>> and in 1 in 1000 installs that cases has some weird behavior.

Get the compiler rand seed with the bug report.
Reproduce the compilation and the test the bug.
Profit.

This could help to force coders to write tidier code.

Exactly.

Plus the advantage that generalized local compilation is good for avoiding backdoors, you can vompare your source with an audited one, which is not so easy for a bloody binary...

>> And would make that buggy software nearly impossible to patch.

A patch applies to the source, recompile, and there you are.

>> Every time there's a security vulnerability found, you'd essentially have to reinstall the whole application.

No, you have to patch the source and recompile the exe. It's a much saner workflow than to patch a binary (who does this anyway?).

>> How much Asbestos is in an old nuclear plant?

A lot. At the time, it was not considered toxic, and it was a common building material handled by common techniques.

>> Well you're comparing phones/appliances to computers, so yes.

Phones and appliances are computers.

>> I shouldn't need to tcpdump their IMAP traffic to discover that the server is telling them their password is wrong damnit!

You should use encryption and not be able to analyze the traffic anyway.

if rocket science was so easy as a "sudo apt-get install -f" and a "sudo dpkg --configure -a" , I would probably be building a moon base :)

Yep sorry, my fault, usual figures from the nuke industry is in the million of years.
But don't think HLW will be inoffensive after waiting 20 million years. Yes, most of the activity will be gone, but It'll still be deadly.

>> True, nuclear waste is not pollution unless it escapes in an accident

Bullshit.
Nuclear waste will escape. why ? because it has billion years of time, will structurally degrade, and there is no known material to contain it.
It already escapes after a few years in every storage man has built for it.
During it's lifetime, it will inevitably mix with soil on a large scale., with all the consequences.

>> Have they considered what they are going to do when the ISA card decides to die?
two answers :
- industrial hardware does not die.
- if ever it does anyway, they'll take a Win7 or linux computer, and browse ebay for a replacement. Back to the old box running XP.

Why only filename ? they seem to have no encryption whatsoever....

Gruss

This slashdor random Be ta is annoying more than Win 8

Today, Linux and Libreoffice is a better alternative than Windows and MS Office...
Not that the usability of the linux desktop linux went up, no, it ramained at a good level, it's more the useability of MS products who s(t)inks dramatically.

>> A few dozen people might wind up with cancer someday because Japan uses nuclear power.

Nope. The first years it was close to 600 in the direct vincinity:
https://nuclearhistory.wordpre...

The number is not considering the widespread ingestion of contaminated agricultural produce, and is exponential over the years (or at least over the firt 300 years)

On the long run, Fukushima takes more lives than the tsunami. Much more.

Basically, i could live without any software at all.
But if you insist, perhaps i would respond : "Linux"