absolutely, anytime i go out of town the machine gets unplugged, along with the modem line.
and, always, always unplug or at least turn off equipment when the power company is having problems, when they reconnect transformers it can generate huge, very high energy surges, they also sometimes, working under a time pressure and on equipment that's a little different at every substation, sometimes get it wrong and briefly supply 2x or more the voltage you are supposed to be getting. of course they catch this very, very quickly, but it can happen. however mostly it's the huge surges when the power first comes back on. and bless those wonderful fools who work for the power company that are willing to play with high voltage in the rain. when i was growing up, out in the country, we happened to live on a corner where n/s power lines crossed e/w power lines, more than once we got to see some poor guy from the utility company climb up the pole in the rain, and literally put jumper leads between the dead lines and the still live lines that ran the other way! it was amazing! they put big insulating flaps over the ends of the leads to keep them dry(ish), but he was still playing with 13,800 volts at several hundred amps in the rain, up on the top of a utility pole. ever since i've had great respect for the field techs that work for power companies. they also work on the really, really big overhead high tension lines live, which can not only be at 500,000 volts in some cases, but carry so much current that they are at least as big around as a soda can! they only look small because they are so high up, just imagine how much power one of those can briefly supply, enough to leave nothing but ash and bone splinters. one of the educational channels has a very good program on how they work on them, it's simply amazing and incredibly hazardous. there are even some lines in new york that carry dc instead of ac because you can transfer more power that way at a given voltage, they convert ac to dc at one end and at the other end convert the dc back into ac, i'd love to see that equipment. the power companies are often at the practical limit of high voltage on the big transmission lines. Obi-Wan wrote: ------- > I'm sure that some of the more electrically technical people on this list will > laugh at this, but when I leave the house my Mac is turned off and Unplugged > from the wall. I had a bad experience a year and a half ago during California's > blackouts. Our grid was surged around 20 times in a short period as a result of > the blackouts. I had an APS surge protector and backup on each Mac (each of > them were the $400 variety...not Walgreens junk), and my G4 desktop and Pismo > got fried. Dead. Completely. Boards and PS's. So I offer my experience as a > tech and as a normal user. ------- -- "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." (Richard Henry Lee, Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights.) -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
