techno page !

Ok as a finisher to last weeks little bit about System Mechanic™ I thought I would start this week with a few words about the electricity that goes through the wires to your house that makes everything run. Then it will be off to topics new. Why I hear you shout do you want to talk about the electric supply? Well this is not going to be any form of high brow physics lesson but there is just one or two things that you need to know.

Firstly the Electric current that comes out of the sockets is very very dirty. Now by dirty I mean noisy and it’s getting nosier all the time. The reason is that every thing you and I plug in that runs off the mains puts distortion back into the national grid. Let me explain. Plug your hair dryer in switch on and the motor starts. The motor runs on the electric and as the electric passes through and is used by the motor some of the current picks up the noise and fluctuation from the motor. This is then passed back along the mains and is used by the next thing, and so on. So what I hear you shout. Well if all the other things are Fridges or Hoovers or an electric Hob then it is not that much of a problem. But what if there is a Hi Fi System working at that time or a Computer. I am sure we have all heard the pop through a radio speaker when the Fridge cuts in or seen distortion lines running diagonally across the TV screen. These are all visible and audible evidence that the mains is dirty and that the current moving around is full of spikes and distortion. Now when you put a CD in the HiFi and press play music fills the void. The music is being carried by the current to the speakers. Now in the same way that the music signal is carried along so is the rubbish in just the same way, except the rubbish stays and is added to by the motors and transformers etc. And this happens on everything, Crap in slightly more Crap out.

Now your computer is full of minute little bits of electronic stuff that require the exact voltage and clean voltage to work. The nature of modern operating systems is they need to read and process thousands of commands a second and it does not help if the is distortion an muck adding to the mix. Before you know it the code is corrupted and the poor old PC is doing the electronic equivalent of building flat pack furniture without the instructions. Soon its teddy out the cot time and everything stops. There was a report I read a few weeks ago that estimated that 75% of all computer lockups or random crashes or free zings are due to shity quality mains. So what all this is leading to is noise and surge protection. If you have not got your PC plugged into a decent surge protector from someone like Belkin or similar you’re gambling with the files, music, photo’s etc in fact anything you have stored on your PC. And I have not even mentioned what can happen to your pride and joy if the voltage fluctuates too much, as it can. Now if you can live without that stuff fair enough but most of us rely more and more on them for everyday lives. Go get one, prevention is always better that a cure in so many parts of life but particularly when computers are concerned. All good electrical stores have them in stock as well as Argos. Better still put it on your Christmas list it’s a perfect stocking filler.

Bollocks out of space you will all just have to wait until next time for the other stuff.
Matt x