Circuits That Bug Out Bugs

Wired News ^ | 10-11-01 | Mark Baard

[TigerTale]

That cockroach skittering behind your computer may be after more than your sandwich crumbs: It could be looking for a home inside your PC.

Entomologists are warning of the growing risks that insects pose to electronic hardware, but few electronics manufacturers in the United States are aware of the danger.

[TigerTale]

In fact, the phrase "debugging a computer" was coined in 1947 when Harvard researchers found a moth crushed between the jaws of a relay switch in a Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator.

The dead moth was taped to the machine's logbook, which now resides at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution.

Cool. Note to self: remember for next game of Trivial Pursuit.

[Deep_6]

Yeah, well we tried those roach motels, but we couldn't stand
hearing those little beds squeaking all night.

[The Shootist]

Interesting article. But after 15 years in jobs from Help Dest to Desktop Support to Network Admin to Systems Engineer the only cockroaches, or bugs for that matter, that I remember seeing were in old cash registers.

Frankly, I don't buy it.

[Marathon]

I don't know that it's a "growing" problem, but it's real enough. I work for an automotive electronics manufacturer as a quality engineer. One time we did get back an airbag crash sensor module from warranty that, when opened, was crawling with cockroaches. Not that that's common, but it was definitely unsettling.

[Cyber Liberty]

"Frankly, I don't buy it."

Wanna make book with this old computer geek on that?

[Cyber Liberty]

Now you know why we make those solid-state sensors now. Much cheaper, and hermetically sealed.

Motorola, BTW.

[Rockitz]

Easy solution. Turn off your computer at night. Conserve power.

[no-s]

All I ever saw were dust bunnies the size of volkswagens and rats under the computer room floor. I remember ripping a new one for some tech who used the power box as a pizza warmer...

But in this day and age of purple-haired ninnies running the computer room I guess it's possible. For the record I told the tape operators to leave their roaches outside in the stairwell as the smoke might set off the Halon. Thankfully most sensible shops don't need a night shift anymore.

[SirAllen]

In college I lived in a cockroach infected apartment. They eventually started hanging out inside our microwave. They'd crawl by the time display on the inside, and when cooking a lovely aroma would emerge and sometimes you could hear popping sounds - and it wasn't the food cooking. Soon after the microwave's clock went out, then the microwave stopped working all together. We directly attributed it to the cockroaches. And I soon got out of that apartment. Ah, the good ole days....

[TigerTale]

I've never seen a problem with insects myself, but when I was working for a system integration firm, I did once encounter a problem with mice (the furry kind.) One of our techs had gone out to a client site and left a slot cover off the back of a PC. One day he was called out again to look into a problem on the same machine. It seems one or more mice had decided to make their home amount the circuit boards--mouse feces is not a recommended addition to the system.

[Libertina]

I was working on the upper floor of a trade center; the office seemed to be clean and nice. But one day I picked up my phone to make a call and two little feelers poked out from INSIDE the mouthpiece! It makes me shudder even now to think about it. Must have been a pretty small cockroach to crawl inside, then grew bigger and couldn't get out. What that coakroach ate I've no idea and don't even want to speculate. Ugh!

[TheHound]

Do you just hit and run?

[The Shootist]

Like I said, after 15 years of doing this the only cockroaches I've seen came out of 5 year old Micros cash registers that had been in fast food restaurants for 5 years of so. The insides were caked thick with grease.

Most of my career has been spent working in Georgia and Florida. Plenty of roaches but not in PCs.

[Deep_6]

re:
"..Do you just hit and run?..."

Occasionally I go back to check the body count.
Road-kill always intrigued me..

I once swerved our car to avoid hitting a squirrel.
My wife asked if I missed him.
I said I thought so, that I could see him jumping up and
down, as if he was mad.
She said "He probably is, I think you ran over his nuts".