The article was (perhaps) the author's regular column, and was titled something like When God Calls Collect. The opening paragraph recalled a Star Trek episode in which Spock saves the Enterprise by some engineering cross-wiring that worked, but at the cost of causing severe damage to "Engineering" and (perhaps) nearly causing the Enterprise to incandesce. On finding out what Spock did, Scotty exclaims, "Spock! Dinna ye know, ye canna plug a 15-ampere tap inta the side of God!"
The author then goes on to detail just what happened when God made "a collect call" to his house—and home network (and this when these were comparatively rare)—via a nearby lightning strike. The surge came through his son's computer, scrambling the CMOS, messed up (but not fatally) an early game console of some sort (also in his son's room?), then shot through the network and phone lines to the rest of the house. A telephone was apparently melted beyond the experience of a telephone repairman (memory may fail me here). The author's wife's computer was lightly damaged, and a more important computer was brutally savaged by the electric surge. A FAX machine was toasted (or at least warmed to taste), this device was damaged, this was messed up, and the cost of the lightning strike continued to rise.
In a final detail of the strike's effects, the author notes with understatement that "Oh, yes, the microVAX in the study reported that a number of network nodes were no longer available."
Does anybody remember this article, or (better) have a pointer to it somewhere?
Posted by ronlusk at July 31, 2006 11:57 AM