Burning a Magnesium NeXT Cube (1993)(simson.net)
simson.net
Burning a Magnesium NeXT Cube (1993)
https://simson.net/ref/1993/cubefire.html
46 comments
Is it just me or does this read a little boring and a lot longer than it should..? So much of the email is just him calling random people... whole paragraphs of it
Dunno, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was a, well, slow burn, but nicely written IMO, setting up the scene and all. Felt a lot like reading Neal Stephenson's Zodiac, with a bunch of engineers and the chemistry aspect. I didn't read it as an actual email; it's storytelling, and pretty good one at that.
That is what happened when you get used to modern tv shoes, doom-scrolling on social media, and immediate gratification in general: anything older than 2010 feels super slow.
Alien is my official brainrot-ometer. If you start fidgeting and going "ohhh my gawwwwwd these old films are so slooooow" before the chestburster, you may be cooked.
Also a good example of how hyper-optimised physiques are in films and media in general and the standards that produces. While I'm sure Ripley's underwear scene caused a fuzzy section on a million VHS tapes at the time, my (female, borderline zoomer) cousin, who failed the boredom test before almost falling off the sofa when the chestburster appeared, said "oh wow, actresses then had such ordinary, girl-next-door bodies!". Mind-boggling.
Also a good example of how hyper-optimised physiques are in films and media in general and the standards that produces. While I'm sure Ripley's underwear scene caused a fuzzy section on a million VHS tapes at the time, my (female, borderline zoomer) cousin, who failed the boredom test before almost falling off the sofa when the chestburster appeared, said "oh wow, actresses then had such ordinary, girl-next-door bodies!". Mind-boggling.
I guess the opening title of Twin Peaks would be a great boredom test as well.
I enjoyed the emphasis on all the real life snags the author hit when trying to realize a simple idea. Really makes the end worthwhile.
TL;DR: Guy wants to burn a computer. He burns two computers.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nitroba/albums/721575944354804...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/nitroba/albums/721575944354804...
The meandering and hyper detailed style was nostalgic to me. Maybe I'm misremembering but I feel like this style was a lot more common 15+ years ago. I wouldn't dream of including this much detail now, and I don't think my writing would be well received if I did. But there's a lot of character in it. It also had more and different typos than I'm used to reading now, typos on the Internet now are mostly the wrong correctly spelled word.
I grew up reading this style of USENET news, BBS post, etc. I’ve never had the capacity to write at length in this manner (lack of patience? self-defeating inner critic?) but I agree, it is still enjoyable to read. And it instantly calls to mind the early internet and the Bay area.
You might be interested in checking out "Up in the Old Hotel". It's a collection of Joseph Mitchell's reportage for The New Yorker from the 30s on – people certainly don't write like they used to!
liked the read but it gets a bit confusing at some point, its abut unclear whos telling the story. moved the cube from sophies to _your_ basement, from that part. whos you? its like it was being recalled or confirmed by someone else not the writer (thats good) but not completely put in the right 'person' for the article.
totally love that the first thing on ur mind was burn the cube hah. also funny such an good opportunity eventually came by :D
totally love that the first thing on ur mind was burn the cube hah. also funny such an good opportunity eventually came by :D
At the top, it has what looks like part of an email, addressed to "Dan Ruby, Editor, NeXTWORLD Magazine". I'm guessing "you" is Dan, and the narrator is "Simson L. Garfinkel, Senior Editor, NeXTWORLD Magazine"
yes totally missed it thanks. o found it at the end , being a note to Dan. had me scroll back to top :') totally comment too soon!
Dear Dan,
I am so sorry I went to such great lengths to incinerate what was meant to be your computer.
LOL
I am so sorry I went to such great lengths to incinerate what was meant to be your computer.
LOL
[deleted]
No image of the backup cube?
Based on the details given I think this is it? https://flic.kr/p/vhKHj
Jobs left Apple and formed NeXT in 1985.
If he had chosen MIPS instead of the 68030, then the fate of the hardware line might have been quite different.
If he had chosen MIPS instead of the 68030, then the fate of the hardware line might have been quite different.
For an article about photographing the burning cube, it contains surprisingly little pictures.
The very first line of TFA: Note: We have recently posted (all the photos)[https://www.flickr.com/photos/nitroba/albums/721575944354804...] from the cube burning on Flickr.
Stories such as this make me nostalgic, and wish my Cube still booted up, and/or that GNUstep would get some traction, or even that I had a better successor to Altsys Virtuoso than toggling the settings for my stylus in Windows so that I can run Macromedia Freehand/MX.
What problem are you having with the boot? Is it power supply issues or something else?
Bad capacitor I believe --- unfortunately, since the problem developed I've moved twice, and then been forced out of my home by a flood, and still haven't gotten things sorted out since returning. Maybe when I retire.
The NeXT Cube's magnesium case was chosen for its excellent EMI shielding properties and heat dissipation, but this same material burns at approximately 2200°C (4000°F) - making this likely one of the hottest computer fires ever documented.
This record will be finally be challenged when Nvidia releases the RTX 6090.
A lot of cars use magnesium in components to save weight. Another hazard for firefighters in addition to the batteries / fuel tanks, airbags, tyres, etc.
I imagine having a lab full of these during a fire would be...inconvenient.
Knowing magnesium burns as brightly as it does and is so difficult to put out once lit, having done both as a kid, I'd always just assumed magnesium was the name of the paint color or something - not what it was really made out of. As they'd mentioned briefly in the article, water just makes the flame worse rather than better.
Seems like asking for trouble, but perhaps it's enough of a pain to light initially that it's not a concern?
Seems like asking for trouble, but perhaps it's enough of a pain to light initially that it's not a concern?
I make videos of burning foods like jelly beans for fun, with the idea that if something catches fire easily it's probably not good for you due to calorie density and low water content and, by proxy, lack of nutrition and unnatural components like petroleum based vax. For example, honey will not ignite unless dehydrated first.
High fructose corn syrup won't either.
A friend and I lit a bag of Funyuns in an ashtray as kids, we almost burned his house down.
Olive oil burns readily; it was a major source of light in antiquity over the entire range of olive trees. I doubt you will find anyone telling you to avoid it as lacking nutrition. You can’t subsist on it, but you can’t subsist on salad greens either.
This reminds me of burning scrap VW engine blocks or transmission cases. It can be done on an ordinary wood camp fire. You'll probably want to cut up the scrap into more manageable chunks rather than go for the whole thing at once. Then, toss a few into the hottest part of the fire. For about a half hour, nothing will happen. Then, the chunks will begin to melt, forming puddles onto the bed of coals, where they will ignite.
It is interesting that the pools of liquid metal burn quite slowly in the middle of the regular fire; you will only get a bright orange flame rather than the spectacle promised. Maybe only 5x as bright as a normal fire. But, if you scoop some up onto a stick (a long piece of steel angle iron is recommended) and pull it out of the fire into open air, it will burn with the brilliant white flame with which you are generally familiar.
For the finale, plunge the end of the stick into a large bucket of water, where you will observe the magnesium blob continue to burn while submerged for several seconds. Do not attempt to do this the opposite way by dumping the bucket onto the fire; an explosion will result instead. In fact, keep all moisture away from the fire in general. If you need to put the fire out for any reason, too bad.
After the fire burns itself out, the next day you might find some solidified blobs of unburnt magnesium. Be sure to remove all of these so you do not have an unexpected experience the next time you have a fire there. I have quite a nice piece where the magnesium flowed around a stick, but did not ignite.
This comment comes with the obvious disclaimer that nobody anywhere should try this for any reason, especially not the reason of fun.
It is interesting that the pools of liquid metal burn quite slowly in the middle of the regular fire; you will only get a bright orange flame rather than the spectacle promised. Maybe only 5x as bright as a normal fire. But, if you scoop some up onto a stick (a long piece of steel angle iron is recommended) and pull it out of the fire into open air, it will burn with the brilliant white flame with which you are generally familiar.
For the finale, plunge the end of the stick into a large bucket of water, where you will observe the magnesium blob continue to burn while submerged for several seconds. Do not attempt to do this the opposite way by dumping the bucket onto the fire; an explosion will result instead. In fact, keep all moisture away from the fire in general. If you need to put the fire out for any reason, too bad.
After the fire burns itself out, the next day you might find some solidified blobs of unburnt magnesium. Be sure to remove all of these so you do not have an unexpected experience the next time you have a fire there. I have quite a nice piece where the magnesium flowed around a stick, but did not ignite.
This comment comes with the obvious disclaimer that nobody anywhere should try this for any reason, especially not the reason of fun.
Wouldn’t a sufficient amount of sand (eventually) put out the fire?
Presumably, but I would assume that the sort of people prepared for intense metal fires are not the same sort of people who go starting intense metal fires.
+1! This was a relatively common thing to do at the Glamis[1] sand dunes in the 1970s-1980s. Glamis is a massive sets of sand dunes in California where bunches of people go to camp and ride offroad vehicles.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glamis,_California
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glamis,_California
Wow, that seems like some absolute Mad Max shit... very cool
One of the more memorable experiences of my youth was watching a VW microbus burn. It had been stored over the winter and evidently the fuel line had either deteriorated or been chewed on by an animal. After idling for a few minutes it went spectacularly up in flames. The firefighters weren’t expecting magnesium and were quite surprised by the intensity of the fire and the bright white flames from the puddles of molten metal.
This is a common problem with rear-engine VWs if the fuel lines aren’t maintained. Fuel pumping through rubber hoses directly over hot exhaust is a recipe for disaster. It’s generally recommended now to replace the lines at least every ten years. You don’t see them wearing as they do so from the inside. Things can even start up after sitting for a while after driving since the exhaust is still hot and there is pressure in the lines.
On the '65 beetle we have, I always heard that the main culprit wasn't the fuel lines themselves, but the brass flange for the fuel hose being a (not great) press-fit into the zinc carburetor. And that's after the fuel pump, so if that flange comes out the loose end of the hose sprays gasoline all over the engine. It's not uncommon to tie that end of the hose on with some safety wire, just in case.
Makes sense. I'm talking mostly from the perspective of fuel injected Vanagons. Connections generally seem good; it's usually the hoses.
If only we'd known! This was decades ago, before the internet, and perhaps the word had not yet got around. I loved that Microbus.
“The first round of photographs were dreadfully underexposed. We set up a second bar of magnesium, set it burning, and discovered that an f-stop of 3.5 with an exposure of 1/60th of a second with 100ASA film was just about right.”
That part is truly retro: the professional photographer having to worry about exposure and capturing the scene with the flames.
That part is truly retro: the professional photographer having to worry about exposure and capturing the scene with the flames.
I feel like there was a Wired article or something that covered this story. I remember reading something like this, or maybe exactly this article, on Hacker News years ago.