URL: http://www-cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/africa/9810/13/RB000657.reut.html

Rats take a byte out of Ugandan exam computers

13 October 1998 Web posted at: 18:47 SAT, Johannesburg time (16:47 GMT)

KAMPALA, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Thousands of Ugandan students are unsure whether they have won university places after rats chewed through computer cables at the National Examination Board causing the system to crash, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The New Vision daily said senior board officials were very concerned that rodents were able to infiltrate areas holding such vital information.

The hitch has affected students who were to be placed in teacher training colleges, polytechnics and medical institutions.

It is not the first time that rats have eaten away at important installations in Uganda.

Earlier this year they chewed through telecommunications wires, cutting off phone links to parts of western Uganda and Rwanda.

Last week a workshop on law reform heard that reams of vital computerised court evidence had been lost in the same way.

Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

-- Buddy Y. (DC) (buddy@bellatlantic.net), October 14, 1998

Answers

Bet they bought the system from a Japanese concern. Several years back this outfit decided to fix up networking right - their own network cards, software, etc. and provide total systems all in one fell swoop. They started having trouble with mice gnawing the network cables - even though they ignored identical cabling that was used for other systems. Turned out the frequency they chose for data transmission was the 'Pied Piper' frequency - the cables all buzz at a harmonic that is very attractive to rodents. This isn't a joke, it really was reported that way in the tech news. This outfit in Uganda probably got equipment they dumped on the third world after they found out about the problem.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 14, 1998.

wow... now we have to worry about rat2k... just great.

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 14, 1998.