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Oct. 29th, 2002
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Oct. 29th, 2002 07:00 pmModeration Totals: Offtopic=2, Flamebait=6, Troll=13, Redundant=3, Insightful=10, Interesting=4, Informative=3, Funny=14, Overrated=12, Underrated=7, Total=74.
I love it when Slashdot opens some new thing up for load testing. Everyone has 30 modpoints. ^_^
I love it when Slashdot opens some new thing up for load testing. Everyone has 30 modpoints. ^_^
Fun With Dead Computer Guts
Oct. 29th, 2002 07:14 pmSomeone dissected some dead hard drives over the weekend, and left the magnets therein lying on one of the benches.
Yes, there are two very, very, very powerful magnets in a hard drive. I'll admit I'm not exactly sure what their function is, but they're fun to play with. When I say they're powerful, I mean they're powerful. As in, if you have smallish hands, you can lay one across the back of your hand, and it will pick its twin up and hold it against the palm of your hand.
Well, one pair turned out to be fucking strong even by hard-drive magnet standards. Went through palm, check. Didn't quite go through wrist, but could sort of feel it when opposing poles started pushing. If I put one magnet on top of a wooden desk or table--about 1" thick--I could stick its twin to the bottom. And by setting something big enough to cover it on the top magnet, I could move the bottom magnet around and simulate Jedi mind tricks. If I held the magnets on either side of a 2x4 (facing the 4" sides) they would not stick, but as with my wrist, you could feel the opposing poles pushing. I tried to restrain a series of magnets to make a little MagLev car, but it didn't work very well and the "car" (a lighter taped to one magnet) either stuck to the magnets below or went flying off onto the floor. I got them to stick through about five average-size magazines. And then I ran out of magazines to play with.
And if these two uber-magnets stick directly together...I have a blood blister on the tip of one finger where it got caught between them. I almost can't pull them apart if they stick. Next time it gets slow, I may have to procure some sort of weight to see exactly what the lifting power on these suckers is.
Yes, there are two very, very, very powerful magnets in a hard drive. I'll admit I'm not exactly sure what their function is, but they're fun to play with. When I say they're powerful, I mean they're powerful. As in, if you have smallish hands, you can lay one across the back of your hand, and it will pick its twin up and hold it against the palm of your hand.
Well, one pair turned out to be fucking strong even by hard-drive magnet standards. Went through palm, check. Didn't quite go through wrist, but could sort of feel it when opposing poles started pushing. If I put one magnet on top of a wooden desk or table--about 1" thick--I could stick its twin to the bottom. And by setting something big enough to cover it on the top magnet, I could move the bottom magnet around and simulate Jedi mind tricks. If I held the magnets on either side of a 2x4 (facing the 4" sides) they would not stick, but as with my wrist, you could feel the opposing poles pushing. I tried to restrain a series of magnets to make a little MagLev car, but it didn't work very well and the "car" (a lighter taped to one magnet) either stuck to the magnets below or went flying off onto the floor. I got them to stick through about five average-size magazines. And then I ran out of magazines to play with.
And if these two uber-magnets stick directly together...I have a blood blister on the tip of one finger where it got caught between them. I almost can't pull them apart if they stick. Next time it gets slow, I may have to procure some sort of weight to see exactly what the lifting power on these suckers is.