Potential Death and Destruction
I used to work for a defence contractor named after the father of radio. It wasn't uncommon for the MOD to come and inspect a project to issue a stage payment, checking the equipment was working as planned.

Automated target tracking systems would be demonstrated, working better than expected. Little did they know a chap hidden 20' away would be sitting behind a monitor, effectively playing an expensive game of Tail Gunner and tracking the object manually.

However, even worse was one place I worked at that made safety shutdown systems. A rack with twin processors and control gear would be shown working as normal, and when you pulled out the main processor, the secondary one would take over, without a hitch.

Little did the Chinese clients know, that at the demonstration (by the damm it was controlling) there was only one processor. The backup one. The main one was just an empty case with a light that pretended it was working. We had to write software for the proper backup processor to pretend it was asleep until the dummy was pulled out.

I'm sure it's been fixed by now. I've not heard anything about it on the news...
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Thu 14 Jul 2011, 7:36, 4 replies)

You worked for a company called Dave Lee Travis?

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 14 Jul 2011, 8:54, closed)

i think he's talking about WoganAerospace

( lucosade is counting down the minutes until, Thu 14 Jul 2011, 9:38, closed)

It changed it's name about 6 times while I was there.
Elliott Brothers
Marconis
Marconi Avionics
GEC Marconi Avionics
GEC Avionics
GEC Sensors

And it's changed 4 or 5 times since then...
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Thu 14 Jul 2011, 15:32, closed)

thanks for killing the joke

( lucosade is counting down the minutes until, Thu 14 Jul 2011, 15:47, closed)