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Computers can be smelly, too. Ever booted up your old Windows 95 box from the basement? The dust blown from the fans has a particular smell. It is even more dra
by ktpsns 3y ago
Computers can be smelly, too. Ever booted up your old Windows 95 box from the basement? The dust blown from the fans has a particular smell. It is even more dramatic for real vintage computing like punch card machines, which smell very oily, in a similar way like very old cars and planes.
- stpe 3y agoIndeed so. Once in my youth I brought my Amiga 500 to a friend's place, and he had a cat that peed on the edge of it. The computer was ok, but it was basically a flood of cat pee seeping in into the memory expansion slot underneath. Tried everything to get rid of the smell. Including perfume. Didn't make it better. Especially when it got hot. Still today, when I smell cat urine I instantly think of Motorola 68000 assembly.
- temac 3y ago> Still today, when I smell cat urine I instantly think of Motorola 68000 assembly. I did not expect to read that today. Or ever.
- devoutsalsa 3y agoWhen a friend incorrectly wired up an AT power supply, causing the power cord to explode on power up, that made a distinctive smell.
- 6stringmerc 3y agoRelevant: Ooops, I forgot to put the paste on the processor
- devoutsalsa 3y agoMy personal snafu was plugging a 9 pin CGA cable into 9 pin serial port. White smoke started billowing out of the power supply. Turned it off, fixed the provision, and the computer still worked after that.
- chaxor 3y agoI love the smell of doing a good wipe on my hardware by sticking all of it in the microwave. The smell of burnt silicon in the morning is what keeps me waking up everyday.
- reaperducer 3y agoComputers can be smelly, too Yep. The specific smell of the VOCs burning off a new Commodore 64 or 1541 brings back a flood of memories of cold, dark Winter evenings standing in the driveway waiting for the UPS guy.
- semireg 3y agoI feel like this could be rendered as a 16 bit screen saver.
- biofox 3y agoDisassembling and building computers as a teen, the smell of a freshly booted motherboard was almost intoxicating. The clicking and buzzing of the floppy drive. Crackling of the screen. Warm hum of the fan. It all transported me to another world where anything was possible.
- Retric 3y agoThe complaint is more websites don’t have a distinct smell. Walk through a library and a dozen different books can all have distinct smells. Perhaps this book was taken to the beach a few times while that that one used a slightly unusual glue. Based on book age and the publisher involved you can even encounter similar smells looking at different copies of the same book at different libraries. So yes a computer has a distinct smell the way a library does but that smell doesn’t change based on the knowledge you’re browsing.
- peterleiser 3y agoMaybe we all need DIY home fragrance printers: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-create-a-home-fragrance-printer/ https://www.instructables.com/How-to-create-a-home-fragrance... HN posts could deliver your favorite fragrance for high points articles or deliver something undesirable for articles, say, about Rust (I kid, I kid).
- roguas 3y agoI am from eastern europe, my dad was vice principal in high school. I would pay good money today to smell again that dusty computer lab room filled with good'ol 386 and mario sounds.
- bombcar 3y ago> Sometimes a certain smell will take me back to when I was young How come I'm never able to identify where it's coming from? I'd make a candle out of it if I ever found it Try to sell it, never sell out of it, I'd probably only sell one It'd be to my brother, 'cause we have the same nose Same clothes, homegrown, a stone's throw from a creek we used to roam But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered Out of student loans and tree house homes, we all would take the latter
- whoopdedo 3y agoThere's some kid today who will experience future nostalgia from opening an Alibaba package.
- listenfaster 3y agoHow about the smell of a dying C64 power supply? Anyone else?
- nuancebydefault 3y agoAs well as teen spirit and napalm