Unapproved obfuscations (off topic)

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Mon Mar 2 08:17:44 1998

At 08:39 PM 2/28/98 -0800, you wrote:
>At 22:16 2/28/98 +0000, you wrote:
>>I pulled a much more trivial example at a place I was working at over 10
>>years ago. I had to write a program, and for various reasons I wanted to
>>use Turbo Pascal. But it wasn't on the list of 'approved' languages, so I
>>couldn't order the 'Turbo Pascal Compiler'. What I could order was
>>'Borland part number XXXXXXX data logger program compilation system' (I
>>was writing a data logging system)....
>
>Reminds me of a story Willy Ley used to tell about getting around military
>procurement regs when he was developing antiaircraft rockets for the
>Wehrmacht in the thirties. They had this asinine rule that you couldn't
>use Army development grant money to buy office supplies, yet Ley's little
>boffin shop urgently needed a typewriter. Now, a couple of times before
>they had hit on the dodge of ordering unapproved items "as per sample" ( =
>"on eval") on the (correct) theory that if the green-eyeshades had never
>seen the sample, they'd shrug and let it through anyway. So, the
>description they came up with for the typewriter was "Data logging device
>with rotating roller and annotating capability, as per sample." Needless
>to say, it worked....
>

   His actual description was more like "machine for milling wooden dowels
with conical point".
    
Received on Mon Mar 02 1998 - 08:17:44 GMT