Nice story Ken,
Yes, my cat makes the laptop unstable in both ways too ;-) I am most
affraid of the instability involving gravitation though. Just today we
picked another laptop back up after the screen was exchanged. It had
fallen off the bed and someone stepped on it. Good thing we have
insurance on that laptop. Now it only costs us only € 50,- (and almost 6
weeks!) to repair.
Wiliam
> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: image66@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:image66@xxxxxxxxx] Namens Ken Norton
> Verzonden: woensdag 5 november 2008 17:04
> Aan: olympus@xxxxxxxxxx
> Onderwerp: [OM] Re: Nathan's PAD 26/10/2008: my kingdom
>
>
>
> >At least until the cat decides to go and sit on the
> >keyboard. The laptop gets very unstable by then ;-)
>
>
>
> Years ago, I worked software technical support. These were
> the days before the x386 processor and most PCs were less
> than stable in a high RF or static environment. We provided
> scheduling/billing software systems to radio stations.
>
> One day, I got a phone call and was told that the computer
> just went nuts and there was gibberish typed on the screen.
> Another day she called and the printer started printing
> reports all on its own. Later on, she calls back and the
> computer has more gibberish typed on the screen. On it goes
> for three weeks.
>
> This was, of course, a classic example of RF Interference
> wrecking havoc with the computer. I had seen this happen
> dozens of times and the symptoms were nearly identical.
> Within the industry, we just call it "RF".
>
> We tried everything to recreate the problem, to no avail. I
> had the station engineer do various things, had him check
> grounding and shielding, etc. We even took the station off
> the air! (He insisted that they didn't actually broadcast
> from that location, but from five miles away--which was
> technically correct, but a TV station did broadcast from a
> tower not 600 feet away).
>
> I was absolutely insistant that it was RF Interference, and
> the chief Engineer was equally insistant that it wasn't.
>
> This went every day, at various times of day, for almost three weeks.
>
> Then one day I get the call. "Ken, you are absolutely
> correct. It was RF. RF the cat!" The radio station had this
> stray cat that the DJs had fed and it never left. It became
> the station cat. They named it "RF".
>
> Well, it was wintertime in Michigan and the cat sought out a
> warm spot to sleep. The perfect location was on top of the
> computer monitor. It was actually quite hilarious as the cat
> would get statically charged and the hair would poof out like
> a sea urchin. (I saw this happen with a Himalayan one time
> and that cat became the size of a rather large dog!)
>
> The lady running the computer had a horseshoe shaped desk
> where her computer was on one side, the typewriter and
> telephone were on the other. The telephone would ring, she'd
> turn around and answer it. It would be an agency phoning in
> an order, so she'd load up the order form in the typewriter
> and work away. A minute later, the computer behind her
> started beeping, printing or doing something else. RF the
> cat would wake up, stretch, jump down off the monitor ONTO
> THE KEYBOARD and then onto the floor, exiting the room before
> she was aware of what had happened.
>
> It is amazing how you can be 100%, yet 100% wrong.
>
> AG
>
>
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