I understand the concept of the article, a USB device that will fry your laptop by charging and applying high voltage.
But I don't understand the excerpt about the guy writing number 129 on a USB stick and stuff. Why would he plug it in his laptop if he knew it would burn it? And if it was intential, aren't there easier ways to burn it? Thanks for explaining...
Highly unlikely that 129 people in a row respond like that though...
More likely is that someone destroys the USB device in anger, dismantles it, is too shocked to do anything, doesn't interpret the number as a counter, or doesn't want to ruin other people's computer. And, of course, that many people in a row stealing a USB device from a backpack is already unlikely in itself.
Yeah it would have been clearer if he didn't use a power of 2 for his counter's current state. Made me think it had to do with the device's storage capacity.
I'm assuming the original story was actually told as a joke, where the "128" number was intentionally misleading until the punchline at the end where he incremented the number and "payed it forward".
But I don't understand the excerpt about the guy writing number 129 on a USB stick and stuff. Why would he plug it in his laptop if he knew it would burn it? And if it was intential, aren't there easier ways to burn it? Thanks for explaining...