Date   : Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:08:41 +1030
From   : station240@... (paul aslin)
Subject: Box assorted floppies

> Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:40:06 +0100
> To: bbc-micro@...
> From: mike@...
> Subject: Re: [BBC-Micro] Box assorted floppies
> 
> In article <4C4E4346.6010808@...>, Rick Murray <rick@...>
> writes
> 
> >Just be lucky you weren't at college with grown up scrotes who took a 
> >passion to hating the place. It isn't hard to solder a BNC socket to a 
> >piezo-clicky cooker lighter, or the flash system of a disposable camera. 
> 
> ooh, nasty.

I've heard of something like that happening on a regular basis, and it wasn't
an act of sabotage either.

Seems when a mikbar/restaurant attached to a petrol station decided to install
their computer network, they tied the coax to power cables. Everything from
the PC's own IEC cable to big 3 phase cables in the roof.

When someone who knew what they were doing finally investigated, he found 
that the ends of BNC cables should not shoot blue sparks like that ! Not 
only was the network very slow and unstable, but the power surges once a 
month from random commercial kitchen appliances blowing up would result in
network cards "going in for service". The network was rerun and and the computers
run from a dedicated power sub circuit.