Feeling real grumpy !
George Arseneault
george_arseneault2001 at yahoo.com
Tue Nov 21 18:05:24 UTC 2006
--- Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> On Mon, 2006-11-20 at 10:49 -0800, George Arseneault
> wrote:
> > Actually 'real' debugging was when they ran
> distilled
> > water over the circuits to remove the dead bugs.
> (Back
> > when computers took up their own building)
>
> Hmm, just water?
>
> It's years since I've actually seen a real
> mainframe, though this was a
> transistorised one. Great big metal cabinets, where
> you opened up the
> doors to a rat's nest of wire-wrap, and it used
> water-cooling through
> the doors as well as the rest of the cabinet.
Theoretically, pure water does *not* conduct
electricity. It's the other particles (ions,
whatever) that allow it to conduct. So, it *should*
be safe to run the water over running circuits.
Of course, any contaminants (oil, grease, dust,
whatever) *could* cause a short-circuit.
But, I read somewhere that they did precisely that,
long ago. And, that the reason we call the
abnormal/strange occurrences in programs, bugs, is
that they were often caused by bugs, rodents, etc.
shorting out or chewing through the computer's circuits
____________________________________________________________________________________
Sponsored Link
Mortgage rates near 39yr lows. $510k for $1,698/mo.
Calculate new payment! www.LowerMyBills.com/lre
More information about the users
mailing list