My insulin pump controller has a bug • Hacker News Board

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#141

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:40 PM UTC

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #139

omh wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also it would be very possible to misread the confirmation. If I've just entered "0.21" then when the confirmation screen reads "21" it's not immediately obvious that it's wrong.

It doesn't happen when you put in ".21". It happens when you put in ".21". Little less obvious.

> It doesn't happen when you put in ".21". It happens when you put in ".21". Little less obvious.

It's so much less obvious that I'm going to ask you to explain the difference to me because for the life of me I can't see it?

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#142

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:41 PM UTC

MauranKilom wrote: post #91

From the twitter description it wasn't clear whether this was just a display bug or the device actually failing to record the user input. I naively assumed it was just failing to display the decimal point. But no, going by the manufacturer statement, the actual value entered and used will ignore the decimal point. You still have to confirm the (correctly-displayed-incorrectly-received-value). If you don't pay attenti…

Because there are countries that use '.' and countries that use ',' interchangeably and some are so messed up they use both. So entering pennies is the safest option.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#143

Post by mardifoufs » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:42 PM UTC

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #95

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #3

Wow, that seems extremely serious. In any reql engineering field, this kind of thing would have serious repercussions for the engineer, and not merely the poor consumer.

In any real engineering field, the engineer wouldn't compete for a job with "engineers" who went through a two month boot camp to be an engineer. They'd also have power to say "No" when a project manager insisted on pushing out an improperly tested product.

I share your sentiment but in this case, I don't think bootcamp devs usually get to work on such a device. Not fresh of bootcamp devs at least.

But yes, this general type of event is inevitably what happens when the entire field prides itself in not having any standards.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#144

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

GTP wrote: post #22

A new Thearc-25?

It may well be, depends on whether anybody died on account of this bug. 100x... mindbogglingly irresponsible to not have multiple safeguards that caught this before production.

Note that these are marketed to children as well.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#145

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:45 PM UTC

yread wrote: post #4

SuperNinKenDo wrote: post #3

Wow, that seems extremely serious. In any reql engineering field, this kind of thing would have serious repercussions for the engineer, and not merely the poor consumer.

Let's hope the notified body will stomp on them hard

Full code audit, exhaustive testing. This is not toy stuff.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#146

Post by dctoedt » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:51 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #135

tptacek wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the opposite of the conventional wisdom on the strengths of the judiciary, so much so that there's a norm that courts defer to legislatures on findings of fact, since they're so comparatively hamstrung at generating facts.

> That's the opposite of the conventional wisdom on the strengths of the judiciary, so much so that there's a norm that courts defer to legislatures on findings of fact There... isn't such a norm (at least not in the American system) courts defer to legislatures on matters of policy , not fact. There's a norm that appellate courts in most cases have some deference to lower courts on findings of fact, reviewing them o…

> There... isn't such a norm (at least not in the American system) courts defer to legislatures on matters of policy, not fact. There's a norm that appellate courts in most cases have some deference to lower courts on findings of fact, reviewing them only for unreasonableness, but nothing about courts deferring to legislatures about matters of fact.

That's very much an overstatement, and arguably even flat-out incorrect. See https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article...

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#147

Post by ASalazarMX » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:55 PM UTC

nfriedly wrote: post #115

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #58

"We understand this may impact your experience and are here to support you." I love this - I've never heard the euphemism impact your experience used to mean that your life may end . What a wild PR assignment (language off the company's safety notice https://www.omnipod.com/en-gb/fsn-11-2023 )

> This issue only occurs if [...] You do not recognize that the bolus amount is wrong and start the bolus that is larger than you intended "The issue only occurs if you don't notice it's occurring."

"Warning: Inattentive users could experience diabetic comma. If the user insists on diabetic comma, they might experience death. Completely their fault for not paying attention."

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#148

Post by grayhatter » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 4:57 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #89

e2le wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like the bug was in the Android app. Shouldn't the microcontroller (on the pump) be validating dose values received? (dose > MAX_DOSE) ? return DOSE_TOO_HIGH : return DOSE_ACCEPTED; 20 units is obviously dangerous for a single dose.

Absolutely. The App should be considered hostile by the pump firmware until proven otherwise.

What you mean to say is completely correct. What you actually said is wrong, there's a huge delta between hostile and unproven. The pump firmware should assert it's own safety and sanity checks. Which is different from hostility.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#149

Post by WirelessGigabit » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 5:02 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #141

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't happen when you put in ".21". It happens when you put in ".21". Little less obvious.

> It doesn't happen when you put in ".21". It happens when you put in ".21". Little less obvious. It's so much less obvious that I'm going to ask you to explain the difference to me because for the life of me I can't see it?

Okay I even made the mistake here.

It happens when you put in ".21", not when you put in "0.21". If you omit the leading "0" it might drop the leading "." too.

Re: My insulin pump controller has a bug

#150

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Dec 01, 2023, 5:06 PM UTC

WirelessGigabit wrote: post #149

jacquesm wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It doesn't happen when you put in ".21". It happens when you put in ".21". Little less obvious. It's so much less obvious that I'm going to ask you to explain the difference to me because for the life of me I can't see it?

Okay I even made the mistake here. It happens when you put in ".21", not when you put in "0.21". If you omit the leading "0" it might drop the leading "." too.

That makes more sense, thank you for the update.