I once wrote a temperature monitoring system for a cargo airline flying 747s. The system would read the loadplan to determine if there was temperature-sensitive cargo onboard, then after takeoff, would send an ACARS message to an aircraft asking the ECS what the temperature was in each section of the aircraft. The rules table could be set to a different frequency of monitoring based on the exact cargo, so AVI (live animals) would be monitored every 5 minutes, pharmaceuticals every 10, etc. Once the temperature report came back, the system would compare that to determine if the temperature was within limits of the cargo onboard. Anyway, accidentally put zero in the frequency table, and basically DOSd 5 aircraft that were in-air carrying perishables. Realized the error pretty quickly when the monitoring system freaked out, but the data charges alone where about 30k in 30 seconds. ARINC was very nice and waived the fees though - thanks guys!
That's 100k more people in the IT sector who won't purchase IBM products in the future. The US has a ton of ex-IBMers who feel screwed already. It's not like they magically disappear from the work force - most of them end up in better jobs and avoid IBM products. Not a reason to keep unnecessary employees, but that hasn't been the problem for years.
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I once wrote a temperature monitoring system for a cargo airline flying 747s. The system would read the loadplan to determine if there was temperature-sensitive cargo onboard, then after takeoff, would send an ACARS message to an aircraft asking the ECS what the temperature was in each section of the aircraft. The rules table could be set to a different frequency of monitoring based on the exact cargo, so AVI (live animals) would be monitored every 5 minutes, pharmaceuticals every 10, etc. Once the temperature report came back, the system would compare that to determine if the temperature was within limits of the cargo onboard. Anyway, accidentally put zero in the frequency table, and basically DOSd 5 aircraft that were in-air carrying perishables. Realized the error pretty quickly when the monitoring system freaked out, but the data charges alone where about 30k in 30 seconds. ARINC was very nice and waived the fees though - thanks guys!
That's 100k more people in the IT sector who won't purchase IBM products in the future. The US has a ton of ex-IBMers who feel screwed already. It's not like they magically disappear from the work force - most of them end up in better jobs and avoid IBM products. Not a reason to keep unnecessary employees, but that hasn't been the problem for years.