Developer given Mission:Impossible - fixing rubbish code that could crash a city - simply chose not to accept it

Once upon a time, Socrates, a fresh-faced manager of a small software department, was approached by his boss to visit a power station. The employer had recently sold monitoring hardware to a client, but the installation lacked proper documentation. Intrigued by the prospect, Socrates drove to the plant and was led to a massive turbine overspeed detector, a dusty CP/M computer connected to various I/O cards and wiring.

Though Socrates had limited knowledge of electricity generation, he understood that a turbine is a machine with pointy blades driven by steam to power a generator. The sheer size of these turbines and the potential for them to overspeed was a terrifying thought. He compared the scenario to a Mission:Impossible movie scene, with turbine blades spinning out of control and the need to dodge them like Tom Cruise.

Realizing the complexity of the code, Socrates knew it was "horrible." There were numerous random GOTO statements, arbitrary I/O accesses, and arithmetic operations with numbers that seemed nonsensical. With no comments to guide him, Socrates decided the best course of action was to step back and leave the system untouched. He deemed it wiser to avoid meddling with something so poorly structured.

Reflecting on the experience, Socrates realized that some things are best left alone. He shared his story with The Register, hoping to offer a cautionary tale for others in the tech support field.