probably
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wondering where the heck I concocted a word such as "superpose".
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Usually the word is used in the context of superposition with respect to
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a linear system. I'm not gonna start talking about superposition,
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because you will probably kill me for rambling (again).
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<P> Anyway, I saw a 1-MHz signal appearing where it
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shouldn't have been.
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I'm sorry -- I talk so much. Get me talking about science and stuff and
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I ramble......
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<H3>Iron writes:</H3>
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<P> I figured it meant the same thing as superimposed. I just couldn't,
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with my puny understanding of electronics, figure out how a system
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clock could "superimpose" itself somewhere, or why it would matter.
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<H3>Chris writes:</H3>
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<P> Oh, now I understand. Utilizing my puny mind, I got bold and was
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unplugging circuit boards (and plugging them back into the motherboard)
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with the power on the computer! After fixing my fried computer, every
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now and then, I could not boot up the computer. All of the front panel
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lights, on the Altair 8800 computer, just lit up (abnormally). When I
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finally fixed the problem, I saw that there was a piece of copper
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short-circuiting the system clock signal to an adjacent pin inside one
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of the card edge connectors (These were 100-pin connectors - thus, the
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S-100 bus).
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<P> The piece of copper was a portion of foil that got sort of torn off
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from the edge connector of the I/O card that I was constantly removing
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and plugging into the computer.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************* -->
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<H2>Cold Therapy</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:guy@gmnow.net">Guy Milliron</A>
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<P> I do this (Sorta) all the time with my PCs (currently). I have only one
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floppy drive. So when I need to use it on any system (Linux systems or my
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OS-challenged systems), I just hot-swap it in.. power, I/O cables and all!
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<P> Reason: Just like you, I don't want to wait. The Challenged OS takes 7
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minutes to boot, linux only takes like less than two (But I lose my uptime
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longevity).
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<P> The most foolish thing I've done? Has got to be when I had a 386 CPU that
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would overheat and crash the system due to my power supply fan had gone out.
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So three or four times daily I would take 2 zip lock bags and fill them with
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ice cubes and put them IN the computer right on top of the CPU. It actually
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worked very well until I was able to buy a new system.
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<P> BTW, I still have that same 386/33 motherboard. Was going to make it a
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Linux Router, till I found the LinkSYS router.
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<H3>Iron writes:</H3>
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That takes the cake! If I could draw, I'd make a picture of a computer with
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melting ice cubes in it.
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<HR NOSHADE WIDTH="80%"> <!-- ************************* -->
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<H2>Leaky Laptop</H2>
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By <A HREF="mailto:jkarns@csd.net">John Karns</A>
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<P> As recently as this past Spring I put my laptop into a backpack to bring
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to a friend's house along with some other things, one of which was ... a
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water bottle. Well, the top wasn't really screwed onto the bottle very
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securely, and ... you can guess what happened. When I arrived at my
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destination and pulled the backpack out of the car, I noticed that the
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seat was very damp. Upon checking the contents of the backpack and
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removing the laptop, water sort of dripped out of the side of the machine
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as I held it sideways / vertical.
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<P> I took it inside and disassembled it partially, and left it on a table
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with a fan blowing into it. The important thing to remember in such cases
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is not to turn on the machine (or other electronic device)! After I took
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it home I removed the mobo and left it over-night. Luckily, the machine
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survived the ordeal, without damage to the HD. The screen showed a few
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white spots, but those went away after a few weeks - sigh of relief. I
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was just glad that it was the older laptop and not the one I had just
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bought a week before.
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<H3>Iron writes:</H3>
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That's another picture I'd draw: a laptop with water dripping out the side.
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<P> <EM>If you would like to tell us about the most foolish thing you've done
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with your computer, maybe we'll publish it.
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<A HREF="mailto:gazette@ssc.com">gazette@ssc.com</A> </EM>
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<!-- *** BEGIN bio *** -->
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<SPACER TYPE="vertical" SIZE="30">
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<P>
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<H4><IMG ALIGN=BOTTOM ALT="" SRC="../gx/note.gif">Mike Orr</H4>
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<EM>Mike ("Iron") is the Editor of <I>Linux Gazette</I>. You can read what he
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has to say in the Back Page column in this issue. He has been a Linux
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enthusiast since 1991 and a Debian user since 1995. He is SSC's web technical
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coordinator, which means he gets to write a lot of Python scripts.
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Non-computer interests include Ska and Oi! music and the international language
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Esperanto. The nickname Iron was given to him in college--short for Iron Orr,
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hahaha.</EM>
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<!-- *** END bio *** -->
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<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
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<P> <hr> <!-- P -->
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<H5 ALIGN=center>
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Copyright © 2001, Mike "Iron" Orr.<BR>
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Copying license <A HREF="../copying.html">http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html</A><BR>
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Published in Issue 71 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, October 2001</H5>
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