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Domain: computingcases.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to computingcases.org.

Comments · 6

  1. Re:Best quote from article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative · on Early Warning For Microsoft Premium Customers

    Has there been a case where faulty software killed someone? (Other than by sheer annoyance, that is.)

    Well, yes. The THERAC devices, used to treat cancer, did kill people due to faulty software.

    I'm not aware of any deaths from microsoft software though.

  2. Remember Therac-25 by xmas2003 · · Score: 4, Informative · on Fed-Up Hospitals Defy Windows Patching Rules
    One of the first (and most tragic) cases of software screwups in medical equipment was the Therac-25 medical linear accelerator used to treat cancer here is one of many writeups on it but in summary, it took a couple of years and caused several deaths before it was pulled from the market ... and software is much more complex these days, plus there are tons of interactions.

    I.e. while one can build a simple manometer the reality is that blood pressure devices used today probably have all sorts of interdependancies that can cause a ripple effect, so one should be pretty darn careful before just applying patches licky-split ... in a work discussion earlier today, we talked about how one of the recent Microsoft security patches broke one of our applications.

  3. Re:DOes it work ? by tmhsiao · · Score: 1 · on Honda Crash Detection System

    This is a real good thing, in my opinion.

    I can see your side of things, but with computers becoming more and more ubiquitous, I think there's a real danger to assuming that a computer is always going to do the right thing. Especially as a programmer, I find my trust of computer programs to do that "Right Thing" declining every day.

    The Airbus problem can be even worse than your usual Microsoft Word spell checker screwup, because of the complexity of the interface. In this case, it got some 250 or so people killed.

  4. Therac 25 by blamblamblam · · Score: 1 · on Calling Software Reliability Into Question
    UC Berkeley used to, and probably still does, include an article on the Therac-25-V accident in its introductory CS course reader. In this early example of machines gone awry, poor code and UI led to some cancer patients being treated to a hearty blast of extra juice, in turn resulting in at least a few deaths.

    Back when I took that class, we weren't required to read or discuss it, but I assume it was thrown in there amongst the hundreds of pages of Scheme code as a little note to those of us who would be building the digital infrastructure of tomorrow land to be responsible about keeping code robust, well-documented, and well-ventilated. Because, I guess, people's lives might be at stake.

    I read the article one day and though how much it all sucked and became a history major. But I imagine if I got suckered into coding again, I'd look that article up for some inspiration.

    (above link is for reference, I don't recall who wrote the paper in the Berkeley CS61A reader...)

  5. Re:Dumbass by DeanT · · Score: 1 · on Are Programmers Engineers?
    Canadian x-ray machine
    You're not talking about the Therac-25, are you? DeanT
  6. Check out Onlineethics.org by FOOSE · · Score: 1 · on Examples of Programming Gone Wrong?

    A good place to find lots of accidents, and the ethics behind them, can be found at Online Ethics

    This is one of the sites that we use for the Engineering Ethics class at CWRU.

    Some cases can be found here

    Also:
    Three Mile Island
    Challanger Disaster
    Here are a few more Computing Cases

    Also, an excellent write up of the disaster that didn't happen. The Citicorp tower in Chicago would have fallen if it wasn't for fast work by the engineers.
    Citicorp tower

    -Foose