I'm sitting there staring at this improbable display when I smell something burning.

It occurs to me, only a couple of seconds after I would have been killed if this were an actual emergency, that I shouldn't continue to use that monitor until I ascertain why it is on fire. So I turn off the power to the monitor and make ready to take any other necessary measures.

My initial thought (from the smell) was that one of the capacitors must have blown, and further investigation revealed this to be the case. Of course I knew, in theory, that these capacitors were prone to such failure. But it looked like something out of bad Sci-Fi. Or, to put in in the characteristically ironic idiom of anime, "this isn't an anime, you know." I'll have to figure out how to get Antonio Bandaras to say that with a straight face when this shocking incident of my true life is portrayed in film.

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I was at work one day and walked past an old dot matrix printer to see flames shooting out from the top. I summoned the MIS manager and inquired, "Is it SUPPOSED to do this?"

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Actually, it was. It's quite common for networked devices to revert to older protocols when current protocols aren't working. In this case, it went back to smoke signals.

Poor Survivor, I know what it's like to find something you're using suddenly just die, or just begin to smoke for no unkown reason.

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Elmo started twitching and smoke came pouring out the top of his head.

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Too funny!! What a good image to give children to convince them: Don't be a grouch... look what getting hot with anger will do to you!!

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If you're not an electrician, Survivor

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I'm going to have to have Elmo on fire in my next LH challenge.

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I suspect he was wise enough to unplug it first. It doesn't take an electrician, just somebody who knows what they are doing. V=IR.

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the mere term capacitor should suggest capacity and that capacity is to stock away excess amps so that the current is better regulted

"Like hell," I would reply. "Water doesn't kill you when you touch it."

I'd suggest keeping a healthy distance away from your monitor, Survivor ... and a fire extinguisher handy.

CRT's do have enough capacitance at voltage to give the incautious a nasty jolt, even if you unplug them. But I was more worried about doing further damage to my monitor than about getting a little shock. I find the x-ray emission warning more frightening than the thought of taking a few dozen microfarads at 200 volts. Still, replacing a capacitor isn't going to compromise the radiation shielding. I hope.

But I had never seen a computer device go all cartoony on me before. It has just never happened. That totally freaked me out, like...if you drank some soda and a bunch of hot dancers jumped out of nowhere and burst into song. I was like, "okay, this has to be a hidden camera dealy." It was too surreal.

And for you people that need multi-gig flash drives to back up your writing...you go, girl!

Er, spaceman...person.

It was kinda like that high-pitched noise you hear when you switch on your TV, until a program's sound drowns it out and you lose interest. Only this one kept building, and building. It sounded like a detonator spinning up in some 'gahhh...nuclear weapons in the hands of naughty people' film.

At about the same time I decided to duck and cover beneath my kitchen table, the whine terminated in an audible pop-fizzle, followed by scittering sounds like a mouse trapped in a coffee can. Then everything went silent. As I cautiously approached, plauged by thoughts of strategically placing aluminum foil over...uh...strategic places to shield myself from whatever my microwave was autonomously doing, all the lights went out. My computer (with a damn good story beginning that I hadn't saved yet, before the days of autorecover) and all other electronics also shut off.

The microwave had tripped the breaker. To this day, I don't know what happened...the electrician I called was also at a loss (he mumbled something about the magnetron going up). In any case, I didn't take a chance on the microwave being safe for future use. The thing went straight to the dump. I miss it...'twas a bloody nice microwave. Had the perfect popcorn setting, too. Any idea how hard it is to find a microwave with a properly programmed popcorn button?

*sigh*

So, yeah...technology. Can't live with it, can't live without it (though we all seem to attempt the balancing act, no?).

Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
-Anonymous

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Now that multiple Gigabyte flash drives are getting reasonably priced,

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Spaceman, clearly you've never been shopping in Iceland. The phrase "reasonably priced" just doesn't exist here.

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clearly you've never been shopping in Iceland

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Details.

*crickets*

Never mind.

The second time was about, oh, six or seven years ago. That one was mine and under warranty still, so I called the manufacturer's help line and was immediately told that yes, sometimes they emit smoke, but never actual flames. Uh, no, I saw actual yellow, orange, and red flamage. Not just smoke. They didn't believe me. Until I delivered the monitor, they took it apart, and found all the scorch marks.

My hubby likes the scene is Office Space when they take was it the copier? to a field and beat it to 'death'?

Electronics fail--all the time. We have been through probably twenty PC's in 9 years. Makes ya wonder, huh?

About being grounded...that doesn't work for playing with a high voltage/capacitance device, and is actually very dangerous. See, by grounding with one hand and poking with the other, you create a path that goes right through where? Your heart. What would otherwise just be a nasty jolt becomes a potentially fibrillation inducing impulse.

Grounding is for working with delicate low voltage systems, so that you don't damage them with small electrical discharges. If there is a risk of the electronics hurting you, then you don't want to be grounded. Particularly through your hand. You can attach a grounding wire to whatever tool you use for prodding, and there will be almost no risk to you even if you blow the circuit. But do not try grounding high voltages through your own flesh, it will hurt you.

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If you want, I can pick up a gig drive at Fry's Electronics and mail it to you.

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Seeing Oscar's cynicism unrestrained would be worth the effort by itself.

And what the heck is up with taking away Cookie Monster's cookies? I heard this disturbing rumor from my little cousin last week, and have been waiting for an opportunity to rant about it.

Ever since my high school physics teacher was showing us the power of a capacitor and he accidentally arc-welded his screwdriver to the contacts, I have been hesitant to go near them. He had so many awesome real-life encounters with physics, particularly as a boy growing up in Southern Utah. The wood-propeller driven truck, for instance. They mounted a motor on the truck bed and attached a propeller made of 2x4s. Then they fired it up, and almost immediately lost a blade of the propeller. The out of balance load vibrated the truck so bad the springs broke.

I do realize that the intervention of two unrelated posts would make my response seem like a non sequitur, but that's life.

The problem is that when you have to explain the punchline, the joke isn't quite as funny. By extension, when you try to explain the punchline because you're not sure that everyone gets it, that also saps some of the humor, it makes the joke seem stilted and contrived.

I'd go for a Muppet version of Lost if it meant seeing Telly monster's legs crushed by a steel door. I tell you, people try to get me to watch these shows and I finally do and such horrible things happen on them. But seeing the guys legs get crushed was not as bad as that guy who brought "Bullet ball" to American Inventor.