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A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion ofthe car-chase scene in the movie "Bullitt" and many subsequentimitators (compare die horribly). A Sun-3 displayscreen losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikeson VAX-11/780 backplanes are notable crash and burngenerators.The construction "crash-and-burn machine" is reported for acomputer used exclusively for alpha or beta testing, orreproducing bugs (i.e. not for development). The implicationis that it wouldn't be such a disaster if that machinecrashed, since only the testers would be inconvenienced.