I will be so relieved. This computer, vintage 2004, is a little slower (much!) than the new one, not to mention having some grievous issues with its pointer, which occasionally opens things you not only don’t intend, but can’t even figure out what Microsoft nuisance you accidentally touched and what it does…
This one decided to upgrade Firefox this morning and what should have been a 5 minute operation took an hour of computer time. Slog-slog-slog, and I couldn’t interrupt it.
Oh, I will be happy.
I have also purchased (yesterday) a very snug Starbucks coffee mug/thermos, which not only prevents my doing this again, being stoppered, but it fits the windowsill better, won’t tend to tip, and being insulated, means I don’t get the fast cool-down on the coffee I set there. It’s ridiculously spendy for a stupid coffee mug, and I much prefer my red Marvin the Martian cup, but at least this one won’t wreck an even more spendy computer.
I’d have loved to do some putzing about the yard while the computer was down, but it’s been downright chilly, windy, and raining for the whole several days—
Chilly, cloudy, windy and dank today….. *not* a day for cutting down trees….or even working outside. Finally supposed to clear tomorrow. We’ve had another inch of rain….cool enough so we are not growing mold……..yet!! 😉
lol I use an adult “sippy” cup at work for the same reasons — spill resistant and insulated. Good luck with the new keyboard, you seem to have a Harry Dresden-like relationship with your computers 😉
My lab is also very liquid unfriendly, which doesn’t ensure that our Facilities people keep the mini-bus sized air conditioners from leaking about 3Xyear per unit (of which there are 3…) and filling the space under our raised floor with varying amounts of water. There’s nothing important down there, just our regular and 3 phase power, all our network… Anyway. I have to leave my favorite TAZ mug at home ( http://www.tanstaafl.com/personal/bigmug.jpg ) and use a WaWa travel mug as a result.
We had water under the floor again on Monday, when I had to find a couple of 20 Amp circuits to support our new network switch… Somehow, I survived.
Sheesh, that’s scary!
I extruded a digit, ever so cautiously, and touched it… Nothing happened. We put a man on the moon but we can’t fix my air conditioner!
I’ve touched 220—once. It tends to blow your hand backward. I can say that fingernails will carry electricity: we were missing a button on the elevator call for ‘down’ in 3rd floor stacks in OU library, so I am accustomed to handling hot things, etc, with the tip of a nail. Wrongo! Blew my hand back, numb to the shoulder, and I remarked brightly to the person also standing there waiting: “Gee, the air turned bright blue? Did you see it?” Answer: no, bystanders don’t see it.
Did get the elevator, however.
Realistically, if there was no shock from the metal supports of the floor into the water, connected directly to the floor grid and to the metal cased tiles, I would have been Seriously Surprised if there were any on the box in the water connected to the floor supports connected to the floor – and the ankle bone’s connected to the knee bone. I don’t wanna be responsible for setting The Sign back to 0 Days without a Work Loss Accident.
I’m dragging Engineer Husband into there anyway to have a look because one of my gear racks is building up static charges and that makes me nervous.
It’s a-livvvve!
I am so glad to have this keyboard. It’s a good keyboard—some aren’t so good from the start; but this one is good from the start.
Geez! that’s beyond scary — want someone to make an annoymous squack to OSHA for you??
Nah. We have an anonymous safety reporting system that will ensure no retaliation. The real problem: The agency for some arcane reason is discouraged from having too many “employees” so instead of having civil servants working just about anything the government signs a contract with metrics in it that wind up ensuring the contractor has no incentive to fix it either. I think it’s because civil service rules mean once someone accumulates a certain amount of time in service, they essentially can’t be fired, even if they do NOTHING for their last years before retirement. They can get rid of contractors… sort of. They can say they don’t want this guy anymore, please send us a different guy – so the under-performing, lazy slacker contractors who don’t care get shuffled here or there and hang on much longer than a lousy real employee would. Fortunately most of the contractors really do care and want to get real work done, but there is still a huge drag on productivity because of the way the government buys services rather than just hiring people to do stuff. Not to mention the added expense of having to pay more than the contractor gets so the contractor’s employer has a reason to stay in business.
Interesting — CJ, just noticed the time stamps on your posts above and you managed to go back in time about 4.5 hours. Not fair.
I have a couple of Starbuck’s travel mugs. The insulating properties are *fierce* – making tea in one, with boiling water, means it will be at least half an hour before it’s cooled enough to drink.
(These are the coke-bottle-shaped mugs, which tend to be unstable, so I set them in something with a broader base.)
REI has stainless-steel mugs that are also pretty good, and more traditionally mug-shaped.
Glad the keyboard has been a success! 😆
I have OXO mugs which also keep liquids really HOT or COLD. (I don’t even use ice for my cold drinks.) They are costly but worth it particularly in the car as they seal.
At home I still use my pottery mugs (always testing) but they rest on a space on the plant shelf tray next to my table. On the other hand I do love my bamboo pots in front of the window on the comp table.
My workspace is a nook near the window, and I’ve been using the windowsill to set things on, with a cheap little Collections Inc table to hold oddments and the tv remote. The original cup (Marvin) tipped off the windowsill, hit the table and upended onto the new computer, the chair, and the floor. So nice.
Now we have a cup the butt of which fits the sill with room to spare.
The main difference between 110 VAC and 220 is that the
110 sine wave is smooth and rounded, but the 220 has
big saw teeth to hurt you with. Having worked with electricity
for many years I have had a chance to feel them all and never
liked being bit. That flash you saw was in your brains
visual center. Electricity is a lot more dangerous than people
think and its worst characteristic is that before you realize
you made a mistake it is already too late.
BTW for the humour impaired, I know what a 220 Sine wave looks
like and what it feels like, that you’ll never forget (if you live.)
We do have some 220 stuff, two rooms away on a different system. Had I “needed” one of those with water in the floor I would have made the Facility Coordinator do it or we’d have had a discussion about the word “need” and whether it was actually the right word at the right time.
Zero interest in getting fried.
I did not see this myself, but heard about it from some reliable coworkers. They would go swim at lunch for some exercise, but couldn’t one day because they were working on the lights over the pool. While standing on a metal ladder. That was in the middle of the pool. And yes, the pool still had water in it. They decided to just hit the treadmill instead.
mmm. Kludge orbital in 3–2–1…
That’s kind of surprising, since metal ladders became a
no no for electrical work years ago. The new ones were not
greeted with cries of joy. I had a 12 footer that claimed to be
fiberglass but felt like it had a lead core, having to put it
over your head to get it onto the truck ladder rack, was
far too much exercise unless you loaded up on breakfast.
What I have found quite surprising over the years is that the
attrition rate for humans seems far too low for the behaviors
you see. The metal ladder in a pool is a classic example.
Technology tends to spawn off more dangerous gadgetry all the
time for people to play with too.
http://media.knuttz.net/0701/safety_first_2/safety_first_004.jpg (dude on ladder in water) this is probably the same picture I came across on the safetycenter.navy.mil photo archive years ago. Navy has an archive of images like this, I think I saw this photo there first as well (kid with head stuck in chair) http://biomesblog.typepad.com/the_biomes_blog/files/chair.jpg but these have both probably aged off now.
SSC: I married a man who is called “Kludge” but who refuses to buy any tools from Harbor Freight.
Computer speed tips – add memory, run CCleaner (wonderful, wonderful tool), maybe reinstall Windows (but that involves a higher level of hassle).
The first two changes can be night and day.