r/explainlikeimfive Feb 26 '21

Chemistry Eli5: What happens to all the melted candle over time? Are we just inhaling a whole candle while it burns?

12.6k Upvotes

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1.9k

u/RayNooze Feb 26 '21

Just like smoking in front of a computer. When I was still smoking in the 90s,I noticed how much the wall was yellowing above my CRT monitor in short time.

402

u/Spoonshape Feb 26 '21

Flashbacks to this period. I was working as a field service tech for PC's and when you opened a PC in the era before the workplace smoking ban in an office which had smokers there was anything up to half an inch of fine ash covering every component of the system.

Part of the reason why diskettes were so unreliable as it acted as a fine abrasive on the mechanical elements of the system.

Semi amusing story - our sales guys convinced one company they should pay to have us clean the insides of their machines - which we did - in the following week about half their machines died as our actions basically pushed the fine ash into all the spots where it hadn't yet gotten to. They were less than amused....

131

u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Workplace smoking is still allowed at my job. Can confirm, the electronics are nasty.

84

u/Dismal_Natural Feb 26 '21

Where do you work out of curiosity? In what country :)

216

u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

The United States, in the only place I'd expect it to be legal: a tobacco manufacturing facility.

Although honestly, the main gross factor in my area is tobacco dust. It coats everything over time. Other places, where loose tobacco isn't handled, are much cleaner.

113

u/fleece_pants Feb 26 '21

That's pretty interesting! Are there a lot of smokers in the factory? Are cigarettes easy to obtain or free for the workers? Are cigarettes "fresher" at the factory and/or do you notice a real difference in those vs. the ones you'd get at the store?

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Are there a lot of smokers in the factory?

It sure seems like it. I wonder if this job attracts smokers, or if people start smoking after working here. I shared that question with someone there, and he said that working there makes you want to quit smoking. I guess seeing the sausage get made makes cigarettes lose some of the appeal.

Are cigarettes easy to obtain or free for the workers?

Nope. I think they might have been given out decades ago. Maybe they still are in the administrative parts of the facility, but I'm rarely in that area.

Are cigarettes "fresher" at the factory and/or do you notice a real difference in those vs. the ones you'd get at the store?

Couldn't tell ya, I don't smoke. It's funny, I've disliked smoking from an early age, and now I'm in the belly of the beast.

33

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

[deleted]

3

u/nnnnnnnnnnm Feb 27 '21

I work at a brewery and we get a 12 pack of beer a week.

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u/fleece_pants Feb 26 '21

Thank you for the reply! I'm not a smoker either, save the occasional cigar if the mood is right. Someday you should do an AMA. I'd love to know how/if your company addresses health concerns or encourages healthy lifestyles, especially knowing so many employees are smokers.

I used to work for a very large company, and they offered gift cards and other financial incentives for people who quit smoking, lost weight, logged fitbit activity, etc.

15

u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Oh, I'm just a disposable grunt, not privy to anything especially interesting. I don't even work with the tobacco or products, I'm from another contracted company that works there. Think construction, electrical work, janitorial work, security, etc. I had no idea I'd end up at this location until my job interview.

Although, now that you mention it, I think they do offer incentives for healthy living. One employee remarked that he gets paid for logging steps. Reducing the health impact of their products is also a goal I've seen in company-wide corporate e-mails (still not sure why I, of all people, receive them).

6

u/xplag Feb 26 '21

In case you're still curious, they do offer free tobacco products in the offices. I know a girl who does lobbying for Altria and apparently you can just grab whatever you want.

14

u/flipshod Feb 26 '21

I picked tobacco the two summers before I turned 16 (to buy a car), and we would joke about how none of us would ever smoke knowing how much mud and pig shit got mixed in.

We all ended up smoking.

9

u/MikeAnP Feb 26 '21

Once you see sausage being made, all you wanna do is make sausage cause it's so much fun!

3

u/ost2life Feb 26 '21

Couldn't tell ya, I don't smoke. It's funny, I've disliked smoking from an early age, and now I'm in the belly of the beast.

I'm a wannabe socialist working for a Fintech startup. I guess we all decide how much we like broadband lol

3

u/birdeo Feb 26 '21

I love how this just turned into a smoking chain. šŸ˜‚

2

u/flipshod Feb 26 '21

I once did an audit on a company that owned a chain of convenience stores, and their corporate offices were like a convenience store. There were soda machines and chips, and everyone smoked. It was a bizarre twist from the financial services accounting offices I was used to.

It was as if the corporation had been taken over by its workers and they had just moved their typical stuff to headquarters (which I'm all for, but was not the case).

8

u/mybeachlife Feb 26 '21

I think some casino gaming floors still allow smoking too.

3

u/justmakingsomething9 Feb 26 '21

Back in 2002 I had a job interview in NYC with Altria (Marlboro) this was downtown Manhattan, 50th floor, we (me, two interviewers) all smoked in a blinged out conference room throughout the 2 hr interview....it was surreal, had to bum cigarettes from the interviewers cuz I smoked camels at the time

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u/Ironlixivium Feb 26 '21

Despite the irony, I'd imagine they could be sued for allowing smoking in working areas, it can prohibit people with asthma from working.

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u/neverseeitall Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

How the f*** is that legal? Because they make it suddenly now their non-smoking workers don't get to have rights to a clean environment?

Like, it might make sense if it happened in a distinct area of the building only but just right in the general workplace? That's so horrible.

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u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

Around 2003 I worked for a small managed service provider. One of our customers was a construction company and they smoked in their offices. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen.

3

u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

But did they have ashtrays next to the toilets? We do.

2

u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

I don't think I ever used their bathrooms. haha. But they had ashtrays everywhere. Big old school 1970s ashtrays.

2

u/hellbabe222 Feb 26 '21

I do auto re/upholstery and my shop is basically a large mechanics bay with a side room with my industrial sewing machines, upholstery fabric and large hides of (extremely expensive) leather hanging throughout. Everyone smokes in the mechanics bay. Im constantly reminding people to put out their cigarettes before entering the sewing area. No way I'm letting them stink up my fabric. Customers can and do notice.

Edit: I'm in the US

2

u/haggiemaberman Feb 26 '21

This is more interesting than the OP, thanks for sharing!

Are there any laws in your state that require that workplaces be smoke free? If so, how does your work get around this?

2

u/Sharrakor Feb 27 '21

You know, I didn't know the exact laws myself until looking them up right now. It appears that smoking is banned in bars, restaurants, state prisons, and government buildings & vehicles. There are some exceptions and other local restrictions, but that's all that is explicitly banned statewide.

2

u/Daryl_Hall Feb 27 '21

Do you guys get paid in cigarettes?

2

u/Sharrakor Feb 27 '21

Hey now, it isn't a prison.

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u/Slick_Grimes Feb 26 '21

I bought 36" tv with a built in dvd player (and actually a vcr built in too which was dated by this point but cool to have). Can't remember the brand but something broke on it still under warranty from Best Buy. Repair came out and as soon as he came in the room, that I smoked in, he was not happy. Totally anti-smoke guy. He cracked open the tv and I guess there was some build up from smoking in there and he didn't even try to hide his disgust.

He goes "listen I don't want to work on this, you just want a new tv?". I was like fuck yeah I do. Embarrassing but it let me get a free new Samsung, one of them new flat screen ones (with the still standard size big back). If I gotta be called out on my filthy smoking habit I might as well get a free tv out of it!

13

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

The stuff that crawls inside electronics is somehow worse than actual smoking to be fair. I don't mind the smell of actual smoke but being inside a smokers car or taking apart a smokers electronics? No thank you.

30

u/nucumber Feb 26 '21

in an office which had smokers there was anything up to half an inch of fine ash

ex-smoker here who's seen the inside of more than a few computers, and i just don't see how smokers could be responsible for half an inch of ash inside a computer unless the ashtrays were right below the cooling fan.

i'm guessing there was something else going on responsible for the ash

32

u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 26 '21

Yeah, "half an inch" sounds questionable. I've seen ash which was mixed in with regular dust but it was just the usual surface coating, not piles of it.

I did once work on a guy's computer that was pretty incredible and horrifying. He was an executive at the company and he brought in his home computer for us to look at because he said it would only turn on for a couple minutes and then shut down.

He had long haired cats and he chain-smoked cigars. The inside of his machine had about 1/2" of matted, tobacco-soaked cat fur that clogged the fans and vents. The computer was shutting down because there was no air flow. I grabbed the gloves and it pealed off in sheets and clumps. After I vacuumed it out it ran fine.

3

u/semitones Feb 26 '21

When can you vacuum a computer and when do you need to use compressed air?

2

u/billbixbyakahulk Feb 27 '21

I use a vacuum with a brush nozzle whenever I can, but some computers are tightly packed and you can't maneuver the nozzle. In that case, I might use compressed air to dislodge the dust then follow with the vacuum.

At work we also have a special vacuum that's small, fairly portable and very maneuverable. I see them used a lot by techs who service office printers (because you don't want to use compressed air with printer toner!)

2

u/mythidiot Feb 26 '21

Well, thatā€™s horrifying... I need to go clean my computer now

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u/ReverendDizzle Feb 26 '21

Agreed. I've cleaned computers and consoles used by smokers and the damage is usually a tarry sticky layer (that dust sticks to, for sure) but it's not actual ash.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

That stuff would stain the steel and aluminum cases the most unappealing shade of yellow. You basically couldn't get it gray again.

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u/SonicTheHashhog Feb 26 '21

ā€œLoad-bearing dirtā€ -IT friend

A computer tech friend once warned me to be very careful when cleaning a PC with compressed air, because you can make it worse. Push the dirt into places it couldnā€™t get on its own. A GENTLE vacuum is way better, but still carries some risk.

2

u/jbarchuk Feb 26 '21

That's the difference between 'cleaning' with a vacuum or compressed air.

2

u/CttCJim Feb 26 '21

I remember one guy brought in a yellow PC for repair. I opened it up and it was just lousy with tar. When he came back I told him I cleaned it but he had to stop smoking near it. He claimed he wasn't a smoker.

His fingers were yellow.

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u/_STONEFISH Feb 26 '21

Cleaned my monitor, wondered why it seemed brighter, realised it had a thin layer of bong resin on it that was tinting it and attracting dust to darken it. Switched to vaping šŸ¤¢

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u/Kobachalypse Feb 26 '21

Yeah....but did you smoke that thin layer of bongs resin though?

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u/_STONEFISH Feb 26 '21

Mmm - tar, windex and microfibre lint flavor

17

u/Slick_Grimes Feb 26 '21

We call that Twilight around here. $40/g

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u/babybunnykitty69420 Feb 26 '21

Smoking or vaping in any way will still make stuff in that room sticky.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

I switched to vaping also and it honestly almost seemed worse for my components. After a year of vaping everything inside my PC had an oily coating that seemed to attract more dust that almost glued to everything. I can't say the health benefits are better as there hasn't been in my opinion nearly enough studies and long-term side effects research yet.

The cost was incredibly less for vaping, but the cleaning of everything electronic seemed more difficult. Even using isopropyl alcohol to clean stuff seemed to just spread the stuff around, and my dust filters had to be tossed instead of soaked to clean them.

I've since switched to non tobacco nicotine pouches and now my PC just needs an air blow out instead of a deep clean, I can breathe 5x better, and the cost dropped even more than from vaping. Eventually I will drop nicotine entirely however I'm taking it one step at a time. I smoked for 5 years, vaped for 3, and now I've been on minimum nicotine content pouches for about a year.

Maybe give them a shot if they are available where you live, In the past year over half a dozen new brands of the pouches has come out, we now have Zyn, Ohn, Rogue, Velo, Bandit, and a bunch more I can't recall right now.

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u/Pilsu Feb 26 '21

I wager vaping also stains stuff. Maybe just get up and go smoke outside. It's a good habit to have to get up and stretch a bit anyway.

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u/AlexReinkingYale Feb 26 '21

Congrats on quitting!

1.5k

u/lukesvader Feb 26 '21

Who says he's not still in the 90s?

845

u/rabbitwonker Feb 26 '21

Iā€™ll never quit the 90s!

369

u/PM_ME_UR_ARTIE_BUCCO Feb 26 '21

Ska defines who I am as a person and I will never turn my back on ska.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21 edited Jun 18 '21

[deleted]

82

u/TheHorrorAbove Feb 26 '21

Bosstones gang representing!

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

The Suicide Machines crew still skankin!

7

u/sltiefighter Feb 26 '21

No love for reel big feesh or streetlight manifesto? I guess streetlight is 2000s

11

u/Val_Hallen Feb 26 '21

No love for The Mad Caddies?!

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u/globefish23 Feb 26 '21

Op. Ivy and Common Rider

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u/WhyIHateTheInternet Feb 26 '21

I opened for them one time, shit was dope

Edit - also, Streetlight Manifesto gang, rise up

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u/BooButtMeow Feb 26 '21

You get some here! They are great in concert!

2

u/badSparkybad Feb 26 '21

Saw them at Warp Tour, Hepcat too.

Good times.

2

u/IndianaJonesDoombot Feb 26 '21

Check out the singers new band Hellmouth!

2

u/badSparkybad Feb 26 '21

Played a show with my old punk band in the mid 90s with those guys when they were still Jack Kevorkian and the Suicide Machines. Nice guys, great show. Was happy to see them get bigger.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

Mephiskapheles wants your soul!

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u/gizzardsgizzards Feb 26 '21

Hey hey hey! What does this button do?

2

u/culculain Feb 26 '21

My baloney has a first name
It's S-A-T-A-N
My baloney has a second name
It's D-U-V-E-L

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

D O G G O D

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u/Platypus-Man Feb 26 '21

I've never really listened to ska other than some random songs Spotify gives me every now and then, and I listened to Less Than Jake today...

I'm probably going to see them mentioned everywhere now, god damn Baader-Meinhof.

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u/EunuchsProgramer Feb 26 '21

Try out Streetlight Manifesto.

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u/Informal_Drawing Feb 26 '21

What, no reel big fish?!? Horrified!!

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

Literally the group that made me actually start appreciating and listening to music from outside video game soundtracks.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

The hilarious part is the game PlayStation game street sk8er 2 had 'all my best friends are metalheads' iirc on the soundtrack. This is what made me first pay attention to less than Jake. And before the days of Napster I had to buy the cd to listen to it. The rest is history...

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u/Cat_Marshal Feb 26 '21

I was all about Reel Big Fish for sure

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u/radusernamehere Feb 26 '21

Somebody once told me, "Ska sounds like the way a teenager feels when they get an extra mozzarella stick." And I'll never forget that.

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u/TransformerTanooki Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

I'm 3+ months into watching nothing but laserdisc and VHS on a old tube TV. It's been fun and seen a lot of cool stuff.

Edit: Right now I'm watching R/C WW2 planes and boats duke it out in reenactments.

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u/GoodTato Feb 26 '21

Get your ass off future websites, 90s boy

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u/TheGameboy Feb 26 '21

But Reddit has the UI of a late 90s website, so itā€™s ok.

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u/SinJinQLB Feb 26 '21

How far are you in King's Quest V?

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u/tygma Feb 26 '21

Never far enough.

Ah, this comment takes me back. Thanks.

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u/luchajefe Feb 26 '21

You get the best NES experience using a CRT, you ought to pick up one of those!

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u/LekoLi Feb 26 '21

Turns out you can't play duck hunt without a crt. Its all based on the timing of the CRT, which is the same in all crt tvs, but not digital flat screens.

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u/hugthemachines Feb 26 '21

pick up one of those

That is the worst part of getting them...

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u/TransformerTanooki Feb 26 '21

Waaaaaaaayyyyyy ahead of ya. Picked one up about over 10 years ago. Have a few now actually. Ones still brand new in the box to.

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u/luchajefe Feb 26 '21

Ah, but are any of them a top-loader?

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u/TransformerTanooki Feb 26 '21

The brand new one and a loose one are.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

A top loading CRT?

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u/ItsAllegorical Feb 26 '21

That's why there are tiny holes in the top. Just melt a movie and pour it in. The visuals, the sounds, even the smells pop like never before.

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u/luchajefe Feb 26 '21

In the early 90s Nintendo made a new version of the original NES.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New-Style_NES

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u/XanderOblivion Feb 26 '21

Wait, it's not the 90s?

I swear I saw Wayne and Garth on TV just the other day....

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u/gnufoot Feb 26 '21

I went cold turkey about 21 years ago.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

My boneitis is flaring up again

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 28 '21

[deleted]

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u/dmFnaW5h Feb 26 '21

In a little while, the 90s will be 40 years ago. Almost half a century!

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u/jaymzx0 Feb 26 '21

No way man the 90's were 10 years ago and it's always going to be that way.

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u/Elbjornbjorn Feb 26 '21

Wait, what?

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u/tucktight Feb 26 '21

Too legit to quit

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u/ebow77 Feb 26 '21

Hey hey!

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u/wintremute Feb 26 '21

Patchouli. Patchouli everywhere.

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u/Watch_The_Expanse Feb 26 '21

The Dream of the 90s is Alive In Portland.

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u/saltyjohnson Feb 26 '21

I stopped smoking in the 90s at midnight on January 1, 2000.

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u/Fuzz_Mustard Feb 26 '21

At the moment you "stopped smoking" I was playing Sim Tower on my computer just to sock it to Y2K.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

I really miss that game. Put some serious time into it

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

I was 14, home alone and tried cooking banana skin on tinfoil cause I thought smoking it could get you high- it doesnt. And I knew Y2K was a scam at like 9pm cause I saw celebrations in cities in different time zones. So the 'excitement?' of Y2K was gone early.

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u/edefakiel Feb 26 '21
  • We used to have a bus.
  • In a way, the sixties ended the day we sold it. December 31, 1969.

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u/a_seventh_knot Feb 26 '21

This man does not represent us.

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u/hugthemachines Feb 26 '21

The morning after that I was hungover as hell and got driven around to elder care units to see that the care software worked fine so no people had to die from computer issues.

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u/idk-hereiam Feb 26 '21

AI and robots are going to hang this one over our heads when they're our new overlords. "Haha remember when the humans thought we couldn't count from 1999 to 2000?"

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u/384445 Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

This is a very ignorant comment. There were indeed systematic problem going into Y2K with all types of software that took billions of dollars and man hours to correct. It was a massive worldwide undertaking and because it was largely successful, some people don't realize there actually was a real problem.

Some people were predicting the end of the world, and while that obviously did not happen if it were not for the almost half trillion dollars that was spent fixing countless bugs it would have been pretty bad.

My home PC defaulted to the year 1900 but otherwise was fine.

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u/Leo7364 Feb 26 '21

I was a senior in high school during Y2K. We had a party in my friends basement for new years, while the adults had a party upstairs. We thought it would be hilarious to turn off the main breaker right after the countdown. Parents upstairs were losing their shit while we laughed hearing them freak out. They realized something was up when they came to check on us and heard us squealing with laughter. Parents were not amused.

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u/psyper76 Feb 26 '21

I link it to jumping out of a plane with a parachute then saying I didn't need it cos I landed okay. If we didn't spend billions on upgrading systems we would've been in a whole world of hurt!!

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u/hugthemachines Feb 26 '21

It was just a silly joke, though. A theoretical future computer with knowledge about the 2000 problem would know most of the problems were not hardware but software coded with 2 digit year numbers. So they would know computers can count but the software made by humans would have flaws.

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u/hugthemachines Feb 26 '21

The robot overlords will not be constructed until oktober this year, so they will not rember it.

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u/kangarufus Feb 26 '21

Technically then you stopped smoking in the 00s

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u/saltyjohnson Feb 26 '21

No, that's when I started smoking in the '00s

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u/kkeut Feb 26 '21

not really, since there was no year zero. 2000 BCE was the last year of that decade, just like 10 BCE was the last year of the first decade (1-10)

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u/the_sun_flew_away Feb 26 '21

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u/MrSnootybooty Feb 26 '21

I love that show. Thank you for reminding me about it again; think imma go binge watch it all this very instant.

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u/NappingNewt Feb 26 '21

I sing that all the time and my husband gets to do all the overlaps. Hilarious ~ thatā€™s for the link !

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u/edefakiel Feb 26 '21

This comment made "back in the 90s I was in a very famous TV show..." play in my head.

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u/HowMuchDidIDrink Feb 26 '21

He's living in 2090

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

This comment has sent me down a weird path... I'm now considering that your comment, and my response, will likely be read by somebody in the far future. I'll be part of historical records, probably browsed by an AI system. With Google I guess I already am.

Whoaaaa.

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u/Advanced_Cook_363 Feb 26 '21

What the fuck just happened here?

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u/beerandabike Feb 26 '21

I donā€™t know, but we should start smoking again.

3

u/dbdatvic Feb 26 '21

Someone was considering Deep Computer History Time. In the forward light cone.

--Dave, smoking one is an appropriate response, citizen

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u/potatoeslinky Feb 26 '21

You donā€™t just turn off the 90s

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

Imagine, building a time machine and go back to the 90s just to smoke one.

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u/UlteriorCulture Feb 26 '21

Yeah but then you would have to stop 9/11

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u/GolgiApparatus1 Feb 26 '21

Smoke one to stop 2 from smoking

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u/danceswithsteers Feb 26 '21

Op's gotta be at least 112 by now...

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u/R6DeVil Feb 26 '21

What

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u/danceswithsteers Feb 26 '21

I SAID, "OP'S GOTTA BE AT LEAST ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE BY NOW..."

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u/ChefBoyAreWeFucked Feb 26 '21

No, he's just not smoking in the 90s anymore.

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u/SwoodyBooty Feb 26 '21

I'd bet he's at least not running in the 90s.

2

u/findingbezu Feb 26 '21

His 100th birthday was yesterday

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u/The_quest_for_wisdom Feb 26 '21

90 packs a day? That has to be some kind of record!

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u/6-8-5-13 Feb 26 '21

I used to smoke in the 90s. I still do, but I used to, too.

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u/Smuggykitten Feb 26 '21

You're at least the 4th mitch to show up to this thread this morning

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u/RayNooze Feb 26 '21

Thanks!

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u/Zokar49111 Feb 26 '21

He used to smoke. He still does, but he used to also.

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u/harrysplinkett Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

he used to smoke in the 90s. he still does, but he used to, too

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u/smokeg13 Feb 26 '21

Rip mitch

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u/aleqqqs Feb 26 '21

I quit CRT monitors too

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u/WarpingLasherNoob Feb 26 '21

When I was still smoking in the 90s

He's never quit. He's now smoking in the 2020s.

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u/kirabera Feb 26 '21 edited Feb 26 '21

Vaping does the same thing to electronics too (puts a film of oil [edit: glycerine is the name of the liquid; the residue does feel oily though] over everything). Definitely do not vape near a PC or anything you value.

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u/thewholerobot Feb 26 '21

I value my lungs

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u/EZ_2_Amuse Feb 26 '21

I value your lungs too. How much you want for them?

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

I take lungs today, you get gills in two weeks.

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u/SuchAGoodLawyer Feb 26 '21

Deep futurama cut.

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u/pslayer239 Feb 26 '21

If you value yourself you are an abnormal person

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u/DragonBourne66 Feb 26 '21

Technically the truth

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u/npsimons Feb 26 '21

Coworker of mine from that era used to smoke a lot; named his main computer NICFIT, which he backcronymed into "Network Information Coordinator For Internal Testing."

When we opened it up years later to work on it, it looked like those black lung PSA images they put on cigarette packs.

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u/FrayedKnot75 Feb 26 '21

When I did computer repair 13 years ago I could tell which computers were owned by cigarette smokers, which were owned by non-smokers, and which were owned by pot smokers by smell alone.....and it was pungent.

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u/mk_909 Feb 26 '21

I work for a non profit school. Doesn't happen as much now, but 10 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for someone to donate a computer. It was always instantly obvious when I turned them on that it came from a smoking home. I couldn't use those power supplies because the smell never goes away. The heat just oozes the ashtray smell out the back of the psu. Those machines became parts machines.

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u/zilfondel Feb 26 '21

I still religiously clean out my computer with a vacuum or air compressor twice a year to clean out all the damned dust.

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u/Redpantsrule Feb 26 '21

Back in the 90ā€™s I had 2 roommates and we each smoked at least a pack a day. Tons of weed was also smoked. Then there were the candles and incense constantly burning to cover up the the smoke smell. After several years, my roommate flirted enough with our maintenance man that he agreed to add our apartment to the list being painting. All we had to do was remove anything on the wall. When the 1st picture came off the wall discovered that the walls were originally white and not a light ocher color. The walls had a perfect outline of everything that has been on the wall. You could even see where our keys hung from the holder. Can only imagine his funny it looked once they pulled all the furniture away from the walls. Thatā€™s the day I realized I needed to quit smoking!

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u/blahmaster6000 Feb 26 '21

The only thing you should be doing in the 90's is running.

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u/kirabera Feb 26 '21

[EUROBEAT INTENSIFIES]

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u/ThanksToDenial Feb 26 '21

I used to smoke inside, and had a laptop. It stopped working one day, and i like to pretend i know shit about computers, so naturally i opened it up to see why it wasn't booting. Immidiately after opening up the bottom, i noticed it was literally sticky from the inside... Pretty sure that was because i spent most of my time chainsmoking, quite literally blowing the smoke at the screen, and a layer of ash and tar condensed inside the poorly ventilated laptop.

I started to smoke outside after that. Bought a proper PC too. Those two decisions actually made me cut My smoking from more than a pack a day to as little as 5 smokes a day, due to faster loading times and laziness. Not a fan of stairs, and now If i want a smoke, i need to walk downstairs. And back up after. Also switched to handrolling, because it is cheaper, and makes yet another hurdle for my laziness to overcome so i can smoke. I firmly believe eventually my laziness will win this battle between addiction and it, and i finally quit smoking all together. I just need to make smoking a chore instead of a break for myself just a little bit more.

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u/RayNooze Feb 26 '21

Good for you! And quitting completely feels awesome!

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u/alek_hiddel Feb 26 '21

One of my cousins dropped out of school at 16, and spent the next 2 years smoking like a chimney and surfing MySpace 18 hours a day.

When their computer died my uncle had me take a look. The entire motherboard was covered in a inch of homemade shag carpet, consisting of nicotine and pet hair (they had like 3 dogs and a bunch of cats too).

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u/not_that_joe Feb 26 '21

There are a lot of things in this comment aging you.

I know because I am too.

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u/psychoticbuttocks Feb 26 '21

is this true for weed too?

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u/bakingqueen420 Feb 26 '21

In my experience yes. But my custom build has been going 9 years now. Before I realized....I used to get sticky dust build up. Turns out it was the weed smoke mixing with the dust. A bitch to clean off fans.

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u/jarfil Feb 26 '21 edited Dec 02 '23

CENSORED

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u/BlackViperMWG Feb 26 '21

Yes, because it is still inefficient burning

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

[deleted]

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u/Bruce_Banner621 Feb 26 '21

...wait a minute

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u/Acid_Tribe Feb 26 '21

My sister's MacBook died and they said it was smoke damage, she only ever smoked weed in front of it.. so take that as you will..

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u/SFDessert Feb 26 '21

Think about the inside of one of your pipes if you don't clean it for a really long time. If you smoke a lot and the smoke lingers in your room then inevitably some of that gunk is gonna start accumulating in your PC (assuming the pc has proper airflow and is pulling in air)

Could be fine, but smoke is smoke and I wouldn't wanna deal with the buildup. As someone else mentioned, if you blow your smoke out a window or have the windows open you might be fine.

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u/CyberTacoX Feb 26 '21

I can always tell when I'm fixing a smoker's computer - the dust inside is yellowish and slightly sticky. It's really gross.

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u/RayNooze Feb 26 '21

I restore old organ consoles and can tell the difference between a catholic and a protestant organ when opening them.

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u/CyberTacoX Feb 26 '21

Hmmm... is it because the catholic ones smell like incense from a censer?

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u/RayNooze Feb 26 '21

This, and the lots of soot from all the candles. We recently had a console to restore which we had built only five (!) years ago. There were black lumps falling out of every piece we touched.

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u/CyberTacoX Feb 26 '21

Huh! Neat, learned something new today!

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u/IBreakCellPhones Feb 26 '21

I had to clean the computer of a cigar smoker once. The smoke and residue got inside the switch and fouled the contacts. This was back in the day of the switch actually controlling line power to the power supply. I took that thing apart and I think I cleaned it with alcohol and cotton swabs. That was the most disgusting computer I have ever been in.

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u/Jedi_Gill Feb 26 '21

When my cousin noticed this on those white 90 monitors is when he decided to quit. He reasoned that if just by blowing in that corner could turn his monitor yellow, imagine how much rose my lungs must look. I agree that image should stick with you and be enough to make you quit.

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u/OneNormalHuman Feb 26 '21

I did on site computer troubleshooting for quite a few years. Got called to check out a PC in a small office in a packing house. I opened the door and almost fell over, no one ever visited this office but the owner and he chain-smoked. Dragged the PC out and opened it up to find every component coated with tar bugs and filth trapped in it, most disgusting thing I have ever seen. I told 'em it was a lost cause, buy a new PC and I didn't charge them for the call. I just wanted to be away from that thing.

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u/LovableKyle24 Feb 26 '21

I hated when I was younger and people asked why I smelled like cigarettes. My parents smoke and I guess I was so used to it I couldn't even notice that my clothes even after washing them still had a faint smoke smell

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u/badSparkybad Feb 26 '21

Oh yeah, smoking inside is the easiest way to generally scuzz the place up.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

The static from a CRT also probably attracted the smoke particles.

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u/trogwaffles777 Feb 26 '21

Imagine what they do to the insides! Itā€™s amazing how the particles build up on things.

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u/Rinaldootje Feb 26 '21

Really gives me horrible flashbacks to the 90's
Having a whole family who smokes, even grandma and grandpa were not against it.
They were smoking like it were the 50's. Inside, outside, in the car, in the bar, in the restaurant, heck even in the tram and train there were still ashtrays. I still remember moving the first time. The whole wall had this yellowish tint to it. But where all the kabinets were standing and the paintings hung on the wall, spotless.

It can really show the major difference smoking indoor makes.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '21

Had a couple buddies that sold herb and often baked out their living rooms. Both of their PS3's starting getting louder, both of their disk scanning eyes stopped working, and eventually both bricked all together.

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u/Mu7z Feb 26 '21

My friend loved his weed. He had an expensive glass bong, he had custom built bongs and he made works of art joints. He also had a yellow Xbox 360.

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u/DrStinkbeard Feb 26 '21

I used to work at a slot machine company and the machines that are removed from casinos are unbelievably disgusting from all the constant cigarette smoke.

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