I know that consumer technology isn't always built to be durable but I've lost another device due to failure and I'm getting rather suspicious of myself now. Is there a way to measure one's magnetic field in relation to the average?

My latest to go is a Palm III. I had a Palm IIIx that went just over a year ago and got a Palm III that was available but hardly used. Now when I turn it on the screen is dead. If I hit reset the backlight comes on with a barley audible whining noise. Scratch another.

So far over the past three years the damage is,

1 Palm IIIx

1 Palm III

1 Gateway Laptop

3 Brand name hard drives (Maxtor and Fujitsu)

1 Logitech Joystick

3 Vtech cordless phones (going on four)

1 3Comm Ethernet hub (sill works but damaged capacitor whine hurts my ears, or so I'm told that's what that sound is)

Now perhaps I'm rather adept at picking brands the die easily, but these are not cheap no-name brands. I buy them for the name. I don't know why I bother though, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm now sold on extended warrenties.