> When transistor radios were the newest thing they
>> advertised themselves as having n number of transistors. Supposedly the more
>> transistors it had the better the radio. Well the marketing guys got a hold
>> of that and had the designers use a transistor with the base tied to the
>> collector everywhere they needed a diode. This artificially raised the
>> number of transistors needed so they could advertise more...
>
>This is in the Urban Legends book. I've heard it, but I don't know
>anyone that can produce such a beast.

No, it's true.  The electronics magazines of the day had articles on these
radios, giving the schematics.  There were even worse cases.  One
electronics magazine found a "twelve transistor radio", but six of the
transisters were confnigured as diodes and placed in series.  The authors
couldn't figure out what in the world the designers intended the series
string to do, but they replaced it with a resistor and the radio functioned
just as well.