Hervey Bay Gossip

Over the last few days Hervey Bay has been experiencing more than its fair share of electrical storms, power outages and power surges and every one of them can do damage to your computer. You don’t even have to have the computer switched on, as long as it’s plugged into the wall socket it can be damaged.

And this past week the damage has definitely been occurring. Local computer shops like Fraser Coast Computers have seen a steady stream of damaged computers coming through the front door. Rick at Fraser Coast Computers has seen everything from scorched RAM to blown motherboards and burntout power supplies and the cost of repairing damage like that can be frightening.

The sad thing is that all that damage is so avoidable. If you’re not using your computer or there’s an electrical storm heading towards Hervey Bay then make sure you unplug your computer from the wall socket. If there is a power outage make sure your computer is unplugged and don’t reconnect it until the power is back on and you know that it’s going to stay on.

If you’re like us and have to leave your computers on for business then make sure that there is a high-quality surge protector between the wall socket and your machine. Don’t waste your money on cheap power boards that come from hardware stores. Even though they might have a reset switch they just don’t have the capacity to absorb some power surges and they won’t protect something as valuable as a computer.

Instead, talk to Rick at Fraser Coast Computers or any of the other specialty computer shops in town about some heavy duty surge protection.

The cost of replacing burnt out components in your computer can amount to hundreds and hundreds of dollars. The cost of some heavy duty surge protection is much much less.

But don’t be fooled - when there’s an electrical storm about - even if you have the best surge protection possible still unplug your computers from the wall socket. The next lightning strike could be on a power line near you and then nothing is going to stop a huge power surge ripping through anything that’s still connected to the sockets in your home.

Last week our local member - Andrew McNamara - blamed our soon-to-be-gone-mayor Ted Sorenson for the delays in the water park that was supposed to have been under construction here in Hervey Bay.

Of course in local politics no one likes to put their hand up and admit that they’re at fault so it wasn’t long before we had a riposte from Ted. Sadly the degree of political debate is not as entertaining as it could be and the best that Ted could manage was - according to the Fraser Coast Chronicle -  to tell our local member to “keep his snotty nose out of council business”.

Come on Ted, we pay you lots of money to be far more eloquent and entertaining than that. Even the guy who owns the yellow house in Hervey Bay is doing a better job at getting his message across than you are Ted … at least he does have a message.