Slashdot Mirror
Dell Laptop Burns House Down
Nuclear Elephant writes "The Consumerist is running a story about a house burned down by a Dell laptop. 'My 130-year-old former farm house was engulfed in flames, with thick dark smoke pouring out of the windows and roof... Hours later, after investigation the fire marshal investigator took me aside asked me if I had a laptop computer. Yes — I told him I had a Dell Inspiron 1200.' It was determined that the laptop, battery, or cord malfunctioned after its owner left for work, leaving the fire to spread through the entire house. All attempts to contact Dell have failed. 'I have tried to call Dell to at least notify them of my problems, but each time I have called I get transferred into an endless loop of "Joe" or "Alan" all speaking a delectable version of English I presume emanates from Bangalore. I have been outright hung up on each time I get someone who speaks a reasonable version of English, or sounds like they might be in charge of something. Promises of call backs have gone, of course, unreturned.'"
That's nothing... An iPod killed my family!
And we thought the exploding batteries were bad..
Burning Down the House may have been a poor choice for a new a theme song.
This is the new combined security and power-save model in Vista. Your PC can't get infected by spyware, no one can hack your home network, and you won't use any power, if the computer just burns the whole place to the ground.
I think it's in the Screen Saver settings someplace:
"[x] Enter Burn-House-to-Ground mode after [ 30 ] minutes of inactivity."
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
"Well, this is your problem right here -- this thing's set to EVIL!"
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
Is this the first Slashdot IAAL post?
"Dude, you're getting a fire extinguisher!"
Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of laptop batteries in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.
He obviously forgot to install a "firewall".
... Ok, I'm leaving.
Please refrain from impugning our client regarding this incident, or we will be forced to take action against you.
Sincerely,
The Law Offices of Fluffy, Lightning, and Mr Jingles
Yeah, especially if they were planning on using that laptop to do it.
I'd rather be an ignorant moron than an anonymous coward.
An iPød bit my sister! :]
No big deal, they'll just use "We Didn't Start the Fire" instead.
Damnit. I've been reading the past 45 minutes and NOW you say this!?
Damnit.
Fire! Fire! Fire!
Mains, eh? Other side of the pond, what?
Let me guess, elecrical equipment in your country is so unreliable that you throw the main panel switch each time you leave the house. Just in case.
I bet that's a bitch for anyone who wants to run a server out of his house. I can just see the page posted by the ISP when the server owner is away and the server is offline -- "Sorry, the sysop elected to walk down to the end of the road to pick up his mail as he just saw the postman bicycle off. He expects the system to be available again from the time of his return until he leaves for afternoon tea in the local pub."
By the way, since your equipment uses 220 volts, therefore uses lower amperage and correspondingly skinny wires, why do you use those big, honking plugs that we'd consider overkill if used to power the New York subway system? Or maybe the electric chair.