What's the most expensive thing you ever broke?

[cjolley]

Originally posted by tjalfe
.. which is why you now do computer stuff?

Not at all. When you are a pro with a long enough career, that kind of thing is just par for the course.
My computer career has been amazingly free of bad screw ups, so far.
chuck

[cjolley]

Originally posted by Helevitia
...And the last, well, it was definiely my fault I used to have to use a small screwdriver to hold the butterfly open in the morning on my jeep to get it started. Well, one day, the scredriver got sucked into the engine while I was trying to start it :O I slowly backed away from the jeep, waiting for something very bad to happen. After like 10 minutes, I ran over and shut off the jeep. I was only 15 and scared to death that my dad would kick my ass so I started it back up and drove away. I never told anybody...until 3 months later when the engine froze.

The mechanic shop found the screwdriver(what as left of it) along with a shattered piston.

Dave

LOL, wasn't 15 great?!
chuck

[GNEP]

Not quite breaking something, but a costly mistake:

When I was working in a corporate treasury a couple of years ago, I managed to get a quarter of a billion dollars put in the wrong bank account (easy mistaka-da-make-a). By the time anyone noticed it was past the USD cut-off times in London, and what's worse it was a bank holiday. So we suffered an interest differential of a couple of percentage points over 3 days, which works out somewhere around my annual salary at the time Theoretically our controls should have picked that one up, but as far as I remember it was a particularly complex transaction that I had never quite managed to explain fully to the back office folks... whoops!

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by GNEP
Not quite breaking something, but a costly mistake:

When I was working in a corporate treasury a couple of years ago, I managed to get a quarter of a billion dollars put in the wrong bank account (easy mistaka-da-make-a). By the time anyone noticed it was past the USD cut-off times in London, and what's worse it was a bank holiday. So we suffered an interest differential of a couple of percentage points over 3 days, which works out somewhere around my annual salary at the time Theoretically our controls should have picked that one up, but as far as I remember it was a particularly complex transaction that I had never quite managed to explain fully to the back office folks... whoops!

So you accidentally committed this masterful crime and didn't profit from it? LOL

You shoulda "accidentally" deposited it in your account and been on a plane for Chile within the hour.

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by DukeP
I thought: It will hold. And order the spiler (whats the word in english? The BIG piece of sail that you use with the wind in your back?) to be raised.

A spinnaker.

[ZokesPro]

I didn't break it but I did ruin it. Twas a roll of something to cover a golf courses green. They are worth 50 000$ and I pushed one into a river. (yes it was on purpose)

Edit: me and my buddies pushed 3 of these puppies into the river. Man those were the days.

[GNEP]

Originally posted by KvHagedorn
So you accidentally committed this masterful crime and didn't profit from it? LOL

You shoulda "accidentally" deposited it in your account and been on a plane for Chile within the hour.

Hehe if only... it was one of our (the group's) own accounts, so already in all the systems - just the wrong one...

Actually we did work out that it would only take 2 or maybe 3 of us working together to do a runner with some serious cash. Problem is, we would (a) need to find a way to get and hold a billion in used dollar notes (having the cash in an account is one thing; turning it into cash another entirely), and (b) need to disappear off the face of the earth afterwards. And the few countries which the group doesn't operate in are ones you probably wouldn't want to stick around in anyway... It was quite odd that hatching plots like this was in fact a part of our job, in order that we could then put controls in place against whatever scheme you had come up with.

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by The PIT
So it's your fault we got all these wars and terrorism. You didn't repair the planet properly.

I knew I should have kept the instruction manual!!! I guess I'll have to give God a call and order a replacement.

Jammrock

[J1NG]

Originally posted by Jammrock
I knew I should have kept the instruction manual!!! I guess I'll have to give God a call and order a replacement.

Jammrock

Don't do that! Last time something like that happened, the dominating species on the planet was wiped out! Or was it during that damn flood?

J1NG

[Technoid]

Most expensive I have destroyed is an Intel P3 450Mhz Cpu
When the insurance was through the price had gone down so much I got a 550mhz one

[KRSESQ]

I blew the hydralic clutch in a brand new Isuzu cube truck that belonged to the furniture store I worked at way back when. $1500 altogether. Fortunately I had lots of "job credit" built up with my boss .

Less fortunate with the computer I was working on at another furniture store where I was employed. I melted down the OS and they wouldn't let me put it back together. They hired an outside geek that charged them $90 for a half-hour's work. That was my swan song at that place (it was a pretty crappy place to work, anyway...but that's material for another thread ).

Kevin

[Technoid]

Originally posted by KRSESQ
I blew the hydralic clutch in a brand new Isuzu cube truck that belonged to the furniture store I worked at way back when. $1500 altogether. Fortunately I had lots of "job credit" built up with my boss .

Less fortunate with the computer I was working on at another furniture store where I was employed. I melted down the OS and they wouldn't let me put it back together. They hired an outside geek that charged them $90 for a half-hour's work. That was my swan song at that place (it was a pretty crappy place to work, anyway...but that's material for another thread ).

Kevin

Stoopid bastards

[Indiana]

A Mercedes S55 AMG

(But it was definitely not my fault - the woman in the other car suddenly decided to drive in the freeway about 50 meters before me. No chance to brake down from about 90 Km/h....

Luckily noone was hurt, even though the Benz hit her car in the side (front + back door) and the impact was quite strong - even had the frame of the MB S55 damaged. I don't know what would've been if she had not driven a good car (BMW 3 series in her case).
Of course the BMW was trash afterwards, the damage on the Benz was ~30.000€.

[NuGGeTTi]

hmm i dont really know maybe sum computer that burned when i have o/c to much :P

[GuchiGuh]

My dad: VW Golf GTI, Porsche Carrera RE.
My mum: Mercedes Benz SLK, BMW Z3
My sister: VW Polo
Me: well....the Bimmer took a beating...