Jessica Litman, a law professor who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., said she kept going halfway up the stairs to her computer to get blackout news online before remembering that her sole news source at that point was the car radio.
Coming just two days after the latest Internet worm, Blaster, caused headaches for many computer users, the blackout further underscored the vulnerability to technology that millions of people have come to take for granted.
The station, which was launched in 1985, was supposed to have lasted just three years, but over time, as it survived electrical blackouts, computer crashes, fires and a puncture by another spacecraft, the Mir became for many beleaguered Russian citizens a symbol of their nation's technological ingenuity and perseverance.
The advantage of a U.P.S. device is that when voltage drops below usable levels, as in a brownout or blackout, your computer will remain running for a few minutes.
In the early afternoon of Aug. 14, as power-line failures were building toward a historic blackout, a computer technician in Carmel, Ind., was trying to fix a program that prevents such events by developing an overall picture of the grid once every five minutes.
You might also consider buying an uninterruptible power supply that can power your computer during brownouts or blackouts.
Through the 90's, as it weathered blackouts, fires, computer crashes, cracks in its hull and even a puncture by a wayward space tanker, Mir came to symbolize not just the hard-luck story of modern Russia, but also the hard-headed perseverance and ingenuity of Russia's people.
Unlike regular telephone service, which has its own electrical supply, an I.P. phone will not work during a blackout or if a computer is turned off.
It's a small, cosy bedroom with blackout blinds and a computer, as some of our experiments involve asking people to learn something before they go to sleep.
Robert Metcalfe, who three decades ago invented Ethernet, the first great electronic protocol for computer networks, foresees a "gigalapse"–a blackout spanning one billion person-hours.
