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Incidentally, here's how the ground wire works:
The metal casing on your piece of equipment is connected to this ground wire, and if there is a short somewhere inside the equipment, the current will travel through the ground wire instead of through you. If the piece of equipment has a plastic case (as most now do), the ground wire is more or less eye candy and doesn't do much.
So, if the thing you are connecting is made of metal, you might want to determine another way to ground the third wire (as noted above). If it is plastic, don't stress so much about it.
-Tofer
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When I had an electrician come out and upgrade my house, he replaced the two prong outlets with three prongs, and instead of running new cable, he installed a GFCI in the first outlet on each circuit. A grounding problem anywhere on the circuit will pop the GFCI -- there's a couple milliseconds of lagtime, but not enough to pose a threat.
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Everything I have connected to the adapters is plastic so it looks like I'm OK there. It is my residence where I have a home office. The house is about 50 years old and from what I understand, the outlets are not grounded with conduit or armored cable. I wondered if my Mac stuff was more susceptible to damage, but it sounds like it is a safety issue with people, not Macintoshes. It seems like the best solution is with the GFCI outlets.
Thanks everyone for all the information.
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northern california coast
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"If it is rented/leased as a business space, and stated on the lease, call your local Fire Department and ask the about the electrical codes for that building.
The landlord might have to replace all the outlets."
Before you have the bright idea that the electrical system might need updating, check your lease very carefully before contacting any public agency. The wily jerk we rented space from in downtown Tacoma had it clearly stated that any upgrades would be done at the expense of the tenant and become the property of the owner of the building, without reimbursement for cost. If you have a lease that contains something similar, don't rattle any cages until you know what might be involved. If the electrical is outdated and the fire department finds out, you might not like the outcome. 
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It all has to do with the differece betwen "Ground" and "Return" lines.
The issue is that the "Return" ground may not be at the same potential (Voltage) level as your actual "Earth Ground". You experience this when you get a static electricity shock when you touch a faucet in your house after shuffling your sock-covered feet across dry carpeting (or pet your cat, or etc..)
The GFI solution is NOT allowed in all locations, so be cautious when it comes to codes.
The GFI solution will also not help your surge supressor work properly, as I understand it, not allow your lightning protection plug strip to work. Both of them require a true separate earth ground. The GFI solution will also not help if you work with detecting signals (like Ham radio, AM radio, etc.). The voltage potential of the return line vs. true ground may mess you up.
Your surest solution is to find a way to actually run a ground line into the outlet chain. Metal cold water pipes (IF you've got a ground passthrough on the dielectric barrier that is usually in the water shutoff valve area) are good sources of ground. When I was growing up, we had a late 40's house with two wire plugs. My Dad liked to listen to short wave, so he just bought a copper ground rod, bashed it all the way into the earth next to his bedroom, and ran a true ground line from it to the outlets he hooked his stuff up to.
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Just so you know, three prongs are EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, important.
ThreeProng
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Just the THIRD prong is THAT important ...
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[quote billb]Just the THIRD prong is THAT important ...
He thinking about a different kind of middle prong.
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[quote AlphaDog]"Before you have the bright idea that the electrical system might need updating, check your lease very carefully before contacting any public agency. The wily jerk we rented space from in downtown Tacoma had it clearly stated that any upgrades would be done at the expense of the tenant and become the property of the owner of the building, without reimbursement for cost. If you have a lease that contains something similar, don't rattle any cages until you know what might be involved. If the electrical is outdated and the fire department finds out, you might not like the outcome.
AlphaDog,
Did you try to call the public agency on the owner, and then had to foot the bill? If so, then I'd say that you were trying to be wily, but the wily landlord had already thought of your wily move ahead of time. ;-)
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