A Ballmer Device - a must have for windows users!
So I was getting my library card for Boulder library, its great living back in a country where the written language is one I understand and they were processing it no problem, no questions. Amazing in itself in a town where you need a resting heart rate below 50 bpm and body fat below 14% to live within the city limits (oh those are for the over 40's by the way, if you are in your 20s you have to run a 4 minute mile amongst other things).
Anyway as I was doing this someone walked over from the pack of PCs at the entrance and caught the assistants eye. Smoothly she just reached into her draw and quickly brought out this cross between a TV remote and a phaser and pointed it at the PC. I quickly turned in time to see the screen go blank.
Wow a remote reboooting device! "So you run Windows?" I asked. "Yes" came the reply. So apparently if you run more than 1 Windows PC in any sort of heavy usage you can get these "Ballmer" devices to remotely rebooot them - that is if they run XP. If you run Vista you need to upgrade to an enhanced Ballmer device AKA a RPG 7 because the standard Ballmer device doesn't work with Vista - though you do get the joy of saying "Hasta la vista, vista (Copyright Steve Jobs)". I made the obligitory "you should run Macs remark" acknowledged by the weary "do you think I would chose Windows look" but thinking of it now SunRay is the correct answer.
