Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Re: Nathan's PAD 26/10/2008: my kingdom

Subject: [OM] Re: Nathan's PAD 26/10/2008: my kingdom
From: "Ken Norton" <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 10:04:13 -0600
 >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


==============================================
List usage info:     http://www.zuikoholic.com
List nannies:        olympusadmin@xxxxxxxxxx
==============================================

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz