XKCD_Fan • User • The Register Forums

Beware the trainee with time on his hands and an Acorn manual on his desk

Tuesday 26th November 2019 20:18 GMT XKCD_Fan

Net Send on a Submarine.

Back in the 80's worked on a multi terminal system onboard a US submarine. This system would post status messages at the bottom of the screen. Most of these messages were ignored, but I was bored one evening shift and posted a message to a fellow operators screen about the failing of the AN/UYK-44 Computer and that the entire unit needed replacing (which was absurd since the computer was modular and parts would be replaced not the entire unit).

Not seeing a response from the other operator I shrugged it off and went to bed.

Six or so hours latter i'm being shaken awake by the supervisor asking if I had sent the message. Seem the other operator did see the message and had been tearing thru manuals looking for the proper part number all night long so that we could order the entire computer and have it delivered to our next port.

Was a good laugh, but the other operator never mentioned it. And I certainly never brought it up

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Could you just pop into the network room and check- hello? The Away Team. They're... gone

Friday 7th June 2019 17:34 GMT XKCD_Fan

Re: Not an explosion, just my own daftness...

Also, years ago whilst working in a electronics depot we were killing some time by rebuilding a time code display in order to get it to count backwards (long story) and someone wired in a rather large (physically) electrolytic cap into the power supply.

Upon powering up the unit we were greeted with a increasingly loud screech immediately followed by a very loud BANG. upon opening the unit we found the entire box packed with small bits of wax and aluminum shards. every crevice and under every component.

That was the end of that project (nobody wanted to pick out all the bits).

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