[conspire] Another motherboard was _not_ burned out today

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 22:28:05 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: Ross Bernheim <rossbernheim at speakeasy.net>
Subject: Re: [conspire] Another motherboard was _not_ burned out today
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting Ross Bernheim (rossbernheim at speakeasy.net):

> Ridk,
> 
> I did Tempest and EMI testing for years at a location in Palo Alto....

In an area zoned for industrial, right?

There are parts of Palo Alto and Menlo Park that I'd expect to have
major power fluctuations, and other parts where I'd consider that
improbable, for lack of any of the likely causes anywhere near.

1105 Altschul Ave. has no business in the vicinity that seems likely to
generate statistically significant line noise.  I mean, look around.
See for yourself.

In 1956 when my parents bought the house, it was cozy lower-middle class
bedroom space with not even much retail except an Ace Hardware, the
All-American Market, the Dutch Goose beer joint, and Lutticken's
Delicatessen.  59 years later, it's not much different except the
hardware store and market are gone, there are two coffee shops and a
pizza parlour, and the housing's now infested with stockbrokers and
lawyers.

If you said 'I tested a location in Menlo Park and the noise was well
above the levels we had to test to', I would not be the least bit
surprised -- because Menlo Park includes Bohannon Industrial Park and
all of the heavy industry along Bay-side Marsh Road, Bayfront
Expressway, Willow Road, and nearby industrial areas.  And _all_ of that
is 3+ miles from my house -- and parts of Stanford's light-industrial
area along Sand Hill Road isn't much closer.

_If_ there is a major generator of AC noise on the wires in bucolic West
Menlo Park -- which is bare speculation -- then that would be the case
despite appearances being greatly to the contrary.  Which is what I was
saying.


----- End forwarded message -----