Clueless Field Service

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_at_infinet.com>
Date: Wed Jun 10 00:56:06 1998

 
>
> Was the second episode also in Antarctica? Wouldn't there be a reason
> why the first chip fried? I mean chips don't just evaporate their
> casings!

You haven't seen how dirty the power is down there. Officially, the
power grid ground was a busted tractor on the end of a cable, pushed
into the bay. Unofficially, I was told that the station's phone system
acted as a sort of ground web.

At McMurdo, there are several diesel generators, most of which were
working at any given moment. It took four turning in the summer when
the demand was highest. We used to get frequent brownouts in the summer
time with the occasional station-wide blackout. Yes, there are more
lights on in the winter, but in the summer, all the buildings are open
and all have furnace blowers and computers and office lights, etc.

Stuff would break mysteriously; UPSes would mysteriously melt down. At
the South Pole station, the clocks didn't keep proper time because the
frequency wasn't exactly 60 Hz. Be glad for your local power grid. We
had no such luxury.

ObClassicCmp: Until 1996, the primary and secondary DNS servers at
McMurdo were a pair of uVAXen running VMS. They had the advantage of
being unlikely to be cracked. It was their only advantage. :-)
Received on Wed Jun 10 1998 - 00:56:06 BST