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Book review: Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bug

Book review: Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bug Book Review: Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugsby Saveen ReddyIvars Peterson 1995 Random House, Inc. NY As great a role as software plays in our lives, we should make an effort to be familiar with its positive and negative aspects. Increasingly, as computing becomes ubiquitous, many of us have had contact with the extreme consequences software failures can bring about. One of my own friends met his fiery end in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia when his barracks had the incredible misfortune of getting hit by a SCUD missile. My learning that a timing error in the Patriot's software had been partially responsible for his death underscored the kind of dependence we have on computers and the naive expectations we have about their correctness. In Fatal Defect Ivars Peterson attempts to bring this issue to light through a careful examination of case studies and an exploration of what can be done to ameliorate the disastrous consequences of bugs in life-critical applications. We have a tendency these days to exaggerate things. Everyday problems or rare injustices are interpreted as crises. Legitimate worries are cast as mass hysteria. With a book entitled Fatal Defect and chapters named "Silent Death'' and "Time Bomb'' http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Crossroads Association for Computing Machinery

Book review: Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bug

Reddy, Saveen
Crossroads , Volume 2 (1) – Sep 1, 1995
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Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
Copyright
The ACM Portal is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2010 ACM, Inc.
ISSN
1528-4972
DOI
10.1145/332198.332216
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Book Review: Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugsby Saveen ReddyIvars Peterson 1995 Random House, Inc. NY As great a role as software plays in our lives, we should make an effort to be familiar with its positive and negative aspects. Increasingly, as computing becomes ubiquitous, many of us have had contact with the extreme consequences software failures can bring about. One of my own friends met his fiery end in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia when his barracks had the incredible misfortune of getting hit by a SCUD missile. My learning that a timing error in the Patriot's software had been partially responsible for his death underscored the kind of dependence we have on computers and the naive expectations we have about their correctness. In Fatal Defect Ivars Peterson attempts to bring this issue to light through a careful examination of case studies and an exploration of what can be done to ameliorate the disastrous consequences of bugs in life-critical applications. We have a tendency these days to exaggerate things. Everyday problems or rare injustices are interpreted as crises. Legitimate worries are cast as mass hysteria. With a book entitled Fatal Defect and chapters named "Silent Death'' and "Time Bomb''

Journal

Crossroads – Association for Computing Machinery

Published: Sep 1, 1995

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