Yet Another Story... (Score 1)

When I took 6.001 here at MIT, they told a story which I haven't seen mentioned in this thread. Maybe it's real, maybe it isn't, but it's entertaining. Apparently the Navy was testing a new type of torpedo, but some of the code wasn't finished yet. Eventually, they wanted the torpedo to be smart enough to turn around and try again if it missed its target. That part wasn't done yet, but they wanted to do a few live tests to determine the weapon's effectiveness. As a hack, they put in a simple if-then -- if the internal compass ever turned more than 180 degrees, the torpedo would self-destruct. Several torpedoes with this code were loaded onto a ship and taken out to sea. During the trials, a few of them failed to leave the tubes. What do you do after a hard day of torpedo testing? Well, you turn around and go home... Boom!

--Dan