Dude, your Dell's on fire

As a public service, we'd like to point you to an article in today's New York Times warning that your Dell computer could burst into flames.

More specifically, the lithium ion batteries in many Dell computers is what could suddenly ignite. Thus, Dell is recalling approximately 4.1 million batteries that were installed in notebooks from April 2004 to July 18 of this year.

You have to check out the photo of a guy whose pick-up truck was destroyed after his blazing laptop lit both his gas tanks and ammunition he had in the glove compartment.

So if you're a recent Dell owner, check that battery. You probably are smelling smoke.

Here at Fried Rice Thoughts, we're unsure as whether or not to be happy we roll with a Toshiba laptop or not. On the down side, that little bugger is currently in a shop while some master tinkerer figures out what's wrong with it. On the plus side, it will not (presumably) set itself afire. (Of course, that would provide a great excuse to get a new computer... if we could afford it.)