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Three Mile Island Memories

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-it-ain't-broke,-send-it-through-congress dept.

theodp writes "Thirty years after the partial nuclear core meltdown at Three Mile Island, Robert Cringely describes the terrible TMI user interface, blaming a confluence of bad design decisions — some made by Congress — for making the accident vastly worse. While computers could be used to monitor the reactor, US law prohibited using computers to directly control nuclear power plants — men would do that. So, when the (one) computer noticed a problem, it would set off audible and visual alarms, and send a problem description to a line printer. Simple, except the computer noticed 700 things wrong in the first few minutes of the TMI accident, causing the one audible alarm to ring continuously until it was shut off as useless. The one visual alarm blinked for days, indicating nothing useful. And the print queue was quickly flooded with 700 error reports followed by thousands of updates and corrections, making it almost instantly hours behind. The operators had to guess at what the problem was."

4 of 309 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Job's got it right.... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 2, Funny

    I bleme the belief that the goal of an UI is to lower the required understanding (and thus salary) of the operators.

    Why do you hate stockholders?

    --
    Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
  2. Re:Job's got it right.... by hawk · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey!

    This is slashdot. Stop using facts to confront ignorant hysteria!

    hawk

  3. Re:Job's got it right.... by hawk · · Score: 3, Funny


    tmi2> sshutdown -r now
    sshutdown: Command not found.
    tmi2> halt -c
    halt: invalid option: -c
    Try `halt --help' for more information.
    tmi2> help halt
    help: Command not found.
    tmi2> shut it down, damnit!
    shut: demand not found.
    tmi2> assume nuclear defense position
    assume: Command not found.
    tmi2> stick your head between your legs
    stick: command not found.
    tmi2> *%&*^&$
    [from system: system going down for meltdown NOW!]
    [from system: assume nuclear defense positon]
    [from system: stick your head between your legs and kiss your ]

    ***line down***

  4. Re:The Operators Were Not Cheap by cyn1c77 · · Score: 2, Funny

    There are always plenty of suggestions as to where society should apply its best and brightest. It is much harder to place the worst and dumbest. Consider the bottom 25%. They have to have jobs.

    I don't really think that it would be that hard to find jobs for the under-achievers:

    1. President

    2. Presidential advisers

    3. Congress

    4. Investment bankers

    5. Actors and actresses

    6. CEOs

    7. Lawyers

    I'm sure that I have missed a few key positions, feel free to help me out.