14 lines
773 B
Plaintext
14 lines
773 B
Plaintext
fat electrons
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n. Old-time hacker David Cargill's theory on the causation of computer
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glitches. Your typical electric utility draws its line current out of the
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big generators with a pair of coil taps located near the top of the dynamo.
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When the normal tap brushes get dirty, they take them off line to clean them
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up, and use special auxiliary taps on the bottom of the coil. Now, this is a
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problem, because when they do that they get not ordinary or thin electrons,
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but the fat'n'sloppy electrons that are heavier and so settle to the bottom
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of the generator. These flow down ordinary wires just fine, but when they
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have to turn a sharp corner (as in an integrated-circuit via), they're apt
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to get stuck. This is what causes computer glitches. Compare
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bogon , magic smoke.
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