That degree in physics from MIT? Really useful sometimes.

[rhu]

Our kitchen computer was making unhappy noises. So I opened the case and started cleaning out accumulated dust. And as I realized I was getting carried away and using a metal tweezer to pull matted dust out from the power supply, it occurred to me that I really oughtn't to do that, or at least I should unplug it and give it time to discharge. And so I started to pull the tweezers out, and at that very moment I shorted the power supply. Based on the ozone odor, I probably liberated enough of the magic blue smoke that I shouldn't even try to turn it back on ever again; at least not without replacing the power supply.

Well, we were thinking of replacing that computer anyway. And the most recent backup is from last night, and we hadn't done anything with it since we got back. (The hard disk itself is probably still fine, anyway.)