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When Bad Software Can Kill
bhoman writes "A wrist computer that tracks and calculates safe diving times and
limits for SCUBA divers had a dangerous software bug that may have been covered
up by company executives.
This SF Chronicle Article
details the problem, product, company, and some of the lawsuits.
According to the Chron article, company execs tried to cover up and
deny the problem for years, but their
official website
makes it look like they did a voluntary recall."
Fortunately, there are still (I hope) some companies out there that are honest and worry about the safety of their users, particularly in life-critical applications.
What a slimy guy though, to prevent any notice of the fault from getting out, and firing managers for trying to get the word out! Man. Makes me angry. *Fumes*
On the issue of punishing companies for unsafe practices like this, sometimes it's 50/50. Depends how much sway they have. I'm not anti-capitalist über-left cynical jaded moron, but after reading Fast Food Nation recently, I don't have a whole lot of faith in the government's ability to control this kind of activity on a large scale. The government used to have a lot more power over companies since Theodore Roosevelt's time, but the book seems to point the finger at the Reagon era for the change.
Anyway, it wouldn't have been bad PR to admit a mistake, hell it's only human to make mistakes, even when something is as serious as this. The problem shouldn't have been there at all, but it was caught before anyone was hurt, so they should have just apologised and fixed it. Cover-ups make me sick.
Yup...
I've always wondered why the Engineers had to sit through the ethics lectures, and the Comp Sci people didn't. In this day and age, we are relying on automated systems and programs enough so that the people making them should be aware of the consequences of failure.
Until one of the software packages that controls the new-ish electronic traction, suspension and stabilization systems bugs out killing a family of 6 in their SUV.
The sad part is that for an error like this, multiple people will have to die or risk death before anyone will clue into what the error could be.
I know some people will hate to hear this, but, like your insulin pump, maybe these types of devices should be considered medical devices. These things are not simple devides like a heart rate monitor, or bicycle trip computer. When you life is a product's hands you need someone like the FDA looking out for you.
The dogcow says "Moof!"
Who are you? The apprentice of "PhysicsGenius"? That would at least explain the pseudo-intellectual gibberish you are writing.
That being said: what makes you believe that it was a programming error? If you had bothered to read the article instead of spouting some nonsense about mathematics and the "flaw of modern computer science", you would have seen that it was a design error, meaning the specification itself is in error. You can answer "the equivalence" problem, but if the specification is flawed you're going to get flawed code. Garbage in, garbage out.
-- The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
I would have to say that the above is the best argument I have ever seen for open source software. If your life is on the line, if you may be damaged by software, then that software sourcecode should be forced to be open source. At the very least it would prevent weasly scumbags from thinking they could cover up their misdeeds, at best it might insure that companies would try and get the product right when peoples lives are at stake.
ok, I work at a dive shop in Toronto Canada, I am a certified rescue diver. No diver should _EVER_ rely strictly upon a dive computer, they should always have a backup depth and pressure gauge. Not only that but they should plan their dive using Naui or padi (or similar) dive tables and follow their plan. If at that point their computer thinks they can stay longer.. thats good but follow your plan anyway, better safe than sorry! The point is, get trained properly, and use ur brain not a computer to do the thinking.
amen. As a conservative (read: pro business) individual, I am smart enough to know that in order for government to not smother corporations, they must act responsibly, and the punishments for violations of the public trust should be severe. That is the trade off.
We don't want government getting too involved with businesses, but we want them to kick them in the ass hard when they do something that not only can hurt/maim/kill someone, but also creates an adverse environment for corporations who DO act responsbibly.
In the end, you are correct: both left and right do not want companies to get away with 'hiding' a recall that could potentially hurt someone. That is not politics, its common sense. If they DID hide this recall or information about flaws in the product, they need to be taken out to the proverbial woodshed, even if it puts them out of business.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Yeah.. it's not like divers are taught that you use a computer to augment your diving, and that you should still fill out your dive tables or anything.
It's not like you aren't supposed to fly on a plane within 24 hours of diving, or anything.
It's not like every diver knows that the dive computers and dive tables are approximations, and that they can vary drastically for a number of reasons.
Pushing the absolute limits of what your computer says you are allowed is dumb.
I'm not saying the company is not responsible to a degree... they absolutely had an obligation to make their gear as safe as possible, and not informing the diving world that their gear had a flaw was totally unacceptable.
There is a large element of recklessness involved in this situation.
Being comfortable and being dumb are two very different things. Pushing the absolute limit set by your dive computer IS DUMB, and if you are comforatable with that then it is VERY dumb. You give the reasons not to push the limits yourself. 1)Every person is different, 2)the dive tables that the PC programming is based upon is an approximation, 3)as is the programming itself.
You have a pretty fine-tuned bullshit detector if you can tell the difference safe and not safe when pushing the limits of a dive computer. One problem with this particular computer was that it gave the right results MOST of the time, but in certain situations it gave very wrong results (short, frequent dives). No one's bullshit meter would have detected the problem with these dive computers that gave reasonable results 99% of the time and then totally screwed you the other 1%. Neither is there any way you could have "researched" the algorithms in this particular computer to determine its accuracy because the error came from a hidden programmning error. So I think we return to the original idea - pushing the limits of any dive computer is very dumb.
The bigger issue here for /.ers is that because of its digital readout too much importance was probably given to the dive computer's implied precision. I'm sure it said it something like it was safe to fly after 6 hours and 18 minutes. Digital readouts imply greater accuracy than is often actually present, whether it is regarding a safe number of minutes to fly displayed on a dive computer or milliseconds until your cake is ready on the microwave. Placing one's life on th eline using this implied but non-existent accuracy is very dumb. All that apparent accuracy is totally useless given your original parameters were wild-ass guesses and approximations to begin with.