MicroVAX 3100 booting question...

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Fri Apr 27 23:45:08 2001

> >boards a few years ago. They were wrapped in Tin Foil!!! I mentioned this
> >on the list at the time, and IIRC, the consensous was this was safe.
> >However, it's not something I'll ever do.
>
> Hmmm.... do you know what a "Faraday Cage" is? You can't go safer
> than that.

It was explained to me at the time, however, it just strikes me as
inherently wrong! My mind my realize it's OK, but emotionally I don't.

> >Out of curiousity, how safe is dry newspaper?
>
> Pretty bad. It is thin, a (relatively) good insulator
> depending on humidity and purity... which means that rubbing
> on the outside might be enough for triggering a small discharge inside
> that will blast that sub microns-wide oxydized silicon insulator at
> one of the gates of your precious chip...

I kind of thought that might be the case. Though the only thing I think I
have like that is a MicroVAX II Board set, and it's not single sheets,
they're each dropped into the fold of a section of the paper. At the time I
didn't have any bags, and they've sat in a box like that for several years
untouched. They donated a BA123 chassis to my PDP-11/73.

I'm assuming that the common practice we've all seen of just dumping the
boards loose in a cardboard box is not a good idea.

                        Zane
Received on Fri Apr 27 2001 - 23:45:08 BST