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Can Software Kill?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the of-course dept.

mykepredko writes "Eweek has an interesting, if somewhat long article titled Can Software Kill? The article focuses on a programming error that resulted in 28 Panamanian cancer patients receiving many times an expected lethal dose of radiation. The article briefly mentions, but doesn't go into detail, the 1991 Patriot Missile Failure that resulted in the deaths of 28 American service men and women."

3 of 562 comments (clear)

  1. M$ Bugs by Haydn+Fenton · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm surpirsed nobodies been killed by any of the thousands of killer bugs in Microsoft's code.

  2. Re:Two words... by Thud457 · · Score: 2, Troll
    " Its killing was enabled by the hubris of its developers and the blind trust of its users. "

    You just summed up the current political situation in the United States to a tee!

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

  3. Sort of old news: comp.risks subject 20 years now by JGski · · Score: 2, Troll
    comp.risks has been talking about these issues on the net for 20 years now. Started with the fatal Therac cancer machine incident, way back when. Also comp.risks has been warning about just about every security eventuality that has hit Microsoft recently starting 10-15 years ago!. I've been on this group since it started - I'm still surprised other don't know about it.

    http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/