Depending on where you are, lightning rods. Seriously. I'd heard of them and read about them, growing up, but had never actually seen them (or at least remembered it when we traveled when I was a child) until my parents and I moved out to the country in the Midwest temporarily (well, a few years for them, a little over a year for me). Living in southern California, we're spoiled by both being "downwind" from the Pacific Ocean (yes, we can get heavy rainstorms at times, but rarely a lot of lightning, which rarely hits the ground where we were) and surrounded by pretty hefty mountain ranges that break up huge super cells that spawn things like tornadoes and lightning storms that look like something out of rest-of-the-world fireworks displays (even our pyrotechnic professionals can't go too overboard here in Fire Country). So, when we moved back to the Midwest for a bit, I was at first amused to see these quaint metal sticks on the roof of our two-story house and barn, with a big thick wire (probably a good 1-2 cm in diameter and looked like a steel cable) connecting them and feeding into the ground. Then there came a pretty good storm blowing in, while I was reading in a 1st floor room next to a picture window. Storm, rain, thunder, POW! My first instinct was that of a city-dweller in So. Cal.: "Gunshot! Tuck and roll!" Rolled off over the side of the bed away from the window, only to realize that it was lightning hitting the rod, running down the wire, and getting grounded, right next to the window. After that, I shut off most of the lights and just watched the storm out of a smaller, thicker window on another wall, and dang if there weren't massive static electricity bolts striding down the furrows of our plowed field... :-/ So, yeah, I think the rods not only saved our electronics, but probably also our wooden structures, house and barn, from destruction. :-/ Thank you, Ben Franklin! Uwk
I hear ya, Uwk. I dislike W10 more and more after getting used to W7. My hubby is considering going back to XP with programs for firewall and whatever. I loved XP, will let him see how it goes since he is the Computer Tech and if it works great for him I may do it myself.
The only free way I know of to protect from lightning is to shut down your computer and pull the power cord out of the power strip/wall socket.
Good point. Reliable electricity is taken for granted in many locales. However, as our aging grids are put under more and more stress, problems like what we saw recently with Texas are becoming more and more likely. These "once in a lifetime" events seem to be coming about once ever decade... but that's a different conversation. On the bright side, in the U.S. at least, you should be covered by National Electrical Code (NEC) article 250, which covers grounding and bonding. Specifically: NEC 250-50 A premise's electrical service shall be connected to a grounding electrode system consisting of a metal underground water pipe in direct contact with earth for 10 feet or more, if available on the premises, and a supplemental electrode (a rod, pipe, or plate electrode.) An additional electrode shall supplement the buried water pipe electrode.That's great on the surface, but then the variables come into play: is the structure old enough that NEC 250 didn't apply when it was built, and there has not been any significant work done that would require it be brought into compliance with newer code(s)? Has the structure had periodic inspections done on the electrical system? Fun fact: like with anything else, your electrical outlets "wear out." Having an electrician do an inspection on your dwelling's electrical system every couple of years (or every year if your paranoid like me, or have a lot of high dollar electronics) is highly recommended - and might even save you a few bucks on a renters or homeowners insurance policy. Finally - I also recommend a good battery backup, especially if you can score one that does line conditioning for a price compatible with your budget. It's usually cheaper to simply replace a non-functioning UPS device than trying to repair it - but please, see about recycling the old one - or at least disposing of it as hazardous waste (depending on battery type).
various os are loadedable for any of my multiboot comps. and right now i can log into xp (in real and not virtual boot). and this comp with uefi, which means that it will not work just like that from an xp cd-disk to it for install, and there was corresponding doc on microsoft website explaining how this is done (it was by being guided by only it that i had able to install xp on next generation of board). so xp is now considered not secure os. if someone intend to trust programs running in it with data of their bank cards, then this may not be best solution at all.. but for many other things, this is certainly good idea, given its very high economy in terms of consumption of computer resources and, accordingly, extremely high performance surpassing any modern laptop os. there would only be drivers that it needs to work. however, it has very significant drawback today. you won't be able to launch games like eqii from it.. if you wished to.. well, just no way.. although sometime in past, many of who reads now this forum played this game from xp.. this is so-called ideal os and therefore, like any ideal, its place is now in museum of computer achievements (and its ideality is merit of various good remarkable people). just optimize win7 as close as possible to what you remember about xp.. thanks to Geroblue for the only sensible advice i think.. think lightning rod is actually such thing that collects, as if winds lightnings on itself, which were just looking for reason to slam you, especially when you are sitting in front of comp screen and your toon in game doesn't suspect anything.. and yes, when thunderstorm approaches, i turn off everything that can be turned off from socket and also turn off all devices with cellular communication modules (this is what can happens when during thunderstorm someone tries to call you all time - (1:54 min)). if thunderstorm comes very close then one whoever has access turns off electricity for all houses in this settlement. thunderstorms are frequent here due to ore occurrence close to surface and magnetic anomalies.. so when i'm in game and i think that i'm RP, then most of all i associate myself with those little folk from caldera of an extinct volcano (in Gnomeland) with their glowing and sparkling things (so that sparks don't fall off me, i need to touch tap water from time to time)
Saw that struck twice video on 'What on Earth ?' on discovery Science channel. The scientists suspect it is a fake and/or they want to talk to the guy to find out how he survived. I always unplugged back in the dial up days, around 1988.
this is hardly fake. perhaps guy was just drunk. it happens.. besides, there were previously known cases when lightning hit people repeatedly and they survived.. however, this is an electronic recording and not film strip so as not to doubt.. nevertheless, it means that when you get call this is what can happen.. that couple under umbrella also risked getting discharge into metal tip.. after all, your toon has lot more lives in game and you don't hesitate to play further..
I played with Win98, then XP, now 7 (initially with dial-up, then DSL for years until AT&T screwed all their DSL customers, without advance notice)...I suppose I could try it on my Win10 laptop, but I'd have to put it on my external hard drive (1 TB, way bigger than the one that came with it). :-/ Uwk
Windows and ms-dos... I want to have time to clean up my room and storage shed enough so I can work on my Amiga A1000, the three A500s, and the A3000 I have so they work again. I have around 200 Fred Fish public domain floppies with software on them. The A500s may not be salvageable.
