Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!utah-gr!uplherc!sp7040!sbc From: sbc@sp7040.UUCP (Stephen Carroll) Newsgroups: comp.misc Subject: Re: computer follies Summary: i have a similar story Message-ID: <501@sp7040.UUCP> Date: 19 Sep 88 17:54:29 GMT References: <1109@idec.stc.co.uk> Organization: Unisys, Salt Lake City, UT Lines: 64 In article <1109@idec.stc.co.uk>, rob@idec.stc.co.uk (P.Robinson) writes: > > (various disc-disaster stories) > > ... > > That reminds me of the time , a few years ago when I left home with my 5" > master floppy in my pocket. Suddenly a gust of wind blew it into the road > where it was run over by a passing millitary parade and it ended up in a > patch of quick-drying cement. > > [ Lot's of incredible stuff deleted... ] > > Imagine my surprise when it worked! all my files were readable, except for > the ones stored in the bits I cut off to make it fit the drive. > > This really happened. I concluded that it only went to show. > > Has this happened to anyone else? Well, not exactly with disk drives, but I was once travelling to middle Florida to demonstrate a new portable computer system to a large company there. As our plane was descending for landing at the local airport, the door blew off the luggage compartment at the bottom of the plane, and several pieces of luggage fell out, my computer system included. Well, imagine my chagrin, when upon landing, we are informed of the unfortunate incident. Because billions of dollars depended on my presentation, now just 45 minutes away, I quickly set about retrieving the remains of my system. I quickly gained hope of finding it in one piece when I found out that the land surrounding the airport was all swamp land, with lots of marshy bogs to cushion the landing of my equipment. Well, needless to say, I quickly chartered an airboat and set out in the general direction of the planes heading into the airport. Fortunately, my company had built some good equipment, not the least of which included a little miniature black box on the motherboard which emitted a strong homing signal when dropped from heights. After only 15 minutes, we located the machine, only to find an alligator using it for a teething ring. Well my guide was well experienced with this sort of thing and quickly seduced the alligator into dropping the computer for something better. He was a Scottsman who had raised sheep in a previous lifetime. (That's another story though.) Well, to make a short story longer, I rushed to my appointment. I plopped my mud stained, water logged machine on the desk set up for me and quickly plugged it in. I was hoping that the internal fan would quickly dry out the master cpu in the 22 seconds before my demonstration was to start. Well, after a few sparks and a couple whisps of smoke, the machine actually powered up. Can you believe it?!?! Then reaching into my back pocket for the boot floppy, I almost lost my shorts! That darn alligator had lifted it while I had my back turned!!! Well, now used to thinking on my feet, I borrowed a floppy from someone there, and using my handy-dandy spy decoder ring and pocket power magnet, quickly magnetized the floppy to contain the proper boot sequence for my machine. I then demonstrated the internetworking and interoffice capabilities of my machine, and you know what, these guys actually applauded. It was great! Not only did they buy billions of dollars worth of equipment from me, but they didn't even bill me for bumping the company presidents Ferrari with my double parked airboat!! Has this ever happened to anyone else? Please email, as I try not to use my computer unless absolutely necessary. I'll post any responses if there is enough interest.....