[MrTonyD]

One time when I worked at NeXT I accidentally kicked my cube with my tennis shoe - it was under my desk. Sparks flew. I told the fellow sitting in the next office what had happened - and he wanted to see it too. We both laughed as we watched sparks flying. Before long there was a crowd around my desk - maybe six people - incredulous that it was so easy to create fireworks. Well, what we didn't know was that Steve was sitting about 3 feet away - behind an office divider. His head peeked around the divider - and he silently watched the sparks flying. We all stopped laughing and returned to our work.

Next morning everyone in the company had a paper memo on their desks (the only one I ever remember - we all used email.) It said that cubes were to be properly displayed on top of desks only. No mention of the real reason for the new policy.

[milcron]

IIRC the cases were made out of magnesium. There are videos of lighting them aflame on youtube.

[gcb0]

I recall the journalist wanting a pic for the cover of NeXT is dead edition. and even in a industrial oven he had a hard time igniting the magnesium. I think he never did. probably a magnesium alloy

[aaronbrethorst]

Oh, it burned: http://simson.net/hacks/cubefire.html

[krylon]

But still, he had to do a lot more than kick it.