Henrik Herranen wrote:
> Wesley Struebing <strueb@carpedementem.org> writes:
> > Well, when you start writing day-and-night again, just DON'T position
> > yourself near 40 gazillion volts of electricity!
>
> I find JMS' story of the transformer electrical fields in Script
> Book 9 somewhat curious. While I do believe that everything he says
> is true from his point of view, I just wonder why he doesn't mention
> one of the basic symptoms that should happen when using a CRT
> computer display in the presence of a truly strong low-frequency
> electromagnetical field: the monitor should flicker enough to be
> practically unreadable!
>
> In 1990, I worked for 8 months at a paper mill. There, they had
> really unbelievably strong electrical motors, munching several
> megawatts of power. The electrical fields of these beasts would
> make any computer monitor in the whole building unusable (up to
> a distance of 30 meters/yards from the machines), unless the
> CRTs were synced to the mains frequency or if they were
> electrically shielded (big, ugly, metallic boxes). If not, the
> text would flicker ten to twenty times a second by approximately
> the width of one character - making text quite unreadable. With
> newer LCD technology this wouldn't be a problem, but at the time
> CRTs (Cathode Ray Tube) was the only technology available.
>
> It is of course remotely possible that the computer JMS used was
> using a 60 Hz refresh rate (which is the same as the mains frequency
> in the United States). In this case, text would be bent to a
> wave-like pattern that would be almost stationary, and which wouldn't
> be that noticeable. However, if the frequencies were not the same
> (in the late '90's already many computers were using higher
> refresh rates between 70-75 Hz), it should really look bad if there
> was a significant electromagnetical field.
>
> Sorry if I am being dull. It's just that I think of these things in
> engineer terms and reading the book earlier this week made me wonder.
>

It wasn't unreadable, but it was constantly riddled with lines and
nonsense. I always assumed it was the computer cable or interface.

Speaking of which...I am now well and duly fucked. My main desktop
just died today, out of nowhere. I left it for 10 minutes, came back
to see a black screen and a warning that the drive had exceeded RAID
specifications...and the drive was making not just tick-tick noises,
but *clanging* sounds, which makes me suspect that the arm on the hard
drive has gone off, and there's physical damage. Anyone with
solutions, let me know, but I suspect it's dead. I'm going to go to
somebody to try and recover the data (suggestions?), meanwhile I've
ordered a new system from Dell, but it won't be here until the 3rd,
unfortunately. So I'm working off my laptop for the foreseeables.

jms