pdcull - Slashdot User

Submission + - Software bug caused Qantas Airbus A330 to nose-div

Submitted by

pdcull

on Monday December 19, 2011 @09:00PM

pdcull writes: "According to this article, the Australian Transport Safety Board found that a software bug was responsible for a Qantas Airbus A330 nose-diving twice while at cruising altitude, injuring 12 people seriously and causing 39 to be taken to hospital.

The event, which happened three years ago, was found to be caused by an airspeed sensor malfunction, linked to a bug in an algorithm which 'translated the sensors' data into actions, where the flight control computer could put the plane into a nosedive using bad data from just one sensor.' A software updated was installed in November 2009, and the ATSB concluded that 'as a result of this redesign, passengers, crew and operators can be confident that the same type of accident will not reoccur.'

I can't help wondering just how could a piece of code, which presumable didn't test its' input data for validity before acting on it, become part of a modern jet's onboard software suit?"

Submission + - World cup predication failures 1

Submitted by pdcull on Saturday July 03, 2010 @06:09PM

pdcull writes: We all read on Slashdot about the investiment banks using their massive computer power and clever modelling techniques to predicate the FIFA World Cup outcome. Now that Goldman Sachs', UBS' and Danske Bank's favorite, Brazil, has been eliminated, and with JP Morgan's England long gone, the question that begs to be asked is: can we really trust these guys to predict the financial markets any better than they did World Cup?

Submission + - Online website backup options (paulcull.org)

Submitted by

pdcull

on Sunday August 03, 2008 @04:44PM

pdcull writes: "I can't be the only person on the planet who has this problem: I have a couple of websites, with around 2 gigabytes of space in use on my hosting provider, plus a few MySQL databases. I need to keep up-to-date backups, as my host provides only minimum backup provisions, however with a internet connection which gets to 150 Kbits on a very good day, there is no way that I can guarantee a decent backup on my home PC using FTP transfer software.

So my question is: does somebody provide an online service where I can feed them a URL, an FTP password and some money, and they will post me DVDs with my web site on them? If such services already exist (and the closest I found was a site which promised to send me CDs and had a special deal for customers which expired in June!), has anybody had experience with them which they could share? Any recommendations of services to use or avoid?"

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