The joys of working at home, #928

[jducoeur]

Note to self: the interaction of cats and power switches can be unfortunate. I really need a new power strip, that's not quite so easy for someone chasing a ball to turn off.

(OTOH, the nice thing about using a laptop as my primary dev machine is that I didn't actually lose anything...)

Comments

Ack!

[metageek.livejournal.com]

I don't recognize the brand name, but I know that most cheap surge protectors are basically ablative shielding. Unless you know for certain that yours is designed to be fail-safe ("if I can't protect you, I won't let any power through"), you should probably relabel it "extension cord".

My current favorite style of power thingie is an APC UPS whose off switch is a recessed button. It's easy to push on purpose, but hard by accident.

Re: Ack!

[jducoeur]

I don't recognize the brand name

Product name, actually. Damned if I remember the actual brand, but they were the first really serious surge suppressors aimed at home geeks, back in the 80's. The product line was the Emerald, Ruby and Diamond, IIRC. And yes, the Emerald was low-end, although still quite good for its time. (It was intended for computer equipment in the days when that meant major money.)

Re: Ack!

[metageek.livejournal.com]

That does sound better. However, consider this: low-grade power spikes do happen fairly often, and degrade your surge protector over time. So, if you're lucky, and it's fail-safe, then someday it will just spontaneously stop letting power through at all. Me, I'd start using it a clock-radio or something. :-)