This is off topic, but out of the goodness of my heart I share my
experience, perhaps to save someone else the aggravation -- although
perhaps everyone but me knew it already.
Sunday afternoon we had a sudden thunder squall here. I'd left my computer
in "sleep" mode. When next I tried to dial up, the modem was non-working,
fried it turned out.
On Monday, after 2 hours of near-stroke experience talking to sadistic
computers on telephone menus (did you ever scream at a robot?), I got
through to repair (contracted to Kodak, BTW), hardware still on warranty,
field rep arrived next day, today, and replaced internal modem.
I learned & surmised the following: When I bought my surge protector in
1986, modems & lightning thereto were not on the menu. A new kind of surge
protector now protects against lightning through the telephone line, costs
about $20. And in the misery-loves-company department: the rep told me
he'd had four other calls, same problem, same thunderstorm.
It also seems that even had I left the computer on hard shutdown, the
lightning would still have arrived via the telephone line, which is
powered independently. Pending purchase of the new improved surge
protector, with thunder storms predicted for the weekend, I shall try to
remember to unplug the phone line to the CPU before I go hide under the
bed.
As for the higher meaning of this incident: an e-friend of mine had been
away for a while & upon his return read the whole of the S/he-bang
exchange, upon which he commented, "You do attract lightning: keep up the
good work." Hmmmmmmm.... Thanks.
And on personal computers generally, there's a most interesting article in
today's NY Times (Tues. June 24, section C), perhaps available on the
Web...?
A profile of Michael L. Dertouzos of MIT, "Unlikely Warrior Leads the
Charge for Simpler PC," by James Gorman. Highly recommended.
cheers,
Judy