Or look at
http://www.calpoly.edu/~darkjedi/300/00.htm for a twisted view of
the incident.
Or, to quote my Mother, the people responsible for this disaster "should be
flogged with a maggoty cat"!
My 2 cents: relying on S/W for safety is like relying on timing for birth
control.
I've known of beatifully made Swiss molding machines with all sorts of
hydraulic and electrical interlocks still closing at 100 tons force an inch
from someone's fingers.
Give me a 2 inch steel bar anyday.
Neil Morrison
Implementation
GTE Enterprise Solutions
ph: (604) 293-5710
email:morrison_at_t-iii.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com [SMTP:CLASSICCMP_at_trailing-edge.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 1:59 PM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: RE: therac-25
>
> > I found myself in the mood for revisiting the macabre side of
> >classic computing and decided to search for Therac stuff. See:
> >
> >http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/~adamd/essays/rts3.html
> >
> > Now it seems to me that the fellow who wrote this article was
> >pretty full of it. If you can get past his overuse of passive voice and
> >continual nominalization, you may note that many of his points are far
> too
> >theoretical and not supported by direct observation, knowledge, etc.
>
> It's clear (to me, at least) that he's never directly worked with
> any of the Therac machines, nor did he even bother talking to the
> folks at AECL before writing his article. It's entirely a bunch of
> opinions of his after he read Nancy Leveson's article on Therac.
>
.... clipped
Received on Thu Sep 09 1999 - 16:29:54 BST