Therac-25

Software that kills!

She wrote June 1997 - January 1985, which threw me off for a moment, until I realize 1997 was typo.

This is a good example of the perils of letting orange enjoy a career being apples just because the oranges insist on their own abilities to be "very good apples" if just given a chance.

There are enormous potential differences that exist in industry where competence of one discipline is underutilized in another because the other feels that self-preservation is more important than getting it right. [Although I do have to commend the bio-technologists, who seem to write code that is state-of-the-art.] The automotive/aircraft industry seems to be the worst. They millions of dollars finding ways to integrate a $25 component into a car, then charge outrageous prices, then hope that it does not break and increase warranty costs, then watch it break anyway, then bad mouth the technology as been too complicated, as if it is the technology's fault. I long for the day when automotive designers would focus on that which they are good at - metal, plastic, new-car-smell, ...then get out the way and let the EE's and SE's do what they do best.

There is also the one about the crossed engine malfunction wires on Boeing 737. When Engine I is on fire, instruments say Engine II is on fire, so pilot shuts down Engine II, leave zero working engines.

-Le Chaud Lapin-