One of those bizarre moments of coincidence. Would you believe me if I told you?

[wilfred]

/.

[EEVblog]

FFS, what are the odds.

Stuff like that seems spooky.

I have a co-incidence story not electronics related (Warning: Involves a death)

I went canyoning with a friend once and got to a small waterfall. (requires backstory)
He said he always jumped this instead of doing the rope climb down. I said don't jump because he'll hit the submerged rock. He said don't worry and jumped. Of course he hit the exact rock I said he would, shattered his ankle, out of action for 9 months.
From then on he always did the climb down.
Years later, 10 minutes after releasing the yearly canyoning calendar (I edited it) I got word my friend had died in that canyon. He died stuck on the rope on that exact down climb. It was in December.
The photo for December in the calendar I just released 10 minutes before not only had a photo of that canyon, but the exact spot where he died. But not only that, it was a photo of another friend of mine on the exact same rope, sitting down in the exact same position he got stuck and died in, and with water flowing over him, taken on the same trip he busted his ankle on.

Ridiculous coincidence.

[Halcyon]

The world works in mysterious ways Dave. I don't believe in religion or any of that... ermm "stuff"... but it's still spooky when it happens. Mother Nature 0wnz us all in the end. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the EEVblog forum members in that our thoughts are with you and your mate.

[Ampera]

I have no joke had, in my hands in the past year, had around 6 motherboards DOA or straight up die spontaneously through no observable fault of my own. While not exactly a coincidence, I am truly cursed to break everything I touch.

[Halcyon]

I have no joke had, in my hands in the past year, had around 6 motherboards DOA or straight up die spontaneously through no observable fault of my own. While not exactly a coincidence, I am truly cursed to break everything I touch.

I've told you before Konrad, buy an ESD wrist strap with an in-line 1 megohm resistor with your favourite (yankie) power plug. :-)

[Bicurico]

Not all "coincidences" are real coincidences.

Many years ago, I was doing much more computer support along our CAD/CAM software than I do now (Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 era).
We had this customer who called me one Monday, saying the computer would not boot and just display the error message "HARDDISK NOT FOUND". Of course this was mega urgent, he had to deliver a project, etc.

Well, I chatted a little with him, asking how his weekend went and so on and then I told him this: "Now turn off the computer, count to five and turn it on again - it will boot".

And so it did. The customer up to today has no clue how that "miracle" worked, how I knew it it would turn on and why he had to count to five. He often remembers this episode when talking to me.

So what really happend?

1) I knew that the company had no heating and it had been raining all weekend. The shop floor was really cold.
2) I knew that the harddisk was not starting because the motors were stuck due to them being too cold and eventually the BIOS would time out.
3) I chatted with him over 5 minutes, while the computer was turned on. That generated enough heat to release the stuck motor (grease).
4) I just told him to count to 5 for my own amusement.
5) I had about 50% chances that the computer would boot up on the next attempt - the same happend before at the same customer (but with other operators) and at other customers.



One of my friends had a funny (harmless) coincidences in his life:

Once he was dating this girl who lived in Madrid (600km from Porto). He was this crazy dude who thought it was cool to have a GF that far away. He would skip classes on middle of the week to just drive to Madrid for the day. In short terms, he was nuts (but a cool guy and great friend).
So one day we where at Uni and he told us that his GF was visiting him in Porto for the first time.
Later on, another colleague was filling up his car at a gas station downtown, when a car with spanish license plate stopped. Out came a girl who asked him where street so and so is (my friends address).
He just replied "oh, you want to go to Jose's place - just follow me!" (name changed)

She was really impressed on how popular her BF was - Porto is a city with a population of roughly 1.000.000 people - and the first guy she asked for the address, knew her boyfriend!

Cheers,
Vitor

[Circlotron]

Friend of mine was driving along Bell St Preston (Melbourne) one day and had a small accident with some other guy. Had another accident 365 days later, same time of day, same place, same other guy!

[vk6zgo]

Years back, a mate & I spent a year in the UK.
I travelled to Edinburgh  leaving him behind in Southampton.

The coach pulled into Edinburgh at about 8pm at night, & I headed off to find some accommodation.

Another bloke was walking the same way, & I idly looked at the tag on his suitcase.
It turned out he lived on the next street to my mate, just about back to back to his house.

[Ampera]

I have no joke had, in my hands in the past year, had around 6 motherboards DOA or straight up die spontaneously through no observable fault of my own. While not exactly a coincidence, I am truly cursed to break everything I touch.

I've told you before Konrad, buy an ESD wrist strap with an in-line 1 megohm resistor with your favourite (yankie) power plug. :-)

All but one of those were second hand parts off eBay. Never before have I ever had a problem with ESD and I usually work on solid wood. I just don't like ESD straps at all. Not to mention, all but one of these parts were legacy parts, with that one being a connected and grounded motherboard.

[Mr. Scram]

Stuff like that seems spooky.

I have a co-incidence story not electronics related (Warning: Involves a death)

I went canyoning with a friend once and got to a small waterfall. (requires backstory)
He said he always jumped this instead of doing the rope climb down. I said don't jump because he'll hit the submerged rock. He said don't worry and jumped. Of course he hit the exact rock I said he would, shattered his ankle, out of action for 9 months.
From then on he always did the climb down.
Years later, 10 minutes after releasing the yearly canyoning calendar (I edited it) I got word my friend had died in that canyon. He died stuck on the rope on that exact down climb. It was in December.
The photo for December in the calendar I just released 10 minutes before not only had a photo of that canyon, but the exact spot where he died. But not only that, it was a photo of another friend of mine on the exact same rope, sitting down in the exact same position he got stuck and died in, and with water flowing over him, taken on the same trip he busted his ankle on.

Ridiculous coincidence.

I'm sorry for your loss, Dave. It doesn't even look like a very dangerous spot, but that's generally the case with the things that get you. This is also true in the machine shop. People understand to keep their hands away from whirring blades and sharp spikes, but it's the seemingly uneventful machines that catch people out.

I never seem to be able to prevent burning myself on fresh welds. I make a mental note of the hot spot, get distracted by whatever I do next and inevitably grab the hot area. Fool me 638 times, shame on me I guess.