111–120 of 309 posts
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
I think the compensation given to software developers by companies that view software as their product has drawn many of the skilled software developers away from jobs that would have once grabbed them because of the fun factor. Companies that make things that contain software are not in markets prepared to pay 2 and 3 times what they were for software. What you are left with is people who are willing to accept that…
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
Haha wait until you find out how TVs worked in the 70s and how fast it was to change the channel *sob*
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the compensation given to software developers by companies that view software as their product has drawn many of the skilled software developers away from jobs that would have once grabbed them because of the fun factor. Companies that make things that contain software are not in markets prepared to pay 2 and 3 times what they were for software. What you are left with is people who are willing to accept that…
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google, Twitter are not selling software but they are able to attract a lot of skilled developers
You can compare this situation with Boeing. And issues they had with software of 737max.
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
It is way harder for different computerized systems to work together due to the higher complexity and more obfuscation (a traditional logic circuitboard is often easily reverse engineered. Reverse engineering software is a very specialized task). This is also very noticeable in other sectors, where interoperability has become much worse due to moving to proprietary digital protocols.
This is in part due to the difficulty in getting software approved as compared to previous tech (due to software being so intransparent) but also because of truly lacking quality. One of the reasons Bombardier was so deep in trouble was bad software, even leading to a contract of over 40 ordered trains just being cancelled ([2]).
In my opinion building reliable (and understandable) software is way harder than building logic or even mechanical systems. I don't know what the solution is, but it's been a problem for a long time.
[0]: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/de/2013/02/12/belgische_bahn_storn... [1]: https://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/augsburg/Neue-Zuege-auf... [2]: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Talent_3#%C3%96BB
Dieselgate isn't a good comparison because in Dieselgate the equipment functioned normally from the user's point of view.
functioned normally? Intoxicating people with fumes is hardly what the user wants.
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
> No "boot times". They just worked Haha wait until you find out how TVs worked in the 70s and how fast it was to change the channel *sob*
In a properly functioning country the responsible persons should already be imprisoned. Some governmental agencies were aware of that for at least half a year, but failed to act. The fact that source code was not immediately dumped and analyzed is the evidence of malevolence, corruption and intentionally putting people's lives at risk. Welcome to the dark side of Poland - where citizens don't matter.
"the responsible persons" ... hmmm. Who would that be? The programmer who implemented the code? Do you think they thunk these tricks up? They was just following orders. The manager of the programming team, who set these tricks as things that needed to be implemented? Again, just following orders. The "Cxx" Title people who directed that there be "some protection" in some way that got implemented as what we see? Did t…
My impression is that the quality of train firmware is generally not very good, and I hope that this scandal will lead to greater scrutiny. 3 years ago, Deutsche Bahn publicly complained of "grotesque" software problems with newly delivered Bombardier trains. For example, when train drivers changed the direction of travel, the train software would crash. It then took 1 hour to boot the train up again [0]. Switzerland…
Sometimes low-tech is just better. Here in Finland we got Sr1 electric trains from the Soviet Union in the 70's, and after some renovations the model is likely to stay in use at least until 2030.
But was this sabotage by an insider at the manufacturer, or something deliberate by the manufacturer?
"Deliberate by manufacturer" 100%.
The scarier part is that had this happened in the United States, DMCA would likely have protected them from prosecution, and the government might be liable for damages.