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Ten Technology Disasters

Posted by michael on from the things-that-go-crunch dept.

Ant writes "What do a 17th-century Swedish warship, an opulent Chicago theater and a Kansas City hotel "skyway" have in common? All met catastrophic ends and they have important lessons to teach today's innovators."

5 of 327 comments (clear)

  1. Re:11th Technology Disaster by paddyponchero · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    "the mess of spaghetti code running slashdot...see today's downtime as exhibit z"

    see your brain as exhibit NULL

  2. Re:RISKS - assesment community by aussersterne · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Hmm, I just read the most recent article at your RISKS link in which Linux developers are said to be lesser than "a zillion monkies with C compilers" who can't come up with a Hello, world program and who practice "flag-waving" instead of "sound software engineering".

    The article also equates using linux with stepping to an aeroplane "designed by, say,
    2nd year biology student as a night-time hobby" and slams GNU for "pretty much ignoring the
    need for competence and expertise on the part of software developers".

    Considering the fact that companies full of software developers like, say, oh, IBM, are shipping Linux right now, and considering the fact that a sizable percentage of computer science departments now use Linux for official coursework, and considering the fact that Linux Torvalds is, in fact, a professional software developer...

    I'd say that I won't risk any more of my time reading RISKS.

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    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  3. Hypocrisy 101 by Mulletproof · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Wait... People can bash MS all day long without a Troll or an Off-topic mod, but this guy gets a -1? Yeah, I can see the light, and it's leaking out the ass of some reverse biased mofo.

    That's why I took whatshisnames rule of thumb for my own- All off-topic and trolls will be meta-moderated unfair. Suck it up.

    --
    You need a FREE iPod Nano
  4. Not a /missing/ break statement by himi · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Rather, a break in the wrong place - trying to break out of the enclosing if(){}, but actually breaking out of the enclosing switch.

    A clear case where a goto would have been more appropriate ;-)

    himi

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    My very own DeCSS mirror.
  5. MS Outlook by captaineo · · Score: 2, Flamebait

    Speaking of technology disasters- What about Microsoft Outlook, whose many unfixed security flaws have brought about waves of email-borne virii, costing millions of dollars in lost data and productivity?