Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Leave it on?  Or once a week?
Message-ID: <10378@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 21 Feb 90 06:44:25 GMT
References: <7715@tank.uchicago.edu>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 28

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. 
>
>The problem is this: when you leave in the morning, it's not always possible to
>predice whether a thunderstorm will occur that day.  If it does, and if you've
>left your Mac/HD plugged in and running, you could be in trouble.

Good point.  A similar issue for those of us in seismically active
areas is earthquakes.  Fortunately, they usually involve mostly
side-to-side movement, but a rough up-and-down shake could cause a head
crash.  Both my hard disks were turned on, but not in use, at 5:04PM on
the day of the World Series, and they made it through OK -- but with no
power, I couldn't tell for a few days, and since then I've been pretty
fastidious about shutting the equipment down while it's inactive.
(Thank "Bob" for automatically parking heads!)

Incidentally, this is also a reason to keep your hard disk horizontal.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Now hear a plain fact: Swedenborg has not written one new truth: Now hear
  another: he has written all the old falshoods.
 And now hear the reason.  He conversed with Angels who are all religious, &
  conversed not with Devils who all hate religion..."
    - Blake, "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell"