Wednesday 3 October 2007

A laptop, a coffee, and disaster recovery

John Locke : "Last week, my laptop died a sudden spectacular death-by-drowning, as a full cup of coffee poured into its keyboard. It emitted a pop sound, and the screen and the power shut off.

What would your reaction be? Mine was to immediately unplug the power cord and remove the battery. Then I took it over to the sink and poured out the coffee. Remembering tales of people flushing keyboards with water, I ran some fresh water over the keys and then set to work. I removed the keyboard, the palm rest, a few of the inner cards, and let it sit without power for several hours. Apparently, not long enough.

Later that day, anxious to find out whether it was really dead or just comatose, I plugged it back in, crossed my fingers, and pressed the power button. The power light came on, I heard the fan start, and for a second or two, I was hopeful. But then... another pop, and it was dead. No further cleaning, drying, or care could resuscitate it over the next few days, so it’s currently back at the IBM factory going through open-heart surgery, if not a total replacement"

For a good reality check for your disaster recovery strategies,and handy suggestions Read On

9 comments:

Syra said...

Once I spilt mango juice on my keyboard, it worked fine but the key pad became sticky. I unplugged it to clean it properly and to my surprise a heap of chocolate and crisp crumbs came out of it.

Ethereal said...

This happened once with that old 14" inch TV in my room. We had to fix the satellite receiver so we took it out on the roof and then when we were done nobody brought it in. And overnight it rained :p Can you believe TV soaking in the rain while me and my bro slept without any worries. So after a couple of days we brought it in and left it there to let it dry off for about a month. And then we switched it on and now it runs better than ever :)

Syra said...

goodness gracious!
the t.v worked fine!!!
no kidding? =)
lolz..thank God you finally realized that you are missing a t.v from your room. thora parhai kay baray may kum socha karo :p
there was this ancient black n white t.v at my granny's place...to make it work you had to give it a few slaps :D
btw what does ethereal mean?

Ethereal said...

Slaps remind me, I have an ancient monitor that is probably more than 12 years old. On-screen tint changes when you slap it. Yellowish, pinkish, greenish. Have to slap it a few times to get the colour of my choice :)

Ethereal is something airy, ghostly or subtle. Can be used an alternative for virtual.

Elaboration: When I was making my orkut account I couldn't create it with my name so I used the first thing that came to my mind "Infinity", an awesome weapon in an online RPG game I used to play. The weapon was extra deadly due to its 'ethereal' characteristic, hence, called ethereal infinity. You can see it here[1].

[1]http://www.randyrun.com/Diablo-2/USEast-Ladder/Weapons/Polearms/Infinity-Cryptic-Axe-Ethereal-340-ED::20717.html

Syra said...

o kewl!
ethereal infinity--> wicked
try Facebook, i find it better than orkut. It offers more privacy.With an add in Orkut can be accessed via Facebook.

Ethereal said...

I joined orkut because of our batch community. I tried Facebook and as I'm not the socializing sort it was more boring than orkut.

Wicked, you bet! It also entitles you the status of an 1337 player. Comparable to someone owning a ferrari or Mclaren.

Ethereal said...

Another interesting thing about electronics stuff, especially computers is that whenever you want an upgrade you push your device to a meltdown so that it breaks down and you can have a valid excuse to ask your Mom for the latest model.

* Now where are those overclocking controls for my video card * -> _wicked_grin_

Syra said...

What's a 1337 player?

Ethereal said...

That's hacker jargon for 'elite'. Also hacker = hex0r (note the 'hex'). They're known for disassembling binaries and working with hex files.