I can tell that it’s winter because everyone at work is getting shocked now whenever they touch anything metal. I mean, can’t we either a) buy a humidifier or something so we can’t build up so much static electricity or b) create some device I can strap on my arm to regulate my static charge vs. ground?
Probably not. So, the new perk of my office is watching each person get shocked when they go to the bathroom. I don’t delight in other people’s pain; I appreciate the incremental humor of each new person having to get shocked every day for the entire season. Including myself.
I bet you could use one of those grounding wrist-straps. You know, the ones people use when they’re messing with computer innards?
Comment by Will — November 1, 2005 @ 9:20 pm
I think that the way those grounding strips work, you are supposed to connect them to whatever you’re working on. That’s what the IBM rep did when he came to fix a machine. He said he would get in trouble if he didn’t connect the wrist strap to the server chassis.
SO… I think the grounding strap, if unconnected, only grounds you to yourself.
Comment by John Borwick — November 1, 2005 @ 10:18 pm
I thought that I’d seen cordless wrist straps and sure enough, they exist. Unfortunately, they also seem not to work (one guy mentions that he was shocked getting out of his car while he was wearing one).
Maybe you could just carry around a conducting cane as if you were blind?
PS – Mandatory email fields are lame.
Comment by Will — November 3, 2005 @ 3:30 pm