Breathalyzer Source Code Revealed

Nonillion writes "New Jersey attorney Evan M. Levow was finally able to get an order from the Supreme Court of New Jersey forcing the manufacturer of the popular Draeger AlcoTest 7110 to reveal the source code. Levow turned the code over to experts, Base One Technologies, to analyze. Initially, Base One found that, contrary to Draeger's protestations that the code was proprietary, the code consisted mostly of general algorithms: 'That is, the code is not really unique or proprietary.' In other words, the 'trade secrets' claim which manufacturers were hiding behind was completely without merit." Following up an earlier discussion here, the state of Minnesota has (without explanation) missed a deadline to turn over the code for a different breathalyzer.

Comments

Re:Frosty Pist

[quantum bit]

You must first blow into this tube before your Slashdot post is accepted.

Processing... Processing... Done! (31 errors ignored)

Sorry, your blood alcohol is over the limit for Slashdot first-posting. Please try again later.

Learn something new every day

[Mateo_LeFou]

I didn't know SCO made breathalizers.

Shocked

[UbuntuDupe]

You mean, the creator of an intellectual work thinks it's more creative than it really is? That very rarely happens.

Let's whiteboard this people

[Anonymous Coward]

if ( drunk ) {
goto JAIL;
}

Re:Let's whiteboard this people

[quantum bit]

if ( drunk ) {
goto JAIL;
} else {
collect(200);
}

Re:Let's whiteboard this people

[hax0r_this]

I don't get it. What is i, and why does it keep increasing? It looks like it should be money, but as far as I know in jail they mostly don't pay you when they rape you.

Re:Let's whiteboard this people

[Duhavid]

Label not found "JAIL".
Undefined symbol: collect().
Undefined symbol: rich.
'rich' used without assignment.
Undefined symbol: recieveBeating().
Undefined symbol: jailRape().

Re:Frosty Pist

[bladesjester]

Sorry, your blood alcohol is under the limit for Slashdot first-posting. Please try again later.

There. Fixed it for you =]

Gotos considered harmful

[benhocking]

Have you looked carefully at your code to see what happens if you're not drunk? Personally, I'd like to see an exit(0); in that else section.

Here's one for the mythbusters...

[mathfeel]

FTA:

"7. Flow Measurements Adjusted/Substituted: The software takes an airflow measurement at power-up, and presumes this value is the "zero line" or baseline measurement for subsequent calculations. No quality check or reasonableness test is done on this measurement..."

So, if I blow into the device as soon as it boots, I will always be tested negative??

Re:So you can't refute his arguments. Gotcha.

[Sj0]

My WITTY COMEBACK was killed by a drunk driver!

Re:Frosty Pist

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

I'm sorry, but this is no joking matter! It's estimated that over 10,000 points of karma are lost a year to drink-/.-posting. Ordinary, everyday nerds like you have lost face with their peers. They feel inadequate as their karma drops from Excellent to Good in the face of all the other Excellent nerds. It's been known for some particularly disgraced nerds to quit /. and start posting regularly on digg. That's right, it's not so funny now, is it?