Examples of Programming Gone Wrong?

Posted by Cliff on Sunday October 27, 2002 @06:43AM from the oops! dept.

LightForce3 asks: "I'm a beginning CS student, and in my studies I've come across examples of programmer error causing very large problems, such as the Ariane 5 failure and the Therac-25 accidents, often as tales of caution to beginner programmers such as myself. My (morbid?) curiosity has been piqued, and I'm looking for other examples of programmer error leading to serious problems. After all, it is better to learn from the mistakes of others than from your own, right? ;) What programming-related accidents, incidents, and failures, both well-known and obscure, do Slashdot readers know about, and are there any good resources for researching these?"

3 of 626 comments (clear)

Challenger by ekrout · 2002-10-27 06:44 · Score: 0, Troll

1986.

'Nuff said.

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Therac 25 - What's that? by SuperMario666 · 2002-10-27 06:48 · Score: 0, Troll

Oh wait. We've only studied that in
EVERY F***ING CS CLASS I'VE EVER TAKEN!
Sheesh, It was even brought up in compilers last semester.
URL for more examples by mosschops · 2002-10-27 07:59 · Score: 0, Troll

Check out all this terrible code - these people should really hang up their compilers and admit defeat.