Re: Re: Weather Was: Summer Plans
By: Daryl Stout to Damon A. Getsman on Wed Sep 30 2015 10:47:24

I'm running Windows 7 32-bit on the BBS now. An older laptop, with XP, is basically "AC power only", because the battery died, and you can't get a replacement for it. Plus, it's only used for the Magic Jack voice mail...which would not work on a newer laptop with Windows 7 32-bit on

it.

But, the power adapter for that laptop got warm awfully fast...so, I'll just use that one for ham radio demos, etc. An older desktop, with

Windows

XP, has been shut down since April, as the hard drive would not boot up. I'm considering donating it to a local PC shop for parts. And, I bought a used laptop with Windows Vista Home Basic, for use with the Magic Jack Plus, for a fax line.

If you have a FreeGeek around that might be a good place to go with it, and/or to look for related batteries and equipment if you decide to salvage it.
I've got a pretty ancient laptop, too, which I thought would be utterly unfeasible to save, but I ended up finding batteries for it on newegg, I think it was. Got one on order right now so that I can hopefully get out and do some
work out of the house instead of being in here day and night.
My own BBS machine runs on a PPro class dual-core machine with 2GB. Older piece of hardware, standard mini-tower size. Everything seems to be living fairly well on it; it's not such a bad computer for something that I picked up from US government surplus many years ago here. I do a few other things on it as well; basically dealing with communications that I want handled from a more secure server than I trust linux or windows to be.

As for lightning, one does not argue with it...or they die trying. :P

Each

bolt is 5 miles long, with 300,000 volts and 30,000 amps of electricity, can strike as much as 20 miles from the parent thunderstorm (a bolt from the blue), and is 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit...5 times hotter than the sun's surface. And, speaking of weather, I'm anxiously watching Hurricane Joaquin...which could threaten the Carolinas to New England soon...the Bahamas will feel his wrath on Thursday.

I wasn't aware of that bit about the bolts out of the blue. That's pretty interesting and I think it actually explains something that I experienced once when I was a kid. There was violent weather about, but in a break in it I had an experience with a huge flash out of nowhere that literally stunned me for a good 15-20 seconds. I was on a hillside in one of the tallest points in Bismarck, ND, when it happened. No idea that there was any electrical activity
going on at all, though afterwards I remember feeling distinctly odd. It was so close that I never really 'saw' it, it was more of just a blinding flash that I couldn't locate the source of.

-D
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