Unisys' Linux booth too hot to handle
BOSTON--The LinuxWorld Conference and Expo has been a hot show in the computing industry, but not usually hot enough to trip fire alarms.
But smoke from a Unisys booth led to a fire alarm at the show that caused some to evacuate from the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
People love to rib Intel for its hot chips and high power consumption these days, but a Unisys representative blamed the mishap on convention center wiring, pointing out that servers at the show weren't even plugged in. The company's display was up and running 70 minutes after the alarm went off.
Update: Oleg Zhurakousky, a Unisys solutions architect, said in an e-mail that he called 911 to prevent a much more serious disruption. "If (a) fire alarm was triggered, then sprinklers would go off, which would put an end to the whole expo," he said.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
