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Article #645Re: Floppy Disk / Toilet Flushing
From: tur... James Turner
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1989 23:43
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 1989 23:43
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2636 bytes
a...@grendal.Sun.COM (Andrew MacRae) writes: >While with Xerox AI, I heard about the following bug report... >It seems that an AI researcher had one of the Xerox 1108 LISP machines >at his cabin up in the mountains. His cabin was isolated and he used >a generator to provide electricity. The 1108 in general was hardy enough >to run off of the generator, but the eight inch floppy drive was sensitive >to power fluctuations. The result was that the floppy would report data >errors if used right after the cabin's toilet had been flushed as the >water pump would kick in, lowering the amount of power available to the >LISP machine. (The hard drive didn't seem to be affected.) >Thus an official bug report was created and entered... "Floppy disk drive >reports errors when toilet is flushed." > Andrew MacRae Hi Andy! I got to deinstall that machine (it was a loaner), and it really was in an isolated spot. Little farmhouse sitting at the top of a mountain in NH. The day I pulled it out, the owner wasn't there and the only other occupant of the farm refused to help me carry it because of a bad back (if you've ever tried to lift an 1108, you know why he was hesitant). Adding to the fun was the fact that the ground was extremely muddy so I couldn't wheel it out to my car. Getting it in the trunk was a real truss-buster... And then there was the time I had to help carry an 1108 up a spiral staircase... ******************************************************************************* * James M. Turner * Great moments in Aviation #4: * * System Engineer, Northeast Region * Controller Ray Darr breaks the all time * * Solbourne Computer, Inc. * record when he simultaneously vectors * * * 94 targets through the New York TCA. * * tur...@Soleast.Solbourne.COM * He is relieved from his shift when he * * (617) 273-3313 * orders a seagull to squawk 1200 * *******************************************************************************
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Path: mbox-mo1.pugleaf.net!gmdzi!unido!mcsun!uunet!samsung!soleast!turner From: tur...@soleast.Solbourne.COM (James Turner) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Floppy Disk / Toilet Flushing Message-ID: <58@soleast.Solbourne.COM> Date: 26 Dec 89 23:43:38 GMT References: <240@sixhub.UUCP> <129613@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> Distribution: alt Organization: Solbourne Computer, Burlington, MA Lines: 42 Posted: Wed Dec 27 00:43:38 1989 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit