Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!texsun!texbell!swbatl!george
From: george@swbatl.UUCP (6544)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Leave it on?  Or once a week?
Message-ID: <1189@swbatl.UUCP>
Date: 20 Feb 90 20:47:09 GMT
References: <7715@tank.uchicago.edu>
Reply-To: george@swbatl.UUCP (George Nincehelser 5-6544)
Organization: Southwestern Bell Tele. Co. - Advanced Technology Lab - St. Louis
Lines: 35

In article <7715@tank.uchicago.edu> gft_robert@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:
>One problem with leaving your computer equipment on over long periods of time
>that no one's mentioned is: lightning strikes.  Even a surge protector won't
>protect against lightning hitting power lines.  I always unplug my stuff during
>and before lightning storms. 
>

Is it really worthwhile to unplug everything when a thunderstorm
approaches?  In my experience, when lightning strikes close by, my
electronic stuff is the least of my worries.
 
Once my house took a direct lightning hit.  It blew up the chimney and
started a fire in the kitchen.  The kicker is that the current CAME OUT
OF AN UNUSED ELECTRICAL OUTLET and set the bare formica counter top
aflame.  (Guess if I had something plugged in it might have held the
charge back :-).  I was also confronted by some ball lightning which
discharged itself via my telephone's ringer coils.  What a melted mess.
My Apple ][ and 2 TVs kept working afterwards, however.

My inlaws had their house hit recently.  Everything electronic was brain
dead in this case, but my inlaws were more worried about the smoke 
(luckily there was no flame) coming from the hit sight.

In both cases, fire seemed to be the biggest worry.  Insurance paid for
all damages in both cases.  So for other than important data (which you
should have backed up and stored off-sight ;-) is it really worth the
effort to unplug everything?  It seems like a false sense of security
to me.  (Yep, that litnin' sure burned my house.  Glad my 'puter was
unpluged!)

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