[LAD] [Somewhat OT] Strange failure mode of a PC

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 10:07:28PM +0100, Folderol wrote:

> On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 22:46:01 +0200
> fons at kokkinizita.net wrote:
> 
> > Still it's quite sobering that this cheap 0.30 Euro thing
> > was capable of bringing down a 1600 Euro workstation...  
> > Who would suspect a switch to fail in this way ?
> > 
> > Ciao,
> 
> Not the least bit surprised. In my industry crappy membrane switches
> bring £3,000,000 printing presses to a halt :(

Membrane switches should be banned from industrial equipment
by law (health and safety regulations come to mind). Any switch
used in such an environment should require a force of at least
10 N to operate it, and be designed to survice being hit by a 
20 pound hammer. 

> Doesn't help that operators tend to poke them with allen keys,
> screwdrivers, pens or whatever else they may happen to have in their
> hand at the time.

The strange thing about that PC power switch is that it is
almost never used. The rendering machines wake up by a LAN
message from the master, and shutdown by remote control as
well. They are never touched.

Ciao,

-- 
Je veux que la mort me trouve plantant mes choux, mais
nonchalant d’elle, et encore plus de mon jardin imparfait.
(Michel de Montaigne)