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From: tjpadula@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Thomas John Padula)
Newsgroups: rec.humor,rec.humor.d,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Looking for Computer Folklore
Summary: How to destroy an IBM from software
Keywords: IBM PC smoke sparks boom
Message-ID: <6639@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 25 Feb 89 03:33:38 GMT
References: <7143@pyr.gatech.EDU> <4744@sfsup.UUCP> <2887@sybase.sybase.com> <15033@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: tjpadula@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Thomas John Padula)
Followup-To: rec.humor
Distribution: usa
Organization: Princeton University, NJ, Electronic Music Romper Room
Lines: 37


	I originally sent this to whoever it was who called for Computer
Folklore stories, but I'm not sure if he/she ever got it. To whit:

	My brother goes to Caltech. Awhile ago he told me of a student there
who had come up with a way to physically destroy an IBM PC from
software. This student told Big Blue about it, and they just couldn't
resist.
	They made him an offer- they would supply an IBM PC for him to
destroy in their presence. If he was successful, he would tell them how
he did it, and they'd give him a free (functioning) IBM.
	Well, the appointed day came, and so did IBM. They set up their
machine on a table and sat down to watch. The student quietly inserted a
disk and turned the machine on, then sat down. After the memory check,
the computer loaded the program from disk. The drive kept running for a
while. Soon the machine started to shake, then shake violently, and
would have walked itself off the table had the power supply not shut
down. It was quite dead and emitting that funny burnt-resistor smell.
The IBM reps checked it and declared it irreppairable.
	My brother's friend now has a nice IBM PC he uses for terminal
emulation, and support for his plants.

	This is how it worked- the program simply sped up and slowed down
the disk drive until it found the resonant frequency of the case of he
machine. The case slowly started to resonate, and soon the whole machine
would be shaking. This would cause the cards and other innards to flex,
and contacts would be made and broken, destroying chips left and right.
Eventually something would short and the power supply would go. Pretty
effective, tho it did take a while. 

	Remember kids, don't try this at home. We're professionals here. :)

"I keep trying to think but nothing happens..."
tjpadula@phoenix.Princeton.EDU     Thomas J. Padula
tjpadula@winnie.Princeton.EDU      212 Foulke Hall
princeton!phoenix!tjpadula         Princeton University, NJ 08544
tjpadula@phoenix.BITNET            609-734-7411