On Wednesday 10 February 2010, Bowie Bailey wrote:
>jd wrote:
>> A lot of older people still believe that giving the PC the wrong
>> command will cause it to explode in a shower of sparks, thanks to
>> Hollywood. It seems that Hollywood is still doing that.
>
>Electronics generating sparks when overloaded? Yes.
>
>Generating smoke? Yes.
>
>Flames? Yes.
>
>A dynamic explosion? No.
>
>(Never did figure out why all the electronics consoles in movies seem to
>contain explosives...)
Explosion? Most certainly a resounding yes, Bowie. I once had a house in
Nebraska, with a quarter sized dent in the plaster & lathe ceiling about 1/4"
deep over the kitchen table. Poor folks at the time, I had bought an old 6
volt CB radio, and _thought_ I had it converted to 12 volts, and was testing
it. After about 30 minutes powered up on a 12 volt supply, one of the power
supply filters, a 350 volt rated item, decided it had had enough of the 600
volts it was getting, and exploded. The top of the alu can put that dent in
the plastered ceiling, and I had a heck of a time cleaning up all the
exploded antifreeze soaked kraft paper & see through tinfoil they are made
of. The antifreeze of course being 1000's of times purer than what you put
in your cars radiator, but its still ethylene glycol none the less.
Lets just say that I am glad I had no body parts in the way... I realized
that I had missed a connection that needed to be moved to the 12 volt
position, fixed that, and replaced the filter, and it ran just fine in my
hunting truck for as long as I owned it, another 6 or 7 years.
The movie folks of course have their own definition of reality. ;-)
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
-- Albert Einstein
