Thurman Pedigo wrote: > This story IS legend, reported over and over. My recollections it made > headlines when it occurred - not that long ago.
Not an urban legend but LEGENDARY (and one of the forces behind the FDA's entry into the software as medical device arena) " Some of the most widely cited software-related accidents in safety-critical systems involved a computerized radiation therapy machine called the Therac-25. Between June 1985 and January 1987, six known accidents involved massive overdoses by the Therac-25 -- with resultant deaths and serious injuries." cf http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Therac_25/Therac_1.html I remember the story pretty well so googled this up, a very thorough analysis by software engineers and highly relevant, I think. And a pretty scary read, too. Recommended. jlz I since gone a little daft googling around for dangerous software errors. try http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/index.23.html for something a little less serious. ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the 'Do More With Dual!' webinar happening July 14 at 8am PDT/11am EDT. We invite you to explore the latest in dual core and dual graphics technology at this free one hour event hosted by HP, AMD, and NVIDIA. To register visit http://www.hp.com/go/dualwebinar _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
