Talk:1598: Salvage

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as randall points out, the whole rice thing is a myth. either there isn't water inside your phone, in which case it's going to work anyway, or there is and the rice will only get the moisture off the outside and it won't. --108.162.216.8 13:40, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Ahah! I just inserted something along those lines. (Also, the Wiki's server clock looks to be fast.) While I didn't go into it myself, the biggest problem is water pooling in the casing and being held by surface-tension between two planes (e.g. circuit board and plastic frame). It's possible that absorbing rice (or other substance) in concact with the vents could draw water (or other liquids!) through the vents, like a wick, even from further inside, but I'd normally dismantle a device as much as I'd dare (certainly not beyond the point that I'd obviously break it more) and leach off the liquid directly with appropriate material.
A careful dab/wipe wash in distilled water (or suitable non-water cleaning liquids) is sometims also necessary for long-standing residues (e.g. of coffee that went into laptop keyboards), but the absolute main thing is to turn off a device as soon as possible after a soaking, including removing batteries, so that you've not already pre-ruined anything delicate by a spurious back-voltage.
But don't take my word as definitive, because it depends on the device, the degree of soaking and what it's soaked with and the rice might work sufficiently or nothing might... Go seek a professional, if you're not just feeling lucky. (Luckier than when you got it wet, anyway. ;) 141.101.64.233 14:07, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
And if it was salt water it got soaked in... well, good luck there. -boB (talk) 16:06, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

I used to have a digital clock that stopped when it got wet, and didn't start again until it dried out, 11.5 hours later.
The weird thing was that it was always 11.5 hours - I checked (to within a few dozen minutes) at least four separate times. To this day I have no idea why. --141.101.81.78 13:44, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

More mysterious than the precise timing of your digital clock's resurrection is what you were doing to get it wet so often. :) 162.158.90.210 14:00, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
Also saying always 11.5 hours when you also says that it is to within 1 hour is not so precise. The one hour comes from the fact that a few means 2-5, and 5 x 12 minutes = 1 hour ;-) --Kynde (talk) 14:10, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
It was the sort of clock that is worn on hands (I think that type of clock is also called "watch"), so washing hands the wrong way could do it.
And yes, I know of the weird precision - the whole thing happened about 15 years ago, and while I distinctly remember the weirdly precise figure, I cannot remember any measurement of it more precise than "a few dozen minutes" :-) --141.101.81.78 15:10, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Could here be an additional joke from the old movie Raise the Titanic (film)?I'm not sure how this will be pronounced in different part of the English world, but could it be pronounced just like Rice the Titanic? That would be a joke where you do not need he title text to get it... (Which is usually the case - the title text often just adds and extra layer to the joke). --Kynde (talk) 14:14, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

That's impossible. Rice is /raɪs/ and raise is /reɪz/. Too many differences. An English speaker who hears rice when raise was pronounced is like another who hears chip when sheep was pronounced. 108.162.221.17 14:32, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
There are so many weird English dialects. There's probably one in England (or more) where they say raise like Americans say rice. 108.162.236.241 15:52, 2 November 2015 (UTC)
Not 'English', and not that way round, but I can think of an Ulster (Northern Ireland) pronunciation where "rice" rather like Americans "raise". (But then "raise", itself, also suffers from vowel-shifts/etc.) 141.101.64.233 18:35, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

If you Google "rice cell phone" there is quite a bit of information, such as https://www.gazelle.com/thehorn/2014/05/06/gazelles-guide-water-damage-truth-rice-galaxy-everything/. Not sure what belongs in this article. Matchups (talk) 14:24, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Is this the first strip to use "my hobby" in the title-text rather than the actual comic? 173.245.54.52 14:29, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Nope, there's also 1480: Super Bowl. --162.158.39.207 15:05, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, the way to fix a wet phone, is just to remove the battery and let it dry out, once the battery is out you can even rince it in case what you got all over it wasn't just water.. Oh you can't remove the battery, you say? Well, then you are truly fucked.162.158.114.222 15:56, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

I always thought that the rice myth came from people who misunderstood, mis-told or heard but forgot the joke affirmation that "If you put your broken phone in rice overnight, chinese workers will be attracted and repair it". The joke could be from the myth, but I wouldn't be so sure. 141.101.66.239 16:04, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

In case anyone needs anything more about it, the first reference to drying-with-rice that I thought of was the pilot episode of CBS's Sherlock Holmes show 'Elementary. I forget if this version of Sherlock thinks it's a valid idea (but he at least knows that the phone's owner thought it so...) 141.101.64.233 16:43, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

I am sorry, but the second link posted in the article to show that this is supposed to be a myth (https://smartphones.gadgethacks.com/how-to/myth-debunked-uncooked-rice-isnt-best-way-save-your-water-damaged-phone-0154799/) is a very unscientific and weird experimental setup - it doesn't have anything to do with the real situation. It should be removed or replaced by a real study. Also, many people miss the point that while there are a better methods (silica gel, or very pure alcohol, which is my preferred method when I can access the boards), rice is something many people have at home. Also, there are regions on the earth where relative humidity is very high - leaving it to dry with an airflow might not help as much as a drying agent there. 162.158.134.76 08:28, 2 November 2018 (UTC)

Although everyone is referencing the [more famous] Raise the Titanic, there is another great novel about raising the wreck; Ghost from the Grand Banks by Arthur C Clarke. It was published late in his career, in 1990, and is nowhere near as well known as his more popular, older, series. IMO a great read (though does have some bad reviews online) that is all about the technology and science involved in raising the two halves (by two different, competing, companies). Plus, he introduces the idea of Lake Mandlebrot, which I love! 162.158.152.125 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

RMS Titanic name

While RMS Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship, and as such had RMS as part of its title, I don't think RMS Titanic had the inscription RMS. It was just Titanic. See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic#/media/File:RMS_Titanic_3.jpg 141.101.80.87 14:31, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

If rice actually worked well as a drying agent it would be used in "Do Not Eat" packets (presumably they'd be labelled differently because rice is edible) instead of silica gel, because rice is cheaper and more readily available than silica gel. The fact that they've gone to the trouble and expense of using silica gel is all the proof I need that silica gel works better than rice. 108.162.249.163 22:24, 2 November 2015 (UTC)

There's an old home custom - putting some rice grains into your salt shaker, presumably to prevent the salt for accumulating moisture and agglomerating. However, I am not sure which substance is more hygroscopic - if the rice would extract moisture from the salt or the other way round. 162.158.90.224 10:18, 3 November 2015 (UTC)
I think that's as much about the rice grains physically disrupting any nascent agglomerations, than being more hygroscopic. Anyway most mass-produced (read cheap) salt has "anti-caking agents" added. (How sad am I? :) ) 162.158.34.147 08:41, 4 November 2015 (UTC)

What are the "dual meanings of salvage"? Isn't it just one meaning, to rescue? 162.158.2.227 01:03, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

It's not literally dual "meaning", but difference in when the thing is considered rescued. For ship wreck, getting it out of water is generally considered enough. For phones, getting it out of water is trivial, for successful rescue you need the phone to start working. -- Hkmaly (talk) 13:13, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

Rise of the titanic?162.158.180.173 14:27, 3 November 2015 (UTC)

RMS could be a reference to Research in Motion's Blackberry and the once grand cellphone company has sunk. 108.162.250.158 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Or, it's just the full name of a well-known shipwreck. Davidy²²[talk] 06:35, 9 December 2015 (UTC)
Research in Motion is RIM, not RMS 108.162.241.135 05:27, 29 January 2016 (UTC)Tom Duhamel

https://www.reddit.com/r/talesfromtechsupport/comments/4dhohz/put_your_phone_in_rice/ is a claim that someone actually fell for Randall's Hobby and cooked rice with a phone. Do we need a trivia section now? 162.158.88.108 07:40, 11 July 2020 (UTC)