This evening, I managed to spill a whole glass of water on my keyboard. Yes - I am clumsy, I already know that. Anyway, the keyboard is supposed to be water proof (apparently, the keys are hosted in a compartment which is separated from the membrane and the circuitry), so I shut down the computer, kept the keyboard under the fan to dry, and went off to Lake Market. After around 45 minutes, I came back, found the exterior of the keyboard to be more or less dry, and so I plugged it into the computer and started the thing up. Boy!! I was in for a big surprise. As soon as the system began to boot, random characters began to appear all over the screen, and the Function LED (my keyboard has a LED which tells me whether or not the Function keys are enabled) began to turn itself on and off quite erratically, without any kind of input from me. I managed to do a Ctrl - Alt -Del (well - it’s a Microsoft keyboard, and probably these three keys are given some extra protection), turned off the computer and unplugged the keyboard. After a bit of fumbling around for a screw-driver of the right size, I managed to locate one and opened up the keyboard. The water had somehow managed to seep through the key compartment, and had seeped right in between the plastic layers underneath the keys. Scratched head for sometime. Then, went to my mother, borrowed her hair dryer, and started “blow drying” the entire thing. Fifteen minutes of blowing through the plastic sheets, and all the water had gone away. My mom did not like the process at all, but I could’nt think of any other solution. Anyway, after that, I plugged in the keyboard again, started up the system, and everything was back to normal. A pretty good experience, I would say.

Jabber at WBUT

I setup Jabberd at the West Bengal University of Technology today. It was pertty easy - and seems to work fine.