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From: "Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93" <condicma@PWFL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ariane 5 failure
Date: 1996/10/03
Date: 1996-10-03T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <96100316162653@psavax.pwfl.com> (raw)


Ken Garlington <garlingtonke@LMTAS.LMCO.COM> writes:
>> Brain's law:
>> "Software Bugs and Hardware Faults are no excuse for the Program not to
>> work".
>
>Too bad that law can't be enforced :)
>
    Yup! Hardware faults - such as a CPU out to lunch - can pretty
    much be impossible to fix with the software that's running on it.
    As for software faults, isn't it a little like being in the
    "Physcian, heel thyself!" mode? I am insane - let me diagnose and
    cure my own insanity...But being insane, can I know that my
    diagnosis and/or cure isn't also insane? A bit of a paradox, no?

    Yes, yes, yes. Exception handlers and so on can do a remarkable
    job of catching problems and fixing them. But out of the set of
    all possible software bugs, there is a non-empty set containing
    software bugs which mean your program has gone insane.

    You can only accommodate the bugs and/or faults which you can
    think of. What about the few hundred bugs/faults you *didn't*
    think of? Bet your donkey that they're going to happen someday,
    somewhere and the only way you're going to learn about them is by
    having them rear their ugly heads. Ask the engineers who designed
    The Tacoma Bridge or the o-rings on the space shuttle about it.

    MDC

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer    ATT:        561.796.8997
M/S 731-96                                      Technet:    796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP                           Fax:        561.796.4669
P.O. Box 109600                                 Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
West Palm Beach, FL 33410-9600                  Internet:   CONDIC@FLINET.COM
===============================================================================
    Glendower: "I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
    Hotspur: "Why so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when
    you do call for them?"

        -- Shakespeare, "Henry IV"
===============================================================================




             reply	other threads:[~1996-10-03  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 104+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
1996-10-03  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93 [this message]
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1996-10-31  0:00 Ariane 5 failure Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-28  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-28  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-29  0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-11-08  0:00   ` robin
1996-10-21  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-22  0:00 ` Adam Beneschan
1996-10-16  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-18  0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-19  0:00   ` Frank Manning
1996-10-21  0:00     ` Norman H. Cohen
1996-10-14  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-15  0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1996-10-15  0:00   ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-16  0:00     ` Michael F Brenner
1996-10-16  0:00       ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-23  0:00 ` robin
1996-10-03  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-03  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-01  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1996-10-02  0:00   ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-04  0:00   ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-05  0:00     ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-06  0:00       ` Keith Thompson
1996-10-10  0:00       ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-14  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-15  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-16  0:00         ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-18  0:00           ` Keith Thompson
1996-10-18  0:00             ` Samuel T. Harris
1996-10-21  0:00               ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-18  0:00             ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-23  0:00           ` robin
1996-10-01  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-01  0:00 Marin David Condic, 407.796.8997, M/S 731-93
1996-10-02  0:00 ` Alan Brain
1996-10-02  0:00   ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-02  0:00     ` Matthew Heaney
1996-10-04  0:00       ` Robert S. White
1996-10-05  0:00         ` Robert Dewar
1996-10-05  0:00         ` Alan Brain
1996-10-06  0:00           ` Robert S. White
1996-10-03  0:00     ` Alan Brain
1996-10-04  0:00       ` Ken Garlington
     [not found] <agrapsDy4oJH.29G@netcom.com>
1996-09-25  0:00 ` @@           robin
1996-09-25  0:00   ` Bob Kitzberger
1996-09-26  0:00     ` Ronald Kunne
1996-09-26  0:00       ` Matthew Heaney
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Wayne Hayes
1996-09-27  0:00           ` Richard Pattis
1996-09-29  0:00             ` Chris McKnight
1996-09-29  0:00             ` Alan Brain
1996-09-29  0:00             ` Dann Corbit
1996-10-01  0:00             ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-27  0:00         ` Ronald Kunne
1996-09-27  0:00           ` Lawrence Foard
1996-10-04  0:00             ` @@           robin
1996-09-28  0:00           ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-28  0:00             ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-29  0:00           ` Alan Brain
1996-09-29  0:00             ` Robert A Duff
1996-09-30  0:00               ` Wayne L. Beavers
1996-10-01  0:00                 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-01  0:00                   ` Wayne L. Beavers
1996-10-01  0:00                     ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-02  0:00                       ` Sandy McPherson
1996-10-03  0:00                 ` Richard A. O'Keefe
1996-10-01  0:00             ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-28  0:00         ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-27  0:00       ` Alan Brain
1996-09-28  0:00         ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-27  0:00       ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-29  0:00       ` Louis K. Scheffer
1996-09-25  0:00   ` Michel OLAGNON
1996-09-25  0:00     ` Byron Kauffman
1996-09-25  0:00       ` A. Grant
1996-09-25  0:00         ` Ken Garlington
1996-09-26  0:00         ` Sandy McPherson
1996-09-26  0:00         ` Byron Kauffman
1996-09-27  0:00           ` A. Grant
1996-09-25  0:00     ` Chris Morgan
1996-09-27  0:00   ` John McCabe
1996-10-01  0:00     ` Michael Dworetsky
1996-10-04  0:00       ` Steve Bell
1996-10-07  0:00         ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-09  0:00         ` @@           robin
1996-10-09  0:00           ` Steve O'Neill
1996-10-12  0:00             ` Alan Brain
1996-10-04  0:00     ` @@           robin
1996-10-04  0:00       ` Michel OLAGNON
1996-10-09  0:00         ` @@           robin
1996-10-04  0:00       ` Joseph C Williams
1996-10-06  0:00         ` Wayne Hayes
1996-10-17  0:00       ` Ralf Tilch
1996-10-17  0:00         ` Ravi Sundaram
1996-10-22  0:00           ` shmuel
1996-10-22  0:00             ` Jim Carr
1996-10-24  0:00               ` hayim
1996-10-25  0:00                 ` Ken Garlington
1996-10-25  0:00                 ` Michel OLAGNON
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