<electronics, humour> Old-time hacker David Cargill's theory
on the cause of computer glitches. Your typical electricity
company draws its line current out of the big generators with
a pair of coil taps located near the top of the dynamo. When
the normal tap brushes get dirty, they take them off line to
clean them up, and use special auxiliary taps on the *bottom*
of the coil. Now, this is a problem, because when they do
that they get not ordinary or "thin" electrons, but the fat
sloppy electrons that are heavier and so settle to the bottom
of the generator. These flow down ordinary wires just fine,
but when they have to turn a sharp corner (as in an
integrated-circuit via), they're apt to get stuck. This is
what causes computer glitches.
[Obviously, fat electrons must gain mass by bogon absorption
- ESR]
