Has your mother ever asked you if you were wearing clean underwear?  If your mother was anything like mine, than you likely heard that question more times than you could ever possibly hope to count!  All through my childhood, that was one of her common mantras that she would ask in an authoritative manner on what seemed to be a daily basis.  This was especially true whenever I got in trouble or injured in some fashion and it is still true to this very day.

But what in the world does underwear have to do with a CPS? 

Well there have been times throughout my impressionable childhood that I have heard my beloved mother ask me if I was wearing clean underwear. For example, there was that time on Thanksgiving Day when I was about 13 years old when I broke my leg by falling off of a sliding board. My lower leg was broken in several places and looked like one of those Stretch Armstrong dolls that you could twist around, distort, etc. My father and grandfather took me to the hospital emergency room where I laid in shock for more than 6 hours until they could get a doctor to come in from his family meal. The end result was that I had received a monstrous cast on my leg that went from the tips of my toes up to my crotch that weighed almost as much as I did! When we finally made it home, all my mom wanted to know was if I was wearing clean underwear before I went to hang out in the ER all afternoon.

There were plenty of other times too. There was the time that I rescued two people from a burning apartment building and had to go to the ER for smoke inhalation as well as some first and second degree burns - I got a commendation for that one, but my dear mother wanted to know if I was wearing clean underwear when I did it. Then there was the first time that I spoke to a group of DJs at DJ Idea Sharing #9 to promote my first book - to which she stated “I’m so proud of you, were you wearing clean underwear?” This got me thinking - if my mother thought that I would be more presentable in public by wearing skid-mark free mighty-whities, couldn’t the same concept be applied to a CPS too?

Well it certainly does! Keeping your CPS clean not only makes your presentation better, but it is also vital for the most efficient movement of air and heat removal for your system. All that mung and other stuff that rhymes with “it” that collects on heat sinks, fans and vents is robbing your system of performance! That stuff restricts air-flow as well as acting as an insulator or inhibitor to the transfer of heat from heat sinks to the air passing through your system. This causes higher temps inside of your CPS, all of which slows your computer down the higher the temp goes. But if the temp of your CPU, HDDs, GPU, chipset and some other components gets above approximately 125F (50C for your metric using types), you are on the countdown to frying electronics.

What to do about it is fairly simple; clean it or have it cleaned by a professional at least twice per year. If you clean it yourself, be sure to use the proper tools, wear a face mask (that stuff is some of the nastiest respiratory irritants on the face of this planet) and do it in a well-ventilated area. You may want to wear old clothes when you do it as well, it’s a dirty and messy job to be sure - however it is necessary none the less.

Remember, a clean CPS is a happy CPS! A clean CPS is also more presentable to the general public as well - so be sure to clean it at least twice per year and be sure to wear clean underwear when dealing with your customers. As my friend Larry Williams likes to say - it’s all about public perception.

PS: Mom, I was wearing clean underwear when I wrote this. Love ya!

Tags: computer dj, cps, digital dj

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 at 12:19 and is filed under CPS DJing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.