First off I've stopped doing this as I suspect it will cost me some serious $$$ in fried hardware eventually.
The scenario:
1. PC, monitor and whatnot sitting on a wooden desk. Everything is hooked up to properly grounded outlets
2. Me sitting in a big comfy chair with my keyboard on my lap. I'm wearing shorts and the keyboard is touching my bare knees.
3. Next to me is on of those 'neon' special effects lamps. You know the globes with the neon inside and the slowly flowing 'Lightning' that follows your finger as you touch the glass. Mine's actually a couple of mushrooms instead of the globe but otherwise it's the same thing. The lamp is on a different circuit that may or may not have decent grounding.
If I put my whole hand on the lamp while I'm sitting in the scenario above after a few seconds my computer will beep. You know the standard ascii 007 or Ctrl-G type of beep. If I keep holding it, it will continue to beep every few seconds.
What gives? I'm thinking some sort of static buildup but I'm not sure of the details or how it's causing a beep of all things (why not just fry a chip or something?)