POW POW POWER PAD

by John Blackmer, for MCUC Magazine

Among the assorted whatzits and thingies one must have for the computer, one
of the least used and often overlooked safety item is the surge protector. 
Many of us mistakenly use a standard power strip, that is, a non-surge
protected extention of the 110 volt power outlet in the wall.  When I first
started computing I made just that mistake.  I grabbed an apparently
inexpensive unit.  OH! it was fused and had 6 places to plug in my assemblage
of power supplies and cords.  BUT it was NOT surge protected!  The difference
is in the fusing; a FUSE protects by limiting the VOLTAGE that gets through to
the piece of equipment.  The SURGE PROTECTOR limits the AMPERAGE.  So you see,
there is a difference.

I solved my problem by buying a single output surge protector and plugging my
power strip into it.  The house I live in is very old and has no grounded
outlets so I also had to use one of those adapter things that you attach to
the screw in the cover plate.  I'm sure you can visualize what the poor outlet
looked like!  Heck, I had 8 inches of stuff sticking out of the bloomin'
wall!! 

Several months ago one of our favorite sysops brought several AC POWER PADS to
a meeting and, being a nice guy, I bought one!!!!  It turned out to be one of
the best buy's I've made through the club.  It not only allowed me to get rid
of the 8 inches of stuff coming out of the wall, it makes it much easier to
switch between my array of drives, cleared up the tangle of wires behind my
desk and provides excellent protection for my equipment. 

It's just a "pad" that fits under your monitor with 5 outlets on the rear side
of it and 6 lighted switches on the front.  Each outlet and corresponding
switch is labeled for each piece of equipment.  The sixth switch is to turn
the whole system on or off.  At one time I even had my TV, stereo, lamp and
computer equipment hooked up to it and it performed admirably. 

IF you can find one or persuade that sysop to bring some more to the
meetings, I personally recommend one for any computerist. 

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