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A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

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Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#161

"...central database for all NOTAMs (Notice to Air Missions) nationwide" No. NOTAM is "notice to airmen."

Nope. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/notam/what_is_a_notam

You are both right: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/7930.2S_Chg_...

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#162
It seems like every year or so we have some gigantic technology meltdown in this industry.

Imagine something like this happening at the NYSE, CME, et. at. Or, simply think about the last time you heard about a nationwide credit/debit card outage...

Why can't we have our national infrastructure systems running at least as reliably as the Amex network?

These systems are all information clearinghouses at the end of the day. If we have matching engines that flawlessly process millions of trades per second every day and mainframes that provide resilient source of truth, I think we could consider the same for a life safety critical system as well.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent a lot of time at the FAA writing software. (6+ years) there is a huge culture of process, policy and not a whole lot of thinking or analysis or actually understanding the problems that they are working on. it is maddening. imagine a spreadsheet with 700 lines in it telling you that you need to do ABCDEFG each of those lines is instructing you to write a document detailing a procedure with the chain of custody…

It sounds like it would be very simple to implement correctly if it was literally spelled out like what your describing?

I just spent a month doing an E-Business Suite platform migration and it was very similar: follow the step-by-step instructions to apply patches and run commands. Each patch has a README file with dependent patches or commands which need to be completed first. It works mind-numbingly great until you run into the first of many circular dependencies.

That's one problem with treating the implementer as a machine to run code. The whole procedure can't be tested, so when parts are changed they can break the whole. It relies on the human in the loop to resolve the conflicts, which is not repeatable.

The other problem is the "mind-numbing" part. No-one can maintain 100% perfection all of the time. And in the context of presenting to people who don't know what it all means, I can see why mistakes would be made.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#164
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/notam/what_is_a_notam

You are both right: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/7930.2S_Chg_...

Looking at the response in the rest of the comment chain I wonder if it's such that he knows but does not accept the change.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common for government agencies. I worked at Labor and your second paragraph hit very close to home. The only plus side was the insane amount of free time you spent waiting. I tried to go back on the civilian side of the contracts and I nope'd out of it as soon as I hit red tape

This is by design, it meets the primary goal of the government which is funding patronage jobs that make few, if any, demands on the worker.

People who want a job like that should just be on UBI instead. Then at least we'd have systems that could change to meet the needs of their users in a timely way.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is common for government agencies. I worked at Labor and your second paragraph hit very close to home. The only plus side was the insane amount of free time you spent waiting. I tried to go back on the civilian side of the contracts and I nope'd out of it as soon as I hit red tape

This is by design, it meets the primary goal of the government which is funding patronage jobs that make few, if any, demands on the worker.

[flagged]

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by design, it meets the primary goal of the government which is funding patronage jobs that make few, if any, demands on the worker.

People who want a job like that should just be on UBI instead. Then at least we'd have systems that could change to meet the needs of their users in a timely way.

UBI will never pay what a government job pays in purchasing power; that part is just math I think.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#169
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are both right: https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Order/7930.2S_Chg_...

Looking at the response in the rest of the comment chain I wonder if it's such that he knows but does not accept the change.

I'd never heard of it, and doubt that there's any other explanation than pandering.

Re: A corrupt file led to the FAA ground stoppage – also found in backup system

#170

I was recently rewatching some old Taleb talks about fragility. Our software systems are extremely fragile. I wonder if there is any way we can make them anti-fragile? What would this look like?

I haven't seen Taleb offer solutions... in the one book i managed to go through he just told you endlessly to be prepared for unpredictable events.
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