Spy Plane Fries Air Traffic Control Computers, Shuts Down LAX

wrote:
On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 12:22:22 AM UTC-5, wrote:
Orval Fairbairn wrote:







I wonder if it was a ploy to keep the U-2s from being cut from the

inventory.



And just how would screwing up air traffic for the entire South West for

hours accomplish that?



If it was because of a U-2, then my guess would be a software bug where

the software goes to la-la land when input parameters way out of "normal"

for civil aviation, e.g. as in the infamous Y2K problem where the original

programers failed to anticipate dates beyond 1999.


Typical for federal contract programmmers, just like screwing up metric vs.
english measurements for one Mars lander.

Actually it is pretty typical for just about every software project as
almost no one is willing to pay for the testing required to avoid such
things.

Windows XP is a great example; 13 years old, as of April no longer supported
by Microsoft, yet bugs are STILL being found.



--
Jim Pennino