According to this 2002 article in Offshore, the Deepwater Horizon was set to be outfitted with a system called E-drill, which continuously beams data from rig operations to a monitoring center in Houston.

FORBES: BP's Deepwater Disaster: What Happened And Why?

They also noted the deployment of Russia's most advanced S-400 air defence system in Belarus and a parallel drill conducted by the Strategic Rocket Forces, the guardians of the Kremlin's nuclear arsenal.

ECONOMIST: NATO and Russia

At 8:20 p.m. on the day of the explosion the pressure data suggest there was a constant flow of sea water being pumped into the drill pipe that was displacing the heavier mud system which was the primary pressure control for the well.

WSJ: The Oil Disaster Is About Human, Not System, Failure

To drill the well, engineers have devised an ingenious system of hollow "riser pipes" that create a hermetic seal between the well opening on the sea floor and the ship swaying above.

FORBES: The delicate art of sucking up

The MREAL System for Mixed Reality (that's the full name -- or, if you want to drill down even further: the headset is the HM-A1 and the software platform is MP-100) generates video of one's surroundings using a pair of cameras positioned in front of the wearer's eyes, which is combined with computer-generated graphics.

ENGADGET