Your Correct

An easy way to ground with a thin wire
Keep in mind that commercial buildings the outlet box is metal - residential they are plastic or resin fiber compost so that ground to wall plate won't work . older homes were all metal boxes until 3 strand wire became standard

So yes nagrome friend could buy a 2 buck , 2 prong plug for a 3 prong surge protector and get away with it . Providing she has a good surge protector

I'm sure after a year with the Dell she'll agree But by then maybe she can afford a Mac again.

As for a 2-prong to 3-prong adapter, it wasn't going to work: nothing in the outlet box was grounded, so there was no way to attach it as anything but a dummy.

(It may be that the third prong is entirely a government fiction--but my online research came up with electricians equally certain it wasn't, so we didn't go that route. It also turned up people certain that a surge protector required grounding, and now I've heard the opposite of that too )

Of course electricians are going to say a third prong is necessary. It puts food on their table. Unless it is a highly sensitive instrument or it was put together by monkeys you can live without it.

Edison didn't think we needed everything grounded.

You're confusing voltage and current and power (watts).

A lot of people get that confused. Actually the power adapters don't change amps, amps are drawn by the device that's being powered. Adapters change the voltage, so theoretically since there is less voltage there are more amps available. Using a 15 amp circuit at 120 volts you can pull 1800 watts of power before blowing a breaker, IxV=P, amps x volts = watts, so at 12 volts it's 150 amps that can be drawn from the line, 1800 watts = 12v x 150 amps. Of course no IC can carry 150 amps, in electronic land that's an LOL, LOL.

It has everything to do with surge protection. In a good surge protector the surge, the over voltage, is sent to ground, not neutral. It's not a current surge, it's a voltage surge. In theory there is more current available since the voltage is higher, P=IV, but there needs to be equipment to pull the current to trip the fuse, sometimes it happens, mainly on circuits with motors or a lot of lighting. By the time the fuse trips it's to late though, the damage is probably done. Voltage is 60 hz, surge protectors generally stop surges within 100 hz or more, so the over voltage can't get to the equipment.

No, the job of the breaker is to protect against too high of a current draw from the circuit, not an incoming voltage surge. But again at the point it trips it's too late anyway. Like mentioned above the excess voltage can cause the circuit to draw more current if devices are attached, but a circuit with no load will not blow even with a voltage surge of many times the rated 120/240.

Edit - Re: the third prong. It will send any voltage on the case to ground, protecting you from electrocution, but if you grab a hot wire and and it has a path to ground through you the third prong is useless.

What I understood was interesting

That reminds me, if you store candy in your outlets, be VERY careful about small children. Do what I do, and put a "warning fork" next to each outlet. Make sure the kids understand that the fork means "this candy, although delicious, is not for you."

Here's a schematic of a basic surge protector. If you notice the devices protecting all connect to the ground.

http://www.freeinfosociety.com/electronics/schemview.php?id=1602

What was your original question?

I think it was about cleaning my MacBook Air. Soft cotton cloth and a little plain water?

Here ya' go. Maybe this will do it.

http://www.mobilegadgetnews.com/index.php?showtopic=22700

Thanks. I found something like that, but with the reservation that using that XML file won't keep certain data such as your playcounts. (So "most played" smart playlists won't work anymore.)

Still, it keeps your ratings and playlists, and may be the best option available. And I have TextWrangler to manipulate the XML with.