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Comair Done In by 16-Bit Counter

Posted by michael on from the whoopsie dept.

Gogo Dodo writes "According to the Cincinnati Post, the Comair system crash was caused by an overflowed 16-bit counter. Perhaps Comair should have paid for the software upgrade to MaestroCrew." You heard it here first...

26 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. Forget Y2k... by Cytlid · · Score: 4, Funny

    This was Y32k!

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    FLR
  2. Well... by Tuxedo+Jack · · Score: 5, Funny

    It seems that 16 bits and 640K wasn't enough for them after all.

    --

    Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
    1. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      It was George Bush's fault. He should have mandated a change in the airline industry.

  3. actually... by erroneus · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...I heard it on BugTraq first...

    1. Re:actually... by nuclearspike · · Score: 5, Funny

      I heard it from the ComAir desk at the airport when I was trying to get home. :(

  4. So after Y2K is this ... by adzoox · · Score: 4, Funny

    what Initech handles?

    Yeahhhhhh! Mmmmmmkay!

    Did you get that memo?

    --
    Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
  5. Re:Comair? by slapout · · Score: 2, Funny

    The human slashdot editors where replaced long ago. I think it's some google news beta program that currently posts the stories.

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  6. Wasn't it Nic Cage? by AtariAmarok · · Score: 1, Funny

    I thought the Comair crashed when Nicholas Cage steered it into the window of a Las Vegas casino.

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:Wasn't it Nic Cage? by Zorilla · · Score: 2, Funny

      I knew Delta should have left the bunny alone!

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      It would be cool if it didn't suck.
  7. Let's try to remember by CodeWanker · · Score: 5, Funny

    That when you are talking about an airline, a COMPUTER crash is by far the least traumatic kind you can have.

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    "Wow. Now THAT'S a lot of angry Indians." - Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer
    1. Re:Let's try to remember by thetroll123 · · Score: 2, Funny

      COMPUTER crash is by far the least traumatic kind

      What about two of those little baggage carts crashing in the arrivals area? Surely that's even less traumatic?

  8. Don't mod me up. Mod up the Zucker brothers. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 3, Funny
    Can't help but remember the scene in one of the "Airplane" movies where a kid sneaks into the hi-tech air traffic control room. He sees one of the airline's shuttle-like planes on a screen, and grabs the nearest joystick and begins to (he thinks) play a videogame.

    When the shuttle on the screen blows up, and is accompanied by a very loud explosion sound outside the building, the kid looks sheepish and sneaks away.

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    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  9. Re:From Another article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    >... 32K crew changes in a month? that's like 1,000 a day? that's crazy!

    You arent by any chance the original developer of this software?

  10. It's times like this... by AtariAmarok · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's times like this when you begin to realize that the Vic-20 (duct-taped to the bulletin board and surrounded by haywires) might not be the best choice anymore as mission-critical hub of your operations.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  11. Re:98 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The paperclip popped up and said, "It looks like you're writing a letter... you should use a 16 bit variable here!"

  12. ComAir Now Hiring IT People by JavaDev04 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey everybody! Comair is hiring Unix System Administrators and IT Software Engineers! http://www.comair.com/hr/other/

  13. I did RTFA by EvilStein · · Score: 2, Funny

    "The computer software that crashed and grounded Comair's entire fleet on Christmas Day was an antiquated system due to be replaced in the coming months."

    First paragraph. I had just forgotten about it by the time I got to the *end* of the article. 6am + ADD - caffeine = me missing that bit. My bad. :P

  14. Re:Maybe it had "worked just fine" for them? by jcr · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe the existing system was working just fine?

    Apparently not.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  15. Re:Maybe it had "worked just fine" for them? by EvilStein · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, you're quite welcome. Be sure to stay tuned for my next opinion piece regarding "World Peace in 6 Easy Steps."

  16. Re:98 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I'm not sure how the open source movement can pride itself with the quality of imbecile fanboys it attracts.

    We're working on a solution. Right now we've just started to dangle shiny things in front of the imbecile fanboys to distract them; we've called them "Gentoo" and "Unbuntu". That way most of the uninformed and downright wrong fanboy opinions are becoming contained in small, easily avoidable groups where they can't do much harm to the rest of us.

    The next stage in the plan is working out some way of getting them to fight each other without causing any fallout which might damage the rest of us.

  17. Re:Maybe it had "worked just fine" for them? by Meostro · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is one step ??? and another Profit!?

  18. Re:Maybe it had "worked just fine" for them? by EvilStein · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't know, but isn't there a way that we can blame Microsoft or SCO for this whole Comair mess? :)

  19. Re:The far bigger snafu... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    ' The only way for employees to fight back is to hit the company where it hurts the most, by striking at a busy time. '

    If they hate their jobs so much, why don't they just quit and go elsewhere? This "strike" is like pouring water in a sinking ship. They'll be the first to suffer the negative effects. Not only does it damage the company so that it has less money to pay these employees: it also tells the company to do whatever it can to get rid of these employees.

  20. Re:There was a high profile example of this proble by sharkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Seems like there was another example of this sort of thing on November 2nd, 2004 as well. IIRC, some North Carolina machines dumped 3000+ votes due to a similar problem.

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    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  21. Re:Is he among us? by Opie812 · · Score: 1, Funny

    How do you go home at night and tell your wife that you signed an int, and it ruined Christmas for a whole lotta people?

    Here's how:
    "Hi honey, remember when I was complaining to you about how my boss wanted this project done double-time and they didn't have enough programmers because the pay is sh*t, and the testers had their hands tied because of internal politics, and the Q/A department couldn't do their job properly because we had an artifically tight deadline? Remember that? Well, that just came and bit us in the ass."

    ahhh, I love my job.

    --
    I'm not a nerd. Nerds are smart.
  22. Re:Over-engineer, then optimize! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    size it to accommodate the number of millimeters across the known universe ... they'll (probably) never have to hunt you down if that counter goes to 100 million or so

    Note to self:

    The universe is about 100 million millimeters across.