At 4:01 AM 11/1/96, Nigel Goodwin wrote:
>In message  <19961031213231.4284.qmail@brouhaha.com> PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> writes:
>> I wrote:
>> > I'm not sure about producing one, but my friend Jim Phillips personally
>> > repaired such things, and told me about it from first hand experience.
>> > I don't see any particular reason to doubt it, as that really is exactly
>> > how marketing works.
>>
>> terogers <timetech@OP.NET> replied:
>> > The reason to doubt it is exactly the evidence given: a friend or an
>> > aquaintence or a friend of a friend or some relative saw in the paper..
>> >
>> > Whenever I see (or catch myself using) this kind of reference my alarm
>> > bells go off.
>
>I've been repairing domestic electronic goods for 25 years, I can remember
>seeing transistors connected as diodes in totally unexpected positions in
>cheap radios. I even tried shorting them out sometimes, and the radio still
>worked OK.
>
>Nigel.


I can't remember who this was but it was a president of Zenith, RCA or some
other US TV manufacturer in the early days. This president would come
through the design on "cost cutting" trips and randomly cut components out
the TV circuit. It if the set still worked, that part was "cut" from the
design.

craig