Dan Brown Sucks, Too

[inverarity]

I've never read any of Dan Brown's books, not so much because I've heard he's a sucky author, but because they just don't interest me. I've never seen the movies, either.

Language Log has done some really excellent academic snarking on Dan Brown's literariness, but I just found a couple of excerpts from his first book, Digital FortressWell, now he

Comments

NSA Computers Made of Explodium?

[jordan179]

Lastly, I have to comment on the climax, which admittedly I am gleaning solely from the Wikipedia summary of the book. Apparently the villain commits suicide by standing next to an NSA supercomputer as it "overheats" and explodes.

WTF? Is this computer powered by a diesel engine or something? Computers don't explode! Occasionally, a computer that overheats can catch fire. Theoretically, the capacitors in a computer can explode, but it won't make some big Hollywood-type explosion, even in a supercomputer. You'd just have lots of burning circuit boards and maybe an electrical fire. I suppose the villain could commit suicide by standing in the fire. (Umm, cooling systems? Automatic fire extinguishers? You think maybe the NSA has them? Where they keep their really expensive supercomputers? Naaaaaah....)

Made of Explodium. :)

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MadeOfExplodium

In reality, while computers can (under the right circumstances) catch fire, I would be very surprised to see one do so in a manner such as to cause instant death to anyone standing next to one. At most, if you stayed in an unventilated room with a large computer suffering an electrical fire, you might die from the chemical toxins released from burning electrical insulation. Of course, you'd have to stay in that room for a while.

Somehow I think that someone would drag you out of there before you succumbed.

Re: NSA Computers Made of Explodium?

[fpb]

I did once own a computer that caught fire. I just turned it off and slowly watched it die down. And as you can tell, I am still here now - at least, if I am a ghost, I am the most cantankerous ghost you ever met.

Re: NSA Computers Made of Explodium?

[jordan179]

Same thing happened to me, with a laptop. As with your experience, nothing much happened -- some wiring caught fire inside, and I simply shut off the computer and let the fire die down. Computers just aren't violently flammable.