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On Thu, 6 Jan 2005, Elliotte Harold wrote:
> Benjamin Franz wrote:
>
>
>> Just because it doesn't have any 'moving parts' doesn't mean it doesn't
>> wear out: EVERYTHING wears out sooner or later.
>
> Yes, but there's a point at which a quantitative difference becomes a
> qualitative one; and I think the orders of magnitude difference between a
> computer wearing out due to cosmic rays and thermal fatigue and a car engine
> wearing out due to mechanical friction crosses that line.
The difference is only about 1 order of magnitude in my experience. Not
enough to call it a qualitative difference.
I was an electronics tech with the US Navy for several years in addition
to having been in the computer field for 25 years: Believe me when I say
electronics fail. A lot. My _job_ was repairing failed electronics.
Good maintenance and operational practices help a lot, but even when you
do everything right, electronics break. If we were speaking face-to-face I
could go on for more than an hour just listing the electronics failures
I've seen in the last 25 years. Everything from transistor failures to
having a pair of 25-foot HF antennas literally go up in flames due to an
electronic component failure (a shorted capacitor).
The most recent was just last week. I plugged a retail 800VA APC UPS (I've
had it about 8 months, well treated, not abused or overloaded) in and
turned it on and something (probably a capacitor) literally _blew up_
inside with a loud double bang 5 to 10 seconds later. Fortunately I hadn't
yet turned on the computer attached to it. It was the second UPS I've had
blow up after being turned on (the first was while I was in the Navy about
12 years ago).
--
Benjamin Franz
"All right, where is the answer? The battle of wits has begun.
It ends when you click and we both serve pages - and find out who is right,
and who is slashdotted." - David Brandt
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