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The Big Technical Mistakes of History

Posted by kdawson on from the seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time dept.

An anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."

3 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. No one falls for libel Clone, you ne'er do well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "But basically, I support the law http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1629374&cid=31995628" - by clone53421 (1310749) on Tuesday April 27, @02:40AM (#31995628)

    I see your comment quoted above there Clone, as well as you signature Clone in your attempt to libel others here on slashdot. So, isn't Jeremy Reimer the guy who had parts of his website removed for libelling APK by his hosting provider and Reimer was caught email harassing APK by his ISP, Shaw of Canada, when Shaw put Reimer on a tracking ticket for it (which Reimer promptly ceased his email harassment of APK once he was aware of that happening), and arstechnica strangely no longer puts up articles by the blatantly unqualified Jeremy Reimer?

    Jeremy Reimer and his friends Jay Little also had their websites removed entirely from CrystalTech.com and from petitiononline.com also, because of their making death threats to APK just because APK showed that Exchange Server stalls due to memory fragmentation are stopped when a memory optimization program is used (microsoft's own called clearmem.exe) after Jay Little, whom Jeremy Reimer brought in because Reimer doesn't even have a degree in CSC or CIS related fields (not even an A+ cert, much less an MCSE or the like to his credit, much less actual degrees) or years to decades of professional hands-on experience in the trenches doing computer work, failed in stating verbatim "I am an Exchange Expert" and when Jay Little saw what APK put up, he tried to harass APK by nitpicking his posts at NTCompatible.com also, where Little stalked APK there and failed on issues regarding ramdisks/ssd and also Windows own error codes/crash codes which got Jay Little kicked from NTCompatible.com as it did on Channel 9 at Microsoft also? Seems that was what happened at Windows IT Pro here http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/41095/the-memory-optimization-hoax.html which anyone can read.

    So much for your libelling others Clone. You can't even get that right and you certainly like lies and libel, which are against the law in the USA and in other nations also.

    Clone, I also note that you also called APK, the person you refer to in your signature here, a "spyware maker" http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1591778&cid=31736454 , but he noted that Nir Sofer and Dr. Mark Russinovich have also had many of their wares classified falsely as spywares too, and that he took CA's 21 point test and his app did not violate a single point of their test and they downrated his app to "zero threat levels" because of this. APK also put up the very first guide to securing Windows back in 1998 which was highly rated at Neowin in 2001 and grew into the most viewed and most effective guide for securing Windows NT Operating Systems out there currently at 350,000 views strong and being made a sticky pinned thread, an essential guide, or being the most viewed and being usually rated 5 of 5 stars by readers of his security guide for Windows such as here http://www.tcmagazine.com/forums/index.php?s=f94b12f3d43b3b9446bed90155910842&showtopic=2662 . At 350,000 views strong and with great feedback too, your calling him that shows you do anything but support the law, and regularly break it with libel on your part towards others clone.

    Clone, You are a scumbag libelling little weasel clone, and now everyone will know how much so, after reading this reply. Just because you're a loser that doesn't have a job and because you've never done a thing in your life that's of service to others, doesn't give you the right to libel others who have, clone.

  2. A mod up for a libellous little weasel like Clone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    See subject above, and see how Clone tried to libel others here on this website via his signature and was proven wrong here http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1632188&cid=31999288 .

    Funny how that shut clone53421 up here -> http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1632188&cid=31999288 , eh?

    Clone53421 is nothing more than a little out of work bum who can't get a job because he wastes his life on slashdot here libelling others (which is why he won't get a job, because his kind do this rampantly, and this is why suits against them are not worth it - nothing to be had in suing a "ne'er do well" like Clone53421 is why).

    Why is Clone libelling apk? Ok:

    ----

    Mozilla Firefox DOM Node Moving Use-After-Free Vulnerability:

    http://secunia.com/advisories/39175/

    Release Date 2010-04-02
    Last Update 2010-04-06

    ----

    Clone lost his behind in a debate with apk on FireFox http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/23/0415208/Germany-Warns-Against-Using-Firefox (when Germany warned vs. its usage, as they had for IE previous to that) here, regarding FireFox 3.6, which then forced a reissue of FireFox 3.6.2 (not 2.6.2 as Clone erroneously noted it there as also), but during the timeframe of that debate (03/23/2010 - 04/05/2010)?

    LOL: FireFox turned up YET ANOTHER SECURITY BUG in their DOM during that debate's timeframe (see between dashed lines above), which forced an issuance of FireFox 3.6.3 on 04/06/2010!

    Also, when that news of a NEW FIREFOX BUG came out?

    Well - Slashdot's moderators "strangely closed that thread on Germany early" (NOT) in less than 2 weeks...

    This libel of apk only showed Clone's poor defense of FireFox (inclusive of citing very old 3-5 versions out of date data on Opera bugs no less, version 9.52 & 10.52 just released today no less in final form) as erroneous, and that Clone is a sore loser.

    Clone, face it: Opera's FASTER than FireFox in HTML parse & process work, plus javascript work too, and Opera shows less bugs over time than FireFox does, consistently no less... whether or not you can handle that or not, doesn't matter - you LOSE, as per usual.

    All the libelling of others online will not help you, once people see how you react in your "geek angst" when you lose poorly due to bogus libelling of others on this website, which makes you appear in your true nature of being a libellous online scumbag weasel.

  3. clone53421 likes stalking others to other forums? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?s=0c20bd72321b9c96c7a66c25b68b16a6&p=13958812#post13958812

    Says it all right there. Pretty pitiful clone53421, and all because you badly lost a debate here on /., where you libeled me repeatedly as well with information from sources who tried the same in Jeremy Reimer and Jay Little (who only got caught email harassing me by their ISPs, had their websites with death threats & impersonations of myself removed in part or their entirely (3 of them no less, 3 times) by their hosting providers, and had law enforcement in their local areas notified on them both, due to such "geek angst based" death threats).

    APK

    P.S.=> clone53421 - Seek help for your condition, please. However, I am not sure if there is a 'cure' or treatment for 'geek angst', lol... apk