For some reason, I do appear to have acquired a reputation in some circles for causing explosions and setting things on fire. Yes, it is true that in a very, very few cases my prowess at connecting things together has let me down a little, with incendiary results. That I will admit. But it's not as if I blow things up willy-nilly all of a piece. Most of the time, things just decide to go on fire of their own accord without me doing anything to them.

That's what happened here. This was during the very early stages of Domesday 2010 in May 2010. You can tell just how early in the proceedings this all happened because the BeebMaster Domesday Machine is still piled up in the background. I had just got both of the LV-ROM players onto the table at the same time. Remember that the faulty one hadn't been in use since 2004 at the latest, or possibly 2003, and the good one hadn't been in use since January/February 2007.

I had plugged in and switched on the dead one, and nothing happened. My first thought was to suspect the power cable, so I laid my eyes on the nearest item also requiring a kettle lead for power, which happened to be the good VP415. I put it on the table and plugged the same power cable into it, to check that the cable wasn't faulty. Sure enough, the good VP415 came on, and bleeped to tell me there was no disc in the tray. All good.

Then, after only a minute or so, there was a pop and a cloud of smoke started pouring out of the side.

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