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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, @03:31PM
(1 child)
by Anonymous Coward
on Sunday May 28, @03:31PM (#1308674)
Back in the day when I used to play with a capacitor bank measured in mega-joules, the apparatus featured a "big red switch" whereby, once the bank was charged and circumstances called for an abort of the experiment, one of the operators could bang on that switch and dump all of the energy into a sacrificial load, bringing the charge on the bank down from 10KV to a few volts in mere moments. It was a destructive event, and after such an abort, the load would need to be rebuilt before it would be ready to function again.
Last night I dreamed I was back on that team, and the bank was charged to maximum voltage, but for some reason - seemingly caused by having one too many safety mechanisms in play - the big red switch failed and the power bank was stuck at maximum charge. The normal load - the experiment that the bank was intended to power - would not engage, and the big red switch was having no effect. The team was frantically trying to engineer a novel way to bleed away the energy, but every attempt was frustrated by some safety measure which had been put into place to protect everyone from lethal outcomes. I, myself, offered some suggestions and tried some simple strategies without success. In the end, others on the team were successful in bleeding away the energy, but I woke up before they could explain the strategy they ultimately employed.
As I drank my morning coffee, I wondered if that dream was a parable about SN and the politically charged situation that has arisen, and how there may be a need to fashion a reliable big red switch for the site. Then again maybe I ate too much pizza yesterday.
-nostyle --
If you start me up If you start me up, I'll never stop
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, @03:31PM (1 child)
Back in the day when I used to play with a capacitor bank measured in mega-joules, the apparatus featured a "big red switch" whereby, once the bank was charged and circumstances called for an abort of the experiment, one of the operators could bang on that switch and dump all of the energy into a sacrificial load, bringing the charge on the bank down from 10KV to a few volts in mere moments. It was a destructive event, and after such an abort, the load would need to be rebuilt before it would be ready to function again.
Last night I dreamed I was back on that team, and the bank was charged to maximum voltage, but for some reason - seemingly caused by having one too many safety mechanisms in play - the big red switch failed and the power bank was stuck at maximum charge. The normal load - the experiment that the bank was intended to power - would not engage, and the big red switch was having no effect. The team was frantically trying to engineer a novel way to bleed away the energy, but every attempt was frustrated by some safety measure which had been put into place to protect everyone from lethal outcomes. I, myself, offered some suggestions and tried some simple strategies without success. In the end, others on the team were successful in bleeding away the energy, but I woke up before they could explain the strategy they ultimately employed.
As I drank my morning coffee, I wondered if that dream was a parable about SN and the politically charged situation that has arisen, and how there may be a need to fashion a reliable big red switch for the site. Then again maybe I ate too much pizza yesterday.
-nostyle
--
-The Rolling Stones
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 28, @04:16PM
RESET Button [the-sun.com]
I am the man, the well fed man
In charge of the terrible knob
The most pleasing thing about it
It's almost a permanent job
When the atom war is over
And the world is split in three
A consolation I've got, well, maybe it's not
There'll be nobody left but me
- The Dubliners