Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by locofocos 2177 days ago
Neat. This might not be satire though. To those wondering why it needs to be passively cooled:

Jews and other folks that keep Torah do not kindle a flame on the Shabbat. For those who are very strict about keeping God's commandments (basically orthodox Jews), they avoid anything that would create a spark. This spark is like a very tiny, short lived flame. Any time physical electronic contacts join together (like when turning on a light switch), the argument is that there's a very small spark that occurs. The same would happen with the electric contacts in a motor, such as the motor inside CPU fans, desktop power supplies, and platter hard drives. By running on this physical hardware, they're avoiding breaking the Sabbath as much as possible.

source: I'm a gentile Christian that tries to keep the Torah. So I'm more familiar with Jewish laws than the average person, but don't quote me too much.

1 comments

then every keystroke would be a spark, no?

I've often wondered if "spark" is only considered in the electromechanical sense. Driving a tesla might be ok, since it uses brushless motors that are electronically commutated and has no electromechanical switches or brushes to speak of.