Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!decwrl!sun!pitstop!sundc!seismo!uunet!mcvax!ukc!stl!stc!imtec!russell
From: russell@imtec.co.uk (Russell Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: computer follies
Message-ID: <751@imtec.co.uk>
Date: 31 Aug 88 09:40:07 GMT
References: <5856@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Reply-To: russell@imtec.UUCP (Russell Brown)
Organization: Imtec Computers ltd
Lines: 38


Back in the days when applications on micros were written in BASIC on a
32K floppy based machine, a client started complaining about failures
in their database.

The application worked in batch mode and it seemed that when the batch
had been completed the software was failing to update the master files
correctly.

Muggins here got landed with sorting out the problem and so I spent
days entering records, doing the batch update and checking the results
- Nothing went wrong.

Finally in desperation I went out to the customer site and watched the
operator enter a huge batch. The system checked that all was correct,
the operator typed 'y' and the disks (single sided 8inch floppies!)
started their normal clunking progress.

The operator and I sat there watching the pretty little lights until
another member of staff came in and asked her to find some
information.  'Sure' she said, hit the break key and typed 'RUN', 'It's
nice being able to do that' she smiled 'I'd have to wait hours
otherwise.'

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh !

Disclaimer: I didn't write the software and there wasn't any built in
means to trap break anyway! The low tech solution was a rubber band
underneath the BREAK key!

-- 
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