response 51 of 292:

Oct 5 02:11 UTC 1999

I haven't heard any definitive theory as to the cause yet.  One of the
theories bandied about was that "something got dropped into the
batteries".  I looked at the actual battery case.  It's totally
enclosed, but the top plate of the box is perforated with numerous small
holes.  Inside the cabinet, the battery posts (lead, presumably) stick
up, and are connected to each other with some sort of grey silver metal
braid.  I suppose a wire dropped in *just right* might slip through the
holes, and could in theory land across 2 terminals and short out, but I
kind of doubt it.  For one thing, I think a pieces of wire small enough
to slip through the holes would probably have been small enough to
vapourize itself without much harm to anything else.  For another thing,
it would have had to drop through the holes vertically, then somehow
twist itself around horizontally *and* manage to make a really good
connection with 2 different bits of metal.  The battery terminals would
have been pretty well oxidized, and they are, after all, pretty small
targets in an area consisting mostly of plastic and painted metal.

I don't believe there were any fusible links.  Fusible links are
basically just low tech fuses, being nothing more than a short length of
under-gauge wire; if the curcuit overloads, the theory is, the fusible
link is the bit of wire that will go first, and it's generally located
in an area where it's easier to fix, and less likely to cause damage.
Fusible links are not suitable for high voltage or high current
applications.  For instance in a car the primary circuit between the
battery & the starter generally has no fuses or circuit breaker of any
sort.  The current draw is too high to make a fusible link practical,
and in fact the starter has a low enough resistance that it's not really
feasible to tell the difference between starting the car, and a dead
short in the solenoid.

For a stationary installation like the computing center, either fuses or
circuit breakers would be used.  Of the two, circuit breakers are much
more likely.  For power loads of this magnitude, blowing either a fuse
or a circuit breaker would have been a very dramatic affair.  It would
have generated a loud noise, lots of ozone, UV radiation, and vapourized
stuff.  (oil, insulation, wahtever.) Those big fancy power panels aren't
just for show; one of their primary purposes is to protect the operators
from the potential fireworks if a breaker under full load should go.  In
a big electrical substation, the breakers are kept outdoors along with
the transformers in an area fenced off from ordinary mortals.  The
computing center wasn't big enough to rate the outdoors display; but it
did have many large breakers and other controls located along a wall.
These would probably have done a great job of protecting the rest of the
building if a short had happened almost anywhere "downstream" of the
UPS.  I didn't see any evidence that the battery cases themselves had
any sort of protection - and I'm not sure it would have been any more
practical there than in a car in the starter circuit.

response 53 of 292:

Oct 6 19:50 UTC 1999

Back in Junior year of High School, I was in Auto Shop class, and the 
idiot they hired to be 'teacher's aide' hooked up a car battry to a charger,
backwards.  The explosion that followed only a few minutes later was quite
violent.  The case had cracked all around the battery, and the core was
visible where the two halves of the case had separated.  Acid flew every-
where, but, fortunately, noone was anywhere near the area when the explosion
occurred.  What I remember most was how loud that explosion was...Batteries
store a great deal of energy, and can be quite nasty......

response 55 of 292:

Oct 8 20:09 UTC 1999

Back to Grex problems.  Twice today I have attempted to mail a 26K 
file to two Grexers and the mail has failed with the following 
uninformative message:
 
   ----- Transcript of session follows -----
... while talking to grex.cyberspace.org.:
>>> DATA
<<< 554 SMTP-MAIL: died on signal 11
554 mooncat@cyberspace.org,gypsi@cyberspace.org... Service unavailable
 
Have I discovered an intentional limit on e-mail size, or is this a bug?

response 57 of 292:

Oct 10 00:38 UTC 1999

I think you are correct.  However, the space between the plates and the top
of the case is filled with oxygen and hydrogen gas unless the caps are
removed.  The exploded batteries I've seen had the cases ripped apart above
the electrolyte level but were intact below this level.  Had the energy
for the explosion come from the stored charge, I'd expect the lower part
of the case to be shredded.  I have also noticed gas bubbles while
charging discharged lead-acid batteries before they were fully charged.

response 59 of 292:

Oct 10 04:39 UTC 1999

        They're all too busy debating fires and batteries.

response 61 of 292:

Oct 10 18:39 UTC 1999

Item 65.

response 63 of 292:

Oct 12 15:02 UTC 1999

is there any way to expand the time (30 seconds) grex allows for one to
login once one gets a login prompt-- when there is a long que and one
leaves the grex window open while the que is running, 30 seconds is
often not enough time to catch the login while it is up.  Maybe 60
or 90 seconds would be better.

response 65 of 292:

Oct 12 16:40 UTC 1999

Impressive.

response 67 of 292:

Oct 13 17:07 UTC 1999

Maybe you should pay attention. 120 seconds is two minutes when other
people in the queue are being forced to wait because you are not paying
attention. 

response 69 of 292:

Oct 13 18:22 UTC 1999

        I thought this was a "non-problem" aka: "non-issue"..?

response 71 of 292:

Oct 17 06:57 UTC 1999

how bout adding a couple more beeps 
If im in another window and I have a window to m-net open and idling
it will beep three time....it tends to get my attention better than a
single beep...

response 73 of 292:

Oct 18 23:00 UTC 1999

  Dialed in this evening to 761-3000 (no idea what line I wound up on)
  but got the "connecting.. this may take a minute" message followed
  by NO CARRIER.  Happened several times running -- perhaps one (or more)
  of the dial-ins is messed up?