Bad Choices: Laptops and...Liquid!

This is not a matter of preference. Unless your intent is to destroy your laptop (or someone else's, I suppose), do not - NOT - allow any liquid to come in contact with your machine.

I know this rule.

Many years ago (say, thirteen), I was caught out in a torrential downpour. I was soaked. My shoes were soaked. My knapsack was soaked. And the contents of my knapsack - most significantly, the laptop - were soaked.

I made the mistake then of turning the machine off (from hibernation) or on - and I learned my lesson, but good (okay, it took a wet cell phone where I made the same mistake to cement the point). If you turn the machine on (or off and then on again) before it is completely and utterly dry like the Sahara, you are likely to short something out (don't necessarily follow my advice here - the websites on drying out electronics recommend removing the battery and such, and I imagine they have good reasons, though I am not convinced that these cautions are mutually exclusive).

Please note that the downpour was not something I could have avoided (though I carried a plastic bag in my knapsack "just in case" for quite a while after that). Nor did I have an reasonable reason to think that ten years after the rain fiasco, the salad dressing covering my salad inside a plastic container inside a plastic bag inside my tote would leak out and onto my cell phone (since then, I wrap things that should never even have reason to leak more thoroughly).

Last night, however, I somehow found it reasonable to make a cup of coffee and sit cross-legged on my comfy couch while drinking it. This position is comfortable and calming and not inherently problematic...not even with the laptop on my knees. Er, until it was. And then it was readily apparent that choosing to sit cross-legged, holding a cup of coffee, and balancing a laptop on my knees (did I mention being on the phone?) was a no-good, very-bad choice.

Recommended: Couch, Laptop, No Coffee 

The coffee basically drizzled over the keyboard (and down between the keys, of course). I was advised to turn the computer upside down and let as much liquid as possible emerge. This turned out to be superb advice. I wiped up the drips, and decided that things were fine. Sat down to work...and discovered that the keyboard was not quite fine.

Not Recommended: Coffee + Keyboard
(though not as bad as the potential damage to a laptop)

For example: Hitting the spacebar carried an "n" along with it (example: "ngo nto nthe nstore"). Every time I hit "h," it refreshed my browser page. And when I tried to delete the "n's," I only succeeded in replacing them with "y's" (yes, using Backspace). And so it went...and so did I, around to corner to borrow a neighbor's blow dryer - which I used on a low heat, until I discovered the great debate whether to use a blow dryer or to avoid one at all costs, and use a vacuum instead. My new-favorite "dry-out-your-electronics" option was the bowl of rice, but I think that would work better for closed devices, and not a laptop keyboard (correct me, please, if I'm wrong).

Recommended: Laptop, Coffee, No Couch

I got lucky: By morning, nearly all keys did what I expected them to do, the rest worked by evening, and save for a little stiffness in the keys, we are back in business (except that the last night's intended post was deferred (and delayed) in favor of this one).

And tonight, I kept the coffee away from the computer.