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'The Year That Software Bugs Ate the World' (fastcompany.com)

Posted by msmash on from the year-of-bugs dept.

FastCompany's harrymcc writes: It's not like there's ever a year that isn't rife with stories about buggy software. But 2017 seems to have had an unusually rich supply of software flaws that fouled up major products -- from Twitter to iOS 11 to the Google Pixel 2 -- in ways that were very noticeable and sometimes even funny. Sample this: A nagging flaw in Google's Play Services software for Android causes Gmail to demand access to "body sensors" before it will let users send email. Android Police's Artem Russakovskii discovers that his Mini is recording audio 24/7 and storing it on Google's servers. I rounded up a bunch of them over at Fast Company.

10 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. We need to go back to basics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Programming in traditional programming languages instead of the latest fad language and framework. And develop in our own countries instead of outsourcing it.

    1. Re:We need to go back to basics by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What we really need are programmers who actually know what they are doing. The problem is that there really aren't enough programmers out there to get all the development projects done by knowledgeable programmers. It doesn't matter how much you pay them, the programmers simply don't exist.

      I think that the latest fad language and framework is actually just a symptom of the underlying problem. With a good enough tool set, you can fake your way through it for the most part and make it look like the system works from the outside. But you eventually hit a wall where the framework can't make up for the lack of skill of the developers, and this is where you run into problems.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:We need to go back to basics by chill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Why would they do that? They'll just address it in the next sprint! If you're agile enough, that is. Just add those bugs to the backlog! We've got features to ship!

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    3. Re:We need to go back to basics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      At the beginning of a project, it doesn't make sense to invest a lot of development effort into a comprehensive, secure, bug-free, scalable, and robust foundation. Doing so costs a fortune and your business flops before it is finished. And anyway the market hasn't tested your offering yet so you don't know if it is going to live long enough to need a foundation that is that advanced.

      During the mid-life of the project the need for a better foundation starts coming up, but it still doesn't make sense to spring for it because the application-wide refactor will be harmfully impactful to existing clients, and (more importantly) it doesn't sell anything in the short-term. Even though it will save a lot in the long-term, that savings just can't compete with the money that is sitting on the table if you just add a few more features instead.

      Yes, there are bugs that clients feel, but they aren't bad enough for the clients to abandon the project, and even the clients would rather pay for new features than fixing bugs they are already working-around.

      At the end of the project it obviously doesn't make sense to put the solid foundation in, nor to fix the majority of the longstanding bugs, because it won't be around long enough to capture any profit from that bandwidth.

  2. 99 bugs in the code.... by Computershack · · Score: 4, Funny

    99 bugs in the code to be fixed, 99 bugs in the code. Fix a bug, wrap it up, 148 bugs in the code...

    --
    I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
    1. Re:99 bugs in the code.... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      148 bugs in the code to be fixed, 148 bugs in the code. Fix a bug, wrap it up, 835 bugs in the code...

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  3. Will have to get worse before it gets better by gweihir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The average person still does not care at all. Hence software can still get worse and even cheaper to make before it starts to cut into profits. And it will.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  4. I Blame Connectivity by nwaack · · Score: 3

    I think a major contributor to all these bugs is that every. single. thing. has to be connected to every. other. thing. My computer has to talk to my phone which has to talk to my watch which has to talk to my refrigerator which has to talk to my toaster. All that connectivity makes software waaay more complicated that it needs to be. Now throw in some corporate greed where software design goes to the lowest bidder and you get what we have today.

  5. More software, more bugs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Next year: Even more software, even more bugs.

  6. Capability Based Security by ka9dgx · · Score: 2

    If we had capability based security in our systems, this kind of stuff would require the user to knowingly allow these types of activities. Until then, we're all screwed. Stop blaming everything but the OS. It's not the programmers or the users.