Whoa! Zzzzzzzzzzt!

[annathepiper]

So here I am sitting on the couch tonight, laptop on my lap and my beloved solarbird snuggled against my shoulder with her laptop on her lap in turn. (Yes folks, we're geeks, what can we say?)

I'm poking slowly at Chapter 14 of the book. She's writing email and surfing her LJ and other points along the web, and we're both periodically skitching one another... until we realize that we're getting odd tingly feelings at the contact, and not the kind of tingly feelings one usually gets when snuggling one's lifemate on the couch. Dara rubs my ear--and I hear this bizarre soft noise like a tiny Van der Graaf generator right next to my head. We soon discover that if Dara lifts her hands off her laptop, the weird tingly feeling stops!

Conclusion: Powerbooks are conductive! Who knew?

Meanwhile, since she's joined my Friends list this evening, y'all say hi to twina76, also out of Great Big Sea fandom! And also:

Wednesday evening miles: 2.25
Miles out of Hobbiton: 287.55
Miles to Rivendell: 170.45

Comments

The flat screen?

[(Anonymous)]

What voltage does a LCD screen operate at? IIRC, it's around 170..same goes for the backlight. That could be the source of the static charge..CRTs operate at around 12 to 30 thousand volts,depending on size and a few other factors..Scott

Re: The flat screen?

[annathepiper]

What voltage does a LCD screen operate at?

I have no earthly idea! Or whether it varies from laptop to laptop, either. Dara says that her Powerbook's case is aluminum, and that this is why her laptop does this while mine doesn't. We tested this!

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Conductive laptops...where's my wife when I need to test this theory?
-=Jeff=- ZZZOTT!

[annathepiper]

Hee! What sort of laptop do you have? The crucial part of this seemed to be the aluminum case of Dara's Powerbook; my Fujitsu did not do this. Naturally, as geeks, we tested this with both machines. ^_^

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

Dude, I got DELL'ed. Unfortunately, (fortunately) the static shock build up doesn't work on mine.*sigh* so much for technologically based super-powers.
-=Jeff=-

[annathepiper]

Darn it!