Hi Ky!

KM> Well, this message is older than dirt...
You're supposed to log in more frequently than once a century!

Oh, is that it? Who knew!!

Fred the Wood Tick. (I think that comes from a pairing from _The Cat in
the Hat_.)

> The clock is powered by the 5v from the USB, so plugs in to one of the
> ports. Currently the 5v is reduced to 3v by the voltage divider
> circuit.
That's the problem: the clock is running slow and so that's why you're
just getting the message!!

Now you're talking to yourself. ;) Or someone, anyway, wasn't
me!

But who else is around? And it's possibible to be a talking to myself
as I did play around with having clock powered by a USB port to check
for when the port 'rebooted', and I did have to reduce the 5v. Using
the clock as an indicator didn't quite go as planned, though I've
forgotten the details.

KM> I lately discovered something odd about USB... the setup is this:
KM> USB Hub (no power)
KM> 1) hard disk (no power)
KM> 2) hard disk (with external power)
KM> So long as #2 is plugged in, #1 is powered even if nothing is
KM> attached to anything else (no other power sources). Didn't
KM> realise they shared!
So #1 is getting its power via #2? Yes, sounds a little strange but the electrons don't care where the source is. Humans are expecting the
source to be the hub but once electricity is put on the 'rails' it's
there and goes in all directions. If AC might be a problem with
phasing, but as DC and polarized no problem.

Yeah, I was expected it was gated one direction, but apparently
this isn't the case. Makes me wonder what happens if a USB device
plugged into the computer should happen to get overpowered... I'm
not sure I like this idea, come to mention it.

Well, I don't think the USB device could get overpowered as electrical/electronic devices only take what's needed ==> plug an alarm
clock into the outlet connetced to a 20 Amp circuit breaker and it only
takes a quarter of an amp. Plug a toaster into the same outlet (must be
a very small place!!) and it will take around 18 amps, but the alarm
clock doesn't get overpowered when the toaster is plugged in, nor the
toaster get underpowered because the alamrm clock is plugged in. ...Add
a few 100 W incandescent light bulbs and the circuit breaker wil trip,
but that's something different.

And while I'm typing that I wonder if that's what's going on here: I
have a USB hub which 'reboots' sporadically. It's not the hub itself as
I have replaced the hub (and wall wart). Currently the only devices on
it are the X10 Interface and the Floppy Disk Drive. With testing it was determined the hub would 'reboot' with just the X10 Interface on it.
According to some USB device sniffer utility I have the X10 Interface
tales only 2 mA -- well under the 500 m allowed per USB 2.0 port. Never
have figured out what's causing the reboot -- could be the X10 Interface
or some glitch picked up by the USB cables. Isn't the computer as the motherboard was replaced. At least now when the thing reboots it
doesn't affect the rest of the USB devices.

(By 'reboot' I mean the USB hub powers down and then back up, and the
computer will do the 'ge-dunk' sound as well as usually tell me I have a
new device plugged in.)

KM> Just had to retire the oldest hard disk in the house that was
KM> still in use... almost 18 years old!! Starting to have a little
KM> hitch in its getalong, locks up if it's asked to do too much at
KM> once. Wasn't being asked to do much, since all that box does is
KM> DOS. What's really amazing is that it's an IBM HD !!!
IBM does build some sturdy stuff! As it locks up if asked to do too
much at once, my guess is a mechanical issue: the heads can't get in position fast enough.

It had been working fine for a long time, doing the exact same
thing, and only developed this problem in the past month or so.
Also started sometimes taking a long time for the system to
recognise the drive at startup, which tends to indicate a failure
other than the platters (was not getting data errors of any
sort). Probably got a data pileup when some circuit failed to

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