PE> Well, I disconnected my modem too late.

RM> That explains it. At first I thought my modem was crook, then I
RM> thought your modem had a funny init string and you'd realize it and
RM> it would be fixed by tomorrow, but tomorrow it wasn't so I suffered
RM> the 2400 baud download, thanking Ba'al that I'd cancelled a largish
RM> echo very recently.

Yeah, it's a problem.

PE> Actually, I think the transformer is gone, as it was running
PE> red hot when I went to check it, and it smelt of that lovely
PE> burning ceramic smell that I get high on.

RM> If it's the transformer, it was probably taken out by something
RM> shorting its output - rectifier, cap (esp tantalum), regulator ic.

I opened it up and didn't see anything wrong with it, and it turns
out that there wasn't anything wrong with it.  I opened up the
modem, and the only thing I saw wrong with it was it had the word
"Spirit" on it.

RM> Out of interest, any idea how close the closest lightning strike
RM> was?

Personally, I didn't think it was anything worth writing home
about, so I stopped writing home about it.  I thought it was
normal.  However, the rain was HORIZONTAL.  Actually, it might
have even been hail, I don't know, I was desperately trying to
shut the 10cm hole I had left at the top of my window to let
some fresh air in.

It was ferocious.  I went to watch TV to see if they were going
to show people at the SCG being smashed to bits by hail, but
they were still showing replays.  Amazing.  Turns out that it
was just us that saw the ferocity, none of Xiayi's workmates.

A branch (5 metres long and 15cm thick?) of a tree in our yard 
was snapped off, smashed into the glass panels of our walkway,
breaking them, and then landed near our pool.

I didn't see any 100-year old fig tree hurtling by though.  If
I hadn't been busy trying to close the window I might have seen
some spectactular sights.

BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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