I have heard otherwise about some classes of medical devices. I think of the embedded type.

http://arstechnica.com/securit...

http://arstechnica.com/securit...

There was a story recently where a device or class of devices listened on Telnet ports, but I can't seem to find a link.

Of course, there's the famous case(s) of the radiation overdoses from faulty UI implementations, etc.

What type of medical devices are you referring to?

Well, I for one thank you for posting without the <code> tag in your post this time, and hope it's a permanent change.

Having one poster's comments show as monospaced font in contrast to everyone else's is visually disruptive and rather annoying. Unless one is posting actual code snippets.

I'd answer, "With limited success."

We used to be able to watch the worst excesses of American culture and, upon reflection, say to ourselves, "Let's not do that, m'kay?"

Now our PM sees the worst of American political culture and thinks, "That would work here." And, sadly, it does.

He was elected with ~40% of votes cast in last election, so I would humbly suggest that my views are not too out of line with the norm.

There was a split on the left / centre votes (NDP & Liberals) with a Liberal party leader that was not terribly charismatic and who was savaged repeatedly, ad nauseam (literally) by vicious (and hypocritical) attack ads for ~2 years prior to the election.

He taught Canadian Studies at Harvard (going from memory here) and was labelled as a traitor / foreigner who was "just visiting" to win as PM. Of course, the right wing loves highly talented people who can write their own ticket to work in any jurisdiction that can afford them, except when it's in their own interests to slander such people (Michael Ignatief was the man).

Oh, can I mention that the previous Harper government was a minority who insisted on ruling as a majority, despite basic democratic principles. They were finally found in Contempt of Parliament. The first time in the history of the British Parliamentary system that it's ever happened.

Canadians rewarded the traitor with a majority government. I'm not happy with my fellow citizens, even though election fraud was rampantly used to sway the outcome and they only got 40-ish% of the vote -- that's far, far too much.

It's all quite sickening and I'm not sure the Harper Regime will finally fall in the next election. Honestly, sick-making.

Tony Abbott's staggering incompetence would be a huge relief.

Apologies for the lengthy, ranty reply.

This is not a NASA project, so you've made a stunningly basic error in your first sentence. Not looking too good for attention to detail for someone "in the professional software field".

Regardless, if you want to see how NASA does software, or for anyone even remotely interested in how the best practices for true mission-critical software gets written, you can't find a more interesting story on the creation of space shuttle software:

The right stuff kicks in at T-minus 31 seconds.

As the 120-ton space shuttle sits surrounded by almost 4 million pounds of rocket fuel, exhaling noxious fumes, visibly impatient to defy gravity, its on-board computers take command. Four identical machines, running identical software, pull information from thousands of sensors, make hundreds of milli-second decisions, vote on every decision, check with each other 250 times a second. A fifth computer, with different software, stands by to take control should the other four malfunction.

But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program — each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

This software is the work of 260 women and men based in an anonymous office building across the street from the Johnson Space Center in Clear Lake, Texas, southeast of Houston. They work for the "on-board shuttle group," a branch of Lockheed Martin Corps space mission systems division, and their prowess is world renowned: the shuttle software group is one of just four outfits in the world to win the coveted Level 5 ranking of the federal governments Software Engineering Institute (SEI) a measure of the sophistication and reliability of the way they do their work. In fact, the SEI based it [sic] standards in part from watching the on-board shuttle group do its work.

The group writes software this good because that's how good it has to be. Every time it fires up the shuttle, their software is controlling a $4 billion piece of equipment, the lives of a half-dozen astronauts, and the dreams of the nation. Even the smallest error in space can have enormous consequences: the orbiting space shuttle travels at 17,500 miles per hour; a bug that causes a timing problem of just two-thirds of a second puts the space shuttle three miles off course.

Some of my favourite parts begin with the following quote:

The process can be reduced to four simple propositions:

1. The product is only as good as the plan for the product. At the on-board shuttle group, about one-third of the process of writing software happens before anyone writes a line of code. NASA and the Lockheed Martin group agree in the most minute detail about everything the new code is supposed to do — and they commit that understanding to paper, with the kind of specificity and precision usually found in blueprints. Nothing in the specs is changed without agreement and understanding from both sides. And no coder changes a single line of code without specs carefully outlining the change. Take the upgrade of the software to permit the shuttle to navigate with Global Positioning Satellites, a change that involves just 1.5% of the program, or 6,366 lines of code. The specs for that one change run 2,500 pages, a volume thicker than a phone book. The specs for the current program fill 30 volumes and run 40,000 pages.

That is how one writes software. NASA cannot be beaten when lives matter.

And this is why I'd trade Abbott for Stephen Harper in Canada.

Both are within the same political spectrum, but Abbott seems too stupid to accomplish much and is easily challenged and mocked.

Harper, on the other hand, is highly effective in implementing his regime's policies through being an effective liar, at stifling opposition, at muzzling the media, at avoiding parliamentary traditions, avoiding transparency; at viewing laws as mere obstacles, and is someone that disrespects every basic tenet of democracy.

Basically at ruining everything the country is known for.

If one must have a PM that is beholden to the fossil fuel industry, uses the military as props in photo ops, and wishes to veer the country hard to the right of politics, it's best if that PM is an utter buffoon who cannot really implement those goals.

And for those reasons, I'd rather have Abbott (or even Rob Ford) as PM than Harper.

I agree with most everything you've said, however, a month or so ago I was at someone's place and they offered a coffee.

It was surprisingly good. Turned out to be my first Keurig experience. I guess it depends on the coffee itself? I think she said it was "Blue Mountain" or something.

All in all, I was quite surprised that it didn't suck when I found out I was drinking one of those infernal machine's product.

I think this is the truck nuts to your pimped-out ride.

With capitol offence level stupidity, the voluntary part shouldn't be necessary.

And I'm sure the OP would be okay with it, since it fits within their world view so well.

Nah, they probably whine up a shit storm over getting a minor traffic ticket.

*looks at parent's nick*

Oh, of course you'd say that.

You're probably Opportunity itself posting here.

I'm sure Slashdot user MightyHubble would have something to say about that.

--
But in seriousness, I agree with you.

Well, you're not enough of a man to be a target so don't worry about it.

Well done, Godwin.

"If you put this murder in jail now, next it'll be the Roma, then the Jews. Argle bargle ``Hitler!''"

Also, manufacturers won't likely be too upset by being required to put some solar panels up, which will eventually save them some money by the time they've depreciated to worthless. Then will continue saving them money on electrical and cooling costs.

Well, they're getting a new customer for their DSL and TekTalk services next week.

To be honest, we're switching my Mom to them not because of this decision but because I'm a satisfied customer.

But the timing is excellent.

Also, during March, TekSavvy is waiving the $50 activation fee on DSL, so another excellent reason to sign up now.

Tell 'em CID135285 sent you - I then get a diminutive but helpful $1 / month off my bill for each referral.

As much as I despise advertising, I do wish TekSavvy got the word out more about themselves. No one here in BC seems to have heard of them.

I seem to recall a bus stop ad one time, and I don't have TV or radio, so I may miss their adverts, but they need to get their name out there better and not just with the "Tech Savvy" folks who might want to "pirate" content, but with everyone.

How about, "Hey, check out the lava tubes on the moon."

"Hey, that's no moon!"

"Heh heh, and that ain't a 'lava tube' either!"

I'm not going to claim that there is no problem (and the biggest problem the country faces is inside the PMO), but the courts have been pretty damned good at blocking the Harper Regime's unconstitutional laws.

Everything from

Federal Court rightly strikes down Harper’s refugee health-care cuts

Supreme Court prostitution ruling forces issue on Harper

Supreme Court strikes down assisted suicide ban

Supreme Court softens Tories' tough-on-crime sentencing law

As for over-seers, we do need more and better ones, but let's not forget Sheila Fraser

and

Kevin Page who was actually appointed by Harper (and I imagine Harper regretted it):

Thus showing that the current laws are working.