I just figured out today that parts of my video board are fried as well. I'm really thinking about picking up a UPS too.

Actually, I use scissors when it gets too long

And judging by your beard, you shave with an electric shaver

I'm back on-line, too. The good news is that all the computers in the office have a UPS, so the power surge didn't hurt us. In fact, we had enough time to save everything and shut down the computers. The problem was that it took our ISP (Worldcom) two days to get back on-line.

Yeah, you think they could say maybe, 2 quality checks, just to make it not sound like outright lies.

I also like the lie on the right of that banner.

Well, I'm talking about other aspects, such as all commercial logos somehow has the Canadian flag intigrated into it.

So how is Canadian television then? The flag in the foreground (being the only program broadcasted) all day?

Well, it seemed to have zapped the RAM. Good thing the computer does it's own diagnostics when it starts up. They had a sale so I decided to double the ram I have but everything is working fine now.

At least Detroit didn't become a fireball like it does every Halloween



Yeah, but it's not as bad as Canada.

I thought about it while posting the last message then decided it was too horrible to be true so I assumed they didn't.

My thoughts exactly...

Sorry 'bout the damage though.

Don't all stations of the USA display an animated flag 24 hours a day? Or maybe a half-transparant animated flag as background of everything shown?

We frequently encounter blackouts and get used to it here, so we just can't understand why people are get terrorized because of that temporary annoyance.

Fox news displayed an animated US flag during the incident. The Turkish news channel I watched didn't broadcast the original sound but I can imagine the reporter saying something like "Americans are so brave that they aren't even afraid of dark" I don't like the way nationalism is being marketed thete. It's just a boring blackout and crime didn't appear to be a major issue this time. Even if it was, nationalism would be the last thing that could solve the issue.

Yeah, just your normal everyday blackout where people ASSULT your neighborhood because one freakin gas station is open.

Not really a power grid problem, but a political problem. In 2000, the power market was deregulated so companies started selling and buying power from places far away, therefore an easy pass for the power to go long distances. Something like this was bound to happen.

Er... no. Must have missed this whole issue.

Mr Creosote, have you read/watched/listened to any news during the last days? One of the largest power blackouts in the US an Canada for several hours, including New York. They said about 50 million people had no electricity. I guess it's time to improve the power supply system there regarding that the whole present system went down because there was an error in one power station...

Power blackout? What power blackout?

The good news is that I'm back with power and water now, the bad news is I was using the computer when it hit, and the same surge that took down all the power plants came through 3 surge protectors and seems to have done my computer wrong in some way. The PC speaker beeps three times when it comes on, then the HD idles. So until I figure this out, consider that I'm off the internet indefinitly except for quick little dittys on other computers.