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	Save on DVDs from DVD Express. No DVD? Watch movies on CD from CoolVCD.com Short Takes 28 Dec. 1999 Charles W. Moore The Horror and Heartbreak of ESD LCDtest Helps You Find Dead (or "Sleeping") Pixels Tri-BACKUP 2 Backup Software The Horror and Heartbreak of ESD Over the Christmas weekend, I watched a scary video. No, it wasn't the latest horror thriller from Stephen King -- it was an old Apple Technology & Troubleshooting library tape entitled "ESD: The Shocking Truth." ESD stands for electrostatic discharge, and according to the video, which features Steve Wozniak and David Cram, the ESD hazard to your expensive computer chips is a lot more worrisome than I had previously thought. Back when I first started tentatively poking around inside computers, say to install some extra RAM, I went by the book -- hooking myself up to a grounded wrist strap, making sure to keep one hand touching the computer chassis while I worked with the other one, and so on. However, as I became more accustomed to working around computer guts, and watched others who knew more than I did handling SIMMs and boards with casual regard for ESD caution, I developed a greater sense of security about the issue. According to the video, I was wrong. It is distinctly unsettling to watch chips and transistors being fried simply by being touched for an instant, or having a Styrofoam coffee cup set down beside them. In one demo., Mr. Cram damages a transistor by simply waving a sheet of plastic film near it -- never even touching it. The damage is verified onscreen using test equipment. Another false sense of security I had was the conventional wisdom that if you work in an uncarpeted area, you're relatively safe from static discharge problems. Wrong! Antistatic spray on your work area is not the solution either, and carpeted workbenches are a big no-no, even if you liberally use antistatic spray. This video is obviously oriented toward scaring computer tech people who may have developed lackadaisical attitudes toward taking ESD precautions into adopting more responsible work habits. While some of these people will doubtless protest that they have been handling computer components in a more casual manner for years and have not noticed any problems, Mr. Cram emphasizes that ESD damage will often just "wound" a chip circuit rather than killing it, leaving it to eventually fail weeks or months later. The prescribed precautions for preventing ESD damage include: * Always wear a properly grounded wrist strap or heel strap when handling circuit boards, cards, RAM modules, chips, and other components containing microprocessors * Work on a bench surface covered with a grounded mat * Keep nonconductive plastic materials away from ESD-vulnerable components * Store components in real, shielded antistatic bags, and make sure that the bags are in good condition with no pinholes or scuffs I know I'm going to be a lot more cautious the next time I open up a CPU. LCDtest Helps You Find Dead (Or "Sleeping") Pixels Mike Bailey's LCDtest is a freeware diagnostic utility that helps you test your LCD screen for bad or stuck pixels. Unfortunately, "dead" pixels on an LCD computer screen are not an unusual phenomenon. Each pixel in the LCD is actually made up of 3 transistors -- on each for red, green, and blue. With thousands of pixels making up the screen and 3 transistors per pixel, it isn't difficult to imagine how problems can crop up. Using LCDtest is simplicity itself. Just start the program and cycle through the 5 basic colors (black, red, green, blue, and white), watching the screen to see if any bad ones show up. Happily, the 12.1" TFT display on my Wall Street PowerBook was free of any dead pixels. If you do happen to find a bad pixel, sometimes they are not really dead but just having a nap. Mike suggests that you gently "massage" it to try and wake it up. Sounds weird, but reportedly it sometimes works. LCDtest Version 1.0.1 for the Mac, released last week, now hides the cursor unless you use the command key to display the menu bar. Tri-BACKUP 2 Backup Software Here's another backup utility from Tri-Edre. Tri-BACKUP 2.01 offers several backup modes: Mirror-Backup Incremental-Backup File Synchronization, multiple programs I haven't tried Tri-BACKUP yet, but if you would like to check it out, you can download a free, 30-day demo from then Tri-Edre Website. The registration fee for Tri-BACKUP 2 is US$49. For more information, visit the Tri-Edre site. Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings Cheap Power Macs: The $500 G3 and $750 G4, 5/22/00. You can do it with refurbished Power Macs. Archive: PowerBook 101 Rumors, 3/2/99. This was written two months before the Lombard was introduced. Archive: Miscellaneous Ramblings: No New 'Books -- Yet, 2/19/99. Miscellaneous Ramblings: Frankenstein Power Mac 9500 Letters, 5/12/00. A mailbag column with lots of reader feedback on the dead 9500. Archive: Mice of many colors, for-floppy feedback, and Apple support resolution, Charles W. Moore, 2/12/99. More on the Miscellaneous Ramblings home page. Recent Editorials at Low End Mac Low End Mac gets iReviewed, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 5/24. "Apple 'iReviewed' Low End Mac on May 22, 2000, noting it fills a unique niche and is easy to search." A computer I understood, Cheryl Hanna, My First Mac, 5/23. "Here was a computer that I understood without translation." Software to make life easier, Evan, Mac Happens, 5/23. Helpful software you may never have heard of. Beta than nothing, David Schultz, Virtuality, 5/23. Beta testing isn't for everyone. David Schultz offers advice on preparing your Mac for the OS X beta. Not raising the dead, Manuel Mejia Jr, Mac Daniel, 5/22. Sometimes it doesn't make economic sense to revive a dead Mac, but even in death their parts can save others. What can you squeeze into a compact Mac?, Adam Robert Guha, Apple Archive, 5/18. There's still life in those little Macs. New @ Low End Mac: Receive email information on new links. Biography Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 -- and writing for Mac web sites since May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOS Daily, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com. Charles lives and works in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, on the shore of Indian Harbour Lake and in sight of the Atlantic Ocean. His newspaper columns are syndicated across Canada, and he writes regularly for several magazines, as well as doing Mac website journalism. Charles has also contributed to MacToday magazine. His current stable of Macs includes a Mac Plus, an LC 520, a Power Mac 9500, a PowerBook 5300, and a PowerBook G3 Series II/233. Macinstein Banner Exchange Low End Mac begun April 7, 1997. Miscellaneous Ramblings ©1999-2000 by Charles Moore. The remainder of the Low End Mac site and all other subsites of <lowendmac.net> copyright ©1997-2000 by Dan Knight unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. LINK POLICY: This site affirms Open Link. It allows and encourages links to any public page, so long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking the linked page. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Computer, Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iMac, and iBook are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the individual companies and are hereby acknowledged.	Miscellaneous Ramblings Other editorial content on Low End Mac Low End Mac Gaming Mac Happens Mac Musings Mac Metamorphosis Mac to the Future Tangerine Fusion Things Macintosh View From  the Classroom Virtuality Support Low End Mac and Miscellaneous Ramblings MacMall Outpost.com Software Outlet Amazon.com Mac Book Source MobShop.com DVD Express CoolVCD.com MusicForce AuctionMac Sponsor Us