Security Catastrophe: have you changed your passwords?

[vwdan]

It was a failed attempt at sarcasm.

Hah - what Steve Wonder said then

It's not Apple I have anything against ,it's the users, it's any kind of fanboism I'm sensitive towards. I'm a Windows guy through and through, but my work exposes me to enough different tech that the only thing I can say with any certainty is that every single piece of software is absolute crap, as is the hardware it runs on.

[scooterscot]

the only thing I can say with any certainty is that every single piece of software is absolute crap, as is the hardware it runs on.

What about the software that allows a life support machine to function. Or the software that converts raw RADAR data into meaningful plots on the air traffic controllers screens?

Quality exists. Quality is expensive. Quality matters. Buy a Mac and your frustrations will melt away.

[vwdan]

What about the software that allows a life support machine to function. Or the software that converts raw RADAR data into meaningful plots on the air traffic controllers screens?

Quality exists. Quality is expensive. Quality matters. Buy a Mac and your frustrations will melt away.

Because mission and life critical software never fails? Get a grip. At best, it can often be mitigated with redundancy and independently built duplicate systems (Such as the 3 system vote concept on aircraft), but that's a system wide design decision, not a factor of individual components and software.

Here's a good one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

Whoops.

[MyUserName]

What about the software that allows a life support machine to function. Or the software that converts raw RADAR data into meaningful plots on the air traffic controllers screens?

Quality exists. Quality is expensive. Quality matters. Buy a Mac and your frustrations will melt away.

Because despite being fecking useless they grant their users a feeling of smugness?

[scooterscot]

Because despite being fecking useless they grant their users a feeling of smugness?

Oh it's not smugness. We just know we made the right choice.

[KentPhilip]

What about the software that allows a life support machine to function. Or the software that converts raw RADAR data into meaningful plots on the air traffic controllers screens?

Quality exists. Quality is expensive. Quality matters. Buy a Mac and your frustrations will melt away.

Are you implying there are life support machines that run on a mac?
I'm not sure I'd be happy being kept alive by an apple

[mudskipper]

Are you implying there are life support machines that run on a mac?
I'm not sure I'd be happy being kept alive by an apple

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

[scooterscot]

Because mission and life critical software never fails? Get a grip. At best, it can often be mitigated with redundancy and independently built duplicate systems (Such as the 3 system vote concept on aircraft), but that's a system wide design decision, not a factor of individual components and software.

This is my business. I validate (and sometimes verify) mission & life critical software has an acceptable hazard rate for a given mission window for a given specification. 9 times out of 10 failures are a result of the user doing something out with the specification. That's not a failure. Or indeed flash based technology producing a corrupt bit because of an SEU. That is not a failure.

With air traffic control, 90 secs of downtime on surveillance is acceptable during the year. Not a second more. That availability is tough.

In mission critical systems hardware varies for exactly the same component. On electronic systems for fast jets for example, the resistors or capacitors of the same grade are sourced from different suppliers to mitigate impact. Every unit manufactured with an odd number for example uses the alternatively source part. Rather like how apple used two suppliers for their retina displays on their macbook. Then ghosting was discovered, so only a 50% recall was required. Smart.

You can't throw in terms like redundancy and independently to a operator expecting 99.99% availability and expect to earn big bucks. You'll be shown the door. That might be the level engineering in the UK is taken to, here in Germany it's know your business or go home

[scooterscot]

Here's a good one: Therac-25 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whoops.

That's a quality issue not a failure. The software was doing what it was told to do. The failure, as it nearly always is, was the overpaid software engineer.

[scooterscot]

Are you implying there are life support machines that run on a mac?
I'm not sure I'd be happy being kept alive by an apple

Death or cake? Your choice.