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Thread: History's Worst Software Bugs

  1. November 14th, 2005, 07:02 PM #1
    Paws
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    Post History's Worst Software Bugs

    Found this on wired.com

    The article is too long to post on here so I have posted the link instead. It is very interesting reading.


    History's Worst Software Bugs
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  2. November 14th, 2005, 08:09 PM #2
    gore
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    Don't forget :

    http://wired.com/news/technology/bug...,69355,00.html

    http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1..._story_related

    http://wired.com/news/technology/0,1..._story_related


    One of these links is probably the one you posted but I needed a place to store them for class tonight
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  3. November 14th, 2005, 08:24 PM #3
    Noia
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    Hmm, they didn't mention the AT&T Crash of 1991, a single line in the overload section of software had a single typographic flaw, a 0xb had been enterd as 0x6, this deprived the entire eastern sea-bord of telecomunications. 116 people died if I remember correctly.
    With all the subtlety of an artillery barrage / Follow blindly, for the true path is sketchy at best. .:Bring OS X to x86!:.
    Og ingen kan minnast dei linne drag i dronningas andlet den fagre dag Då landet her kvilte i heilag fred og alle hadde kjærleik å elske med.
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  4. November 14th, 2005, 08:25 PM #4
    morganlefay
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    Wow I found this interesting...

    1982 -- Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency allegedly (.pdf) plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.
    I hadnt heard of this....

    Noia...they do mention an AT&T crash on the second page..

    Some things never change...one of the fixes was rolling back to a previous version...


    Nice info

    MLF
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  5. November 14th, 2005, 08:56 PM #5
    Noia
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    Theres a second page?
    With all the subtlety of an artillery barrage / Follow blindly, for the true path is sketchy at best. .:Bring OS X to x86!:.
    Og ingen kan minnast dei linne drag i dronningas andlet den fagre dag Då landet her kvilte i heilag fred og alle hadde kjærleik å elske med.
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  6. November 14th, 2005, 09:19 PM #6
    morganlefay
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    Yep!


    http://wired.com/news/technology/bug...ory_page_next1



    January 15, 1990 -- AT&T Network Outage. A bug in a new release of the software that controls AT&T's #4ESS long distance switches causes these mammoth computers to crash when they receive a specific message from one of their neighboring machines -- a message that the neighbors send out when they recover from a crash.

    One day a switch in New York crashes and reboots, causing its neighboring switches to crash, then their neighbors' neighbors, and so on. Soon, 114 switches are crashing and rebooting every six seconds, leaving an estimated 60 thousand people without long distance service for nine hours. The fix: engineers load the previous software release.
    MLF
    How people treat you is their karma- how you react is yours-Wayne Dyer
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  7. November 15th, 2005, 12:34 AM #7
    jinxy
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    I thought I would put a more personal perspective on Paws post.

    With reference to this:

    1985-1987 -- Therac-25 medical accelerator.

    Taken from here:http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/engli...s/stumble.html

    That day, Cox was supposed to receive a short, low-intensity burst, but there was an unnoticed problem in the computer program controlling the machine. Whenever a technician set the machine for a heavy radiation dose, then quickly changed the setting in a certain way, the computer program lost the correction and retracted the machine's safety interlocks. No one knew of the flaw, even though it had resulted in deep radiation wounds to a patient in Georgia the year before.
    The above is from a book called "Moths to the Flame: the seductions of computer technology"

    You can read it here: http://archives.obs-us.com/obs/engli...rawlins/moths/ ( if you are interested )
    What happens if a big asteroid hits the Earth? Judging from realistic simulations involving a sledge hammer and a common laboratory frog, we can assume it will be pretty bad. - Dave Barry
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