AHH, TECHNOLOGY!

[Kerry Webb]

At 12:20 PM 10/16/98 +1000, Tony Barry wrote:
>Linkers
>
>This sounds like an urban myth but that the thought that you could leave
>something learning on a keyboard and bring down an economy is worrying.
>Nearet I've come to it is continually getting phone calls from a mobile
>phone in a handbag which kept getting bumped.
>
>Tony
>
>>From Net News  16 October 1998
>
>AHH, TECHNOLOGY!
>A mystery plunge on July 23 in the value of French  bond futures was
>precipitated by a wave of 145 separate sell orders out of London, which
>sent the
>price into freefall. Investigators have now found the reasons - a  Salomon
>Brothers trader who leant on his keyboard, unknowingly triggering the
"Instant
>Sell" button.
>
>

Well, several years ago in a great National Library (that shall be 
nameless) a disgruntled worker jammed a pencil against the Enter key, 
turned down the brightness on the monitor, and went home.  This 
resulted in several thousand empty records being added to a database, 
which took considerable time to locate and delete.

Strange things - computer systems.

Kerry