July 14, 2004
You Have Zinc Whiskers?
That is what the lady told me. I was trying to file some paperwork electronically with the Colorado Secretary of State. It wasn’t going through. Their web site was giving me all kinds of trouble…for multiple days. So I wrote to them and told them they sucked. They write back to me:
I am sorry it has taken me a few days to respond. Our computer data center has been infected with zinc whiskers. This catastrophe happens to 1% of data centers. We have been forced to move our computer data center to another location and have been purchasing new hardware whenever the zinc whiskers wreck havoc. The new computer system does work, but you have to be patient, which is why we are offering an introductory reduced fee of $0.99 for online filing of annual reports. I am sorry you are so frustrated. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
You gotta be making that up? What the hell are zinc whiskers? Some sort of virus? Weird. So the story goes public via the Denver Post and it turns out this is real and NASA has written stuff up on it. Go figure.
So when aliens attack someday, we better be ready because if they have zinc whisker guns, we are screwed!
