15 lines
2.5 KiB
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15 lines
2.5 KiB
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>time bomb</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../T.html" title="T"/><link rel="previous" href="tiger-team.html" title="tiger team"/><link rel="next" href="time-sink.html" title="time sink"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">time bomb</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tiger-team.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><th width="60%" align="center">T</th><td width="20%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="time-sink.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="time-bomb"/><dt xmlns="" id="time-bomb"><b>time bomb</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> A subspecies of <a href="../L/logic-bomb.html"><i class="glossterm">logic bomb</i></a> that is triggered
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by reaching some preset time, either once or periodically. There are
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numerous legends about time bombs set up by programmers in their employers'
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machines, to go off if the programmer is fired or laid off and is not
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present to perform the appropriate suppressing action periodically.</p><p>Interestingly, the only such incident for which we have been pointed
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to documentary evidence took place in the Soviet Union in 1986! A
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disgruntled programmer at the Volga Automobile Plant (where the Fiat clones
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called Ladas were manufactured) planted a time bomb which, a week after
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he'd left on vacation, stopped the entire main assembly line for a day.
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The case attracted lots of attention in the Soviet Union because it was the
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first cracking case to make it to court there. The perpetrator got a
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suspended sentence of 3 years in jail and was barred from future work as a
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programmer.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="tiger-team.html">Prev</a><EFBFBD></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../T.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"><EFBFBD><a accesskey="n" href="time-sink.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">tiger team<61></td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"><EFBFBD>time sink</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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