[Beowulf] Re: Linux laptops, and M$ advertisement

[Jim Lux]

At 10:39 AM 4/17/2007, David Mathog wrote:
>"Peter St. John" <peter.st.john at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 4. Physicist who builds his own damn Supercomputer agonizes for days over
> > the emergency shut off switch wiring, because he can, he teaches
> > electricity; but he could just walk one hundred yards down Science
>Drive and
> > get an EE grad student to do it for him.
>
>The problem with the Emergency Stop switch is not designing or
>building the electrical wiring to implement it, it's interpreting
>the electrical code to determine if one is required.  Parts of the
>code were apparently written by a Zen master so that the answer to
>what seems like a straighforward question "do we need an
>Emergency Stop switch?" depends on the answer to "is this room full
>of machines a machine room"?  The latter is apparently an
>electrical code koan, as only the enlightened can divine the answer.

enlightened == AHJ

(and AHJ can change from day to day of course.. I had a friend build 
a barn near his house. The code says, if more than X ft from Y, must 
have emergency water storage system (e.g. a big tank on the 
hillside). Inspector comes out, measures footings and forms, says, 
yep, you're good to go without tank.  Friend builds barn. different 
Inspector comes out to give cert of occupancy, makes EXACTLY THE SAME 
MEASUREMENT, and says, well.. you need an emergency water storage system...

Difference in code interpretation..

)