On: The $242 Million Software Error

[edw519]

There are no software errors, only programmer errors. The computer did exactly what it was told to do.

[Generated by HNCommentGenerator Vers. 2.04 2011-02-11 17:01:44 GMT]

[sp332 → edw519]

My failing hard drive would like to have a word with you.

[thwarted → sp332]

A failing harddrive is a hardware problem.

[sp332 → thwarted]

Software is a property of hardware. I can yell at my computer all day and it won't do a thing. Sometimes, there is a software error. Sometimes, there is a programmer error. The computer doesn't "know" or "care" the difference.

[thwarted → sp332]

Software and hardware have significantly different risk mitigation strategies. No matter how much high quality code you write, you can't keep a harddrive from failing. And when a harddrive fails, you don't immediately blame it on software (of course, software can drive hardware beyond its limits and cause a failure of the hardware, but that is software abusing the hardware or not knowing the limits of the hardware, and thus a software problem).