Tech guru and former Inqster Charlie Demerjian has confirmed that his veteran Sony Vaio (running Linux) did, in fact, catch fire while he was innocently surfing in bed.
“My first clue was a large puff of grey-black smoke billowing up from the left side of the laptop. No, seriously, one minute lolcatz, the next OMFGfire,” the chip master wrote in an article posted on SemiAccurate.
“To say I [leapt] out of bed would be an understatement, and I quickly yanked the power chord from the laptop, followed by pulling the battery out. It was unusually hard to remove, and the area around the power plug was so hot it was painful.”
Fortunately, the smoke quickly subsided after the fast-moving Demerjian cut power to the overheating system.
“[Yes], the aftermath was quite a bit shy of the Dell ‘Firebomb 3000’ models of the mid-2000’s, ironically caused by Sony batteries, but still scary.
“The hilarity of watching that story unfold from the inside at The Inquirer was lacking, replaced by a lot of adrenaline.”
Demerjian emphasized that the incident had occurred despite the fact that his system was resting on “the proverbial hard and well ventilated surface” – a Lapworks Furtura.
“[So], remember kiddies, when in bed, always practice safe computing.
“[Also], always use a hard surface, and avoid Sony products if you value your house, cat, or children,” he added.
