[Theophylact]

I can't resist adding this letter to New Scientist. It's a bit old, but still valid.

Magnetic moggies

New Scientist vol 154 issue 2080 - 03 May 97, page 55


Overijse, Belgium

I wish to draw your attention to a previously unrecognised risk to data stored on magnetic media in a domestic environment (Feedback, 5 April).

We are a typical family—two parents, two late-teenage children, four oldish computers and two cats. The cats are dominant in the hierarchy; they have all the luxuries—including a third-generation technology cat flap (bought from Harrods) which opens as they approach but which slams in the face of the local toms. The computers are at the bottom—but any computer failure sends the stress levels in the rest of us soaring, as we curse and swear on a stack of Microsoft manuals that we will make full backups every week.

Early in March, on the same day, two discs became unreadable on separate machines—one an ordinary floppy and the other a 100 megabyte Zip Drive disc full of irreplaceable files. We held our breath as Norton Utilities pieced the files back together, and went on a witch-hunt for possible causes —low voltage desk lights, cordless phone, junk software—which were all put away or deleted.

The next week the same thing happened again. Paranoia ruled—what stupid games had our son been playing? Had he taken the discs to school?

Then, over dinner, Ruth, our daughter, said: "I saw the magnet on Titi's (the older cat's) collar sticking to the metal filing cabinet as she climbed up to the desk next to the computer."

We had a delightful image of the small and powerful magnet which operates the reed switch in the cat flap waving gently over the discs on the desk as she purred her way to sleep in the warmth. So: magnetic moggies cause dodgy discs. You have been warned.


Andrew Laing