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From: hopp@nbs-amrf.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.wanted
Subject: Re: Computer Horror Stories
Message-ID: <138@nbs-amrf.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 7-Feb-86 16:55:48 EST
Article-I.D.: nbs-amrf.138
Posted: Fri Feb  7 16:55:48 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Feb-86 02:57:51 EST
References: <8300001@hplabsb.UUCP>
Organization: National Bureau of Standards
Lines: 24

> I was wondering if anyone out there has some horror stories about the
> computer industry; crashed systems or lost backups.  For example, I heard
> a story once about a guy who lost a month's worth of code due to some 
> backup problem.  This was about 6 in the morning, and apparantly, the
> guy caught the next plane to Nepal and joined a monastery.  This is the
> best it could be pieced together since he hasn't been heard from since.
> He just drove to SFO international, put the ticket on his Master Card,
> and disappeared.  Case closed.  The guy was pretty upset, but on his way
> out the door, according to the guard, had a wild grin of calm and happiness,
> as though he'd won the last round with the machine through some Deux
> ex machina.
> 
> Have you heard any similar stories?

I heard a story about a baker in New York, NY who kept all his orders on
a PC.  That was his only record system.  Well, his PC crashed and he
didn't have a backup of the disk, and ended up loosing his record of orders
for the whole year.  He was frantically trying to find out who he was
supposed to make wedding cakes for, calling up customers he could remember
with questions like, "Are you getting married sometime?"  He switched to
a handwritten ledger system.
-- 

Ted Hopp	{seismo,umcp-cs}!nbs-amrf!hopp