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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihlpg!tainter
From: tainter@ihlpg.UUCP (Tainter)
Newsgroups: net.rumor
Subject: Re: Computer Horror Story
Message-ID: <1738@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Mar-86 13:04:31 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1738
Posted: Thu Mar 27 13:04:31 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 01:09:42 EST
References: <706@ihlpl.UUCP> <649@mmm.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27

> In article <706@ihlpl.UUCP> runyan@ihlpl.UUCP (Runyan) writes:
> >My best friend, Dan use to work for a computer store as a techincian.
> >He was called into a bank that had an AT that twice a day would crash.
> >They had called in the whole board of directors and administrators,
> >to discuss what kind of alternate solutions they could come up with.
> >After about an hour of discussing all the possiblilities, one little
> >elderly man to the side spoke up.  'I'm not very techinically oriented,
> >but could the Xray machine in the next room have anything to due with
> >the problem.'  Dan simply burst out laughing, while all the stuff 
> >shirts sat and stared.  It seems they xray all the incoming mail, and
> >the xray machine was behind a plaster wall from the computer (no 
> >shielding at all).  The mail of course came twice a day, which happened
> >to correspond to the times it crashed.
> >
> >Keep up the good horror stories.
> >
> >Mike Runyan
> 
> 	Why would the X-ray machine make the computer crash? If there were
> x-rays getting through, I would think the medical problems would be big
> enough that the bank had better hire a good lawyer to prepare for the
> computer operators' lawsuits.
> 					--MKR
The legal 'safe' level of x-ray leakage from such a device is quite high
enough to disturb bits in memories.  Not to mention power surges from such
a device.  The comp op probably has no case.
--j.a.tainter