🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <87ybiq4...@tzadkiel.efn.org><4vsa8v$c...@news.usit.net> <4v, 
Steve VanDevender <ste...@efn.org> writes:

>tph@longhorn.uucp (Tom Harrington) writes:
>
>> Ray Depew (r...@fc.hp.com) wrote:
>>
>> : I'm not sure where I live, but I'll ask anyway:  do you by any chance
>> : cross the equator on your drive to work?
>>
>> Oh, THAT'S RIGHT!  Hard drives and floppy drives spin the other way
>> south of the equator!  A side-effect of this is that they can't be
>> used *at* the equator, because they don't spin at all.  You've also
>> got to watch out if you get one close to the poles, because the spin
>> velocity increases toward infinity (that's why they're called "poles",
>> because if you plot spin velocity vs. latitude, the plot has a
>> pole at +90 and -90 degrees).  Usually the drives break apart
>> before you get to the pole; if you ever got one all the way there,
>> it would implode on itself and create a black hole.
>>
>> I believe this is becuase of the Coriolis effect.
>
>You wouldn't believe the peak transfer rates you get on disks in the
>Yukon.
>
>Disk units used in space use a full track buffer and special logic to
>reverse the bits in the track buffer when in the hemisphere opposite the
>one of launch.  It's why space-rated computers are so expensive.

What???  The reason space-rated computers are so expensive is because they have 
to operate in low atmospheric conditions and be capable of withstanding a huge 
range of temperatures, from near freezing to near boiling.  This whole coriolis 
effect idea sounds like a varient of the "water vortex goes clockwise north of 
the equator" hoopla.

Dennis