rbrandi's Profile

We had a lightning strike here in July. The strike hit an external antenna that were normally connected to my shortwave radios. I say that because about 30 seconds before the strike, I had disconnected the antennas. Didn't make a difference. Two radios were destroyed, including one obscure tabletop model that included an option to decode digital shortwave broadcasts that isn't available any more. A third radio that wasn't even plugged in or connected to the antenna system was also damaged (and has since been repaired, something that wasn't an option for the other two radios). The strike travelled out of the radios into a loop antenna that I used to hear AM radio stations in Europe and Africa from my location in New Jersey and severely damaged it. That item hasn't been manufactured in years as well; it's currently with the manufacturer hopefully being refurbished if possible. The strike also travelled out an audio port to my Linux computer, which I had been using to decode those digital shortwave broadcasts and as a PVR with an HDTV card. The computer was fried. The strike also travelled out the same radio's serial port, through a USB-serial adapter, which exploded about six inches from where I was sitting, and into the USB port of our three month old Mac Pro, which I was trying to shut down when the strike occurred. The Mac Pro was fried, as was the 23 inch Cinema Display connected to it. My Palm Tungsten C was in its cradle recharging. It got quite a charge; it died. My 80 GB iPod was also connected at the time. It appeared to survive, but the power connection was vaporized, so once the battery discharged, it was impossible to recharge it, and it died. My Epson scanner was connected to the USB port; it died. My M-Audio FireWire Solo audio interface died. My USB turntable, which I had been using to digitize my album collection, lost its USB connection and is now useless. My EyeTV 250 was fried, and provided the strike with its way out of the house; the strike travelled down the cable TV line, out of the house, and up the telephone pole, where it blew a fuse and bled to ground, taking out our TV and Internet service.

Apple covered the Mac and iPod. For the rest, I got a lesson in insurance company math, where numbers don't behave the way you were taught in school.

My wife and I saw this at the Apple Store a couple of months ago, and my wife's "oooh, shiny!" reflex kicked in. They had three of them. I went back two nights later, and they had none. Popular item? No. Someone had bought one, gotten it home, and found it was broken. So they brought it back, got an exchange, and that one was broken. So was the third. The Apple Store employee I spoke to said she couldn't recommend them, and after hearing that story, I agreed.

We got my wife a different set of speakers for her iPod.