Sunday, September 12, 2004
Move over Hotmail, enter Gmail!
Like everyone else, I have several email accounts on Hotmail, but via Blogger.com I was invited to try Gmail. It is still in the testing phase, but I really like what I see. Read more about Gmail and see if you are interested or not.
For those of you who are familiar with my regular email address, I have some invitations to give away at the moment. Send me a message if you are interested.
Move over Hotmail, enter Gmail!!
For those of you who are familiar with my regular email address, I have some invitations to give away at the moment. Send me a message if you are interested.
Move over Hotmail, enter Gmail!!
Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Struck by lightning
Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. Saturday two weeks ago, my home was struck by lightning. I live in a block of flats which is surrounded by higher blocks of flats, and I have always thought that the taller buildings would be the ones to be hit, not mine.
I woke up early because of the noise and the flashes, and it was clear that a thunderstorm was passing. I didn't think much of it and expected it to calm down after a while. Just when I thought it was over, there was one last flash and bang, and then it was completely dark. The noise was so loud, my bed shook. It was quite clear that the lightning had struck the building.
The first thing I did was to check the fuses. To my big surprise all of them were OK, but the main switch had been activated. I flicked it, and tested the lights. They were ok, and so was my fridge and my stereo. My television, div-x player, dvd-player, phone, adsl modem and the network card in the pc were all damaged. Luckily for me, the pc itself seems to have survived the attack. I haven't even dared to test my record player yet. Basically, everything that was connected to the phone line and the coax cable for the tv is broken.
The damage is covered by my insurance, but I still haven't gotten around to filling out the forms. I am not sure how much will be reimbursed, but I doubt it will be enough to cover the price of the new stuff I have had to buy. September is going to be a very expensive month for me even if the insurance covers some of the damage.
I guess there is little I can do to prevent damage when lightning strikes, but I'll be unplugging most of my appliances every day from now on, that's for sure.
I woke up early because of the noise and the flashes, and it was clear that a thunderstorm was passing. I didn't think much of it and expected it to calm down after a while. Just when I thought it was over, there was one last flash and bang, and then it was completely dark. The noise was so loud, my bed shook. It was quite clear that the lightning had struck the building.
The first thing I did was to check the fuses. To my big surprise all of them were OK, but the main switch had been activated. I flicked it, and tested the lights. They were ok, and so was my fridge and my stereo. My television, div-x player, dvd-player, phone, adsl modem and the network card in the pc were all damaged. Luckily for me, the pc itself seems to have survived the attack. I haven't even dared to test my record player yet. Basically, everything that was connected to the phone line and the coax cable for the tv is broken.
The damage is covered by my insurance, but I still haven't gotten around to filling out the forms. I am not sure how much will be reimbursed, but I doubt it will be enough to cover the price of the new stuff I have had to buy. September is going to be a very expensive month for me even if the insurance covers some of the damage.
I guess there is little I can do to prevent damage when lightning strikes, but I'll be unplugging most of my appliances every day from now on, that's for sure.
