They get hot. They short-circuit. They burst into flames. This time Nokia's on the hot seat, literally. The company has recalled 46 million Lithium Ion batteries manufactured by Matsushita Battery Co. because of 100 overheating incidents. This type of battery technology is used in the vast majority of laptops and mobile phones (check your own).
Continue reading "Oops -- Lithium Ion Batteries Did It Again " »
The whacked-out temperature controls on EE Mike Kotecki's Viking fridge were keeping things just a little too cool:
"We moved into a new, used home two years ago that had a built-in bar in the living room. (Talk about closing tactics!) Anywho, it had a very nice 15-year-old built-in “under-cabinet” Sub Zero beverage refrigerator, that, as far as I could tell from the constant hum, cost about $400/month to keep my beer and tonic cold. So, I went out shopping and soul searching for an energy-efficient replacement.
Continue reading "Frosty Fridge Serves Up Ale-Flavored Ice Lollies" »

Bad. Bad. Bad.
That's how Dave Goldstein describes recent problems with a coolant leak in his Apple Power Mac G5 -- the first popular computer to incorporate water cooling as a standard thermal management strategy.
He writes:
"The late G5's are very messed up. Oh man. I don't what the liquid is that sometimes leaks from the cooling system, but it's corrosive. Don't know whether it's a poor engineering design or a manufacturing defect. I have an earlier G5 with no problems."
Continue reading "Apple Power Mac G5 Oozes Coolant" »

EDN's PowerSource Blogger Margery Connor has complained about her frustrations with
premature failure of CFLs (compact fluorescent lights) in down lights at her house. To prove her point, in a recent post titled "
This was not the right application for a compact fluorescent light she offered this photo of the burned-out innards of a failed CFL. (Note in particular the brown scoring on the plastic base.)
She theorizes:
Continue reading "Compact Fluorescent Light is One Crispy Critter" »
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