Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   John Regehr (regehr@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 25-Jan-2025 10:16:51 JST John Regehr

   one of the nastiest tidbits from the Therac-25 incident -- the people testing the software weren't proficient with it and therefore had a hard time triggering the abundant latent race conditions in the interface

   don't let anyone tell you that software testing isn't creative work, it is!!

   https://web.stanford.edu/class/archive/cs/cs240/cs240.1236/old//sp2014/readings/therac-25.pdf

   • Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧 likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     John Regehr (regehr@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 25-Jan-2025 10:16:50 JST John Regehr

     in reply to

     the linked document should be mandatory reading, but it's tough stuff -- contains some highly visceral subjective descriptions of being inside a radiation therapy machine when it runs amok

     Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧 likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     John Regehr (regehr@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 25-Jan-2025 10:16:50 JST John Regehr

     in reply to

     I've almost stopped assigning Therac as reading for students, it's so old that they just don't feel the connection. which is a shame! cause shitty software and hubris are timeless.

     Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧 likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧 (jeffcliff@shitposter.world)'s status on Saturday, 25-Jan-2025 10:19:33 JST Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧

     in reply to
     @regehr > Reprinted with permission
     
     because maintaining strict permission culture and control of who reads what is so much more important than preventing cooking people with Xrays by having poorly tested medical devices
     
     🤦
   • Embed this notice
     Dan Ports (dan@discuss.systems)'s status on Saturday, 25-Jan-2025 10:19:52 JST Dan Ports

     in reply to

     @regehr my other favorite Therac fact is that one time I was teaching that paper and popped over to the manufacturer's website to see what they were doing nowadays, and this was their actual slogan:

     Jeff "never puts away anything, especially oven mitts" Cliff, Bringer of Nightmares 🏴‍☠️🦝🐙 🇱🇧🧯 🇨🇦🐧 likes this.