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Zinc Whiskers Cripple Colorado's Computers

Posted by simoniker on from the all-of-them dept.

Mr. Christmas Lights writes "While zinc whiskers, small metallic fibers which grow on surfaces that have been electroplated with zinc, aren't a problem for Christmas lights, they can cause serious problems for computers. The Denver Post reports how they caused computer outages for the last three weeks in the Colorado secretary of state's office. This basically halted business and elections document filings. Zinc whiskers are becoming more of a problem as computers electronics get smaller. NASA has a good reference site which includes a interesting PDF summary paper complete with pictures. /.'ers with computer rooms might want to check this out."

10 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. WOW! by gerardrj · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Shit... we /.ed NASA!

    --
    Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
  2. site slashdotted by Wansu · · Score: -1, Offtopic


    that was fast

    --
    Wansu, th' chinese sailor
  3. any one hear of dusting? by Serff · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Maybe they should invest in some cleaners...

  4. What's worse than zinc whiskers? by sockonafish · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    IIS! Har har har.

    HTTP 403.9 - Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected
    Internet Information Services

    1. Re:What's worse than zinc whiskers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      That message is from hitting a USER configured limit, not from IIS being "overloaded". That way they still have resources to give good response to the users that get in, and can deliver a decent error message to those who can't get in.

      Any decent admin should set limits to avoid crashes, regardless of O/S or web server.

  5. Re:WOW! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Just another IIS 403.9. Silly government.

  6. Re:WOW! by Nermal6693 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Several years ago, I was reading a review of "new" ADSL technology. The article said that you'd see much faster browsing and downloads, but some servers were so slow that having broadband didn't matter. "Take a bow, NASA".

    Fortunately, they've improved since then!

  7. Re:More work to do... by SEWilco · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    You didn't put "NO CATS ALLOWED" signs on your server room as soon as you saw the headline?

  8. Re:FUCK YOU, YOU PATHETIC PIECE OF SHIT! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Oh I'm sure he feels real bad about it now.

  9. Re:Absolutely no way by crisco · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I agree, there's no way anyone running IIS knows what they're talking about.

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    Bleh!