Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Count to ten when a plane goes down

johncbeck.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 284 posts

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#171

Post by maaku »

ck2 wrote: post #151
nness wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or the US navy crew who received medals after shooting down the Iranian airline. You make it seem like they received the medal for having shot down the plane. In reality, those who were awarded medals, were awarded Tour of Duty medals for their time spend in a combat zone. I believe the distinction is important, particularly since that class of medals are routinely awarded to individuals during their time in the mi…

If a police officer shot and killed innocent bystanders, should they get achievement awards for doing their job otherwise? My answer would be no, you failed at your job regardless. Same thing with military.

That's a very narrow minded position.

Gosh I hope you never screw up even once, cause you'll never live it down.

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#172

Post by _pmf_ »

openjck wrote: post #136
feld wrote: post #2

Reset all computers in the embassy with F7? No warning prompt? Fire the idiot who wrote that function.

Some people are saying that a warning would have helped. Remember that warning functions are easy to ignore. Never use a warning when you mean undo. http://alistapart.com/article/neveruseawarning

I don't know whether armchair usability trivia helps here. Not every system deals with ephemeral web drivel; some systems interact with the real world and have impact.

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#173

Post by 72deluxe »

maaku wrote: post #171
ck2 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a police officer shot and killed innocent bystanders, should they get achievement awards for doing their job otherwise? My answer would be no, you failed at your job regardless. Same thing with military.

That's a very narrow minded position. Gosh I hope you never screw up even once, cause you'll never live it down.

Would you say that making a mistake in software is equal to taking a human life?

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#174

Post by taejo »

MBCook wrote: post #137
gry wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't find information why the design(s) were as they were. The design of Ctrl-Alt-Del was intentionally unintentional. Gates noted Ctrl-Alt-Del should have been one button, not three [1]. David Bradley, the inventor of the trifecta, did make it deliberately difficult to reboot, however, it was also originally an Easter Egg which made it to production [2]. [1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/26/4772680/bill-gates-ad…

Ctrl-Alt-Del was an excellent choice for it's intended purpose. It can be easily typed at they keyboard (no need to fiddle with the back of the computer) but it's very unlikely to be something you hit accidentally. I'm not sure a single key would have been a good idea. "The reboot key" just sounds like a mistake waiting to happen. I've seen enough stories on the 'net of laptops with power buttons in terrible places o…

> "The reboot key" just sounds like a mistake waiting to happen.

It already did happen: I've used keyboards with shutdown and reboot keys, and yes, it's a terrible idea.

My alma mater used to run programming competitions in a lab where the workstations had the reset button exactly at knee height. This wasn't a problem normally, when you're sitting under the desk next to the computer; but when you have three or four people gathered around the screen, kicking the reset button was a definite possibility. Eventually taping the cover of a calculator over this button became part of our regular routine.

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#175

Post by abcd_f »

> That Korean announcement and the slow response by the US President — both caused by delayed real information — caused decades of conspiracy theories.

I appreciate that the OP was a part of the situation, but conspiracy theories were not caused by this.

It was time of very high tension between the US and Soviet Union. So when a plane veers off the course into not just Soviet airspace, but into an explicitly cordoned off top secret area, ignores all communication attempts, ignores the presence of fighter jets and just keeps on flying, then the situation itself is a fertile soil for conspiracy theories.

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#176

Post by tobltobs »

maaku wrote: post #171
ck2 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a police officer shot and killed innocent bystanders, should they get achievement awards for doing their job otherwise? My answer would be no, you failed at your job regardless. Same thing with military.

That's a very narrow minded position. Gosh I hope you never screw up even once, cause you'll never live it down.

I assume you are american. Would you be also so generous if the majority off killed people would be americans?

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#177

Post by lloeki »

jonreem wrote: post #54
graylights wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, a lot of novice unix users are of the habit of removing files with -rf switch. I cringe everytime I see it. The command "rm -rf ~/blue/" is just a single space key from being equivalent to "rm -rf /" with "rm -rf ~/blue /"

On any modern system it's actually "sudo rm -rf / --no-preserve-root" and then entering your password while staring at the command. "rm -rf ~/blue /" will not come close to deleting / unless you are in the habit of running every command as sudo, even ignoring the presence of --no-preserve-root

You're missing the point:

    $ cd dir where there are source files and temp files
    $ rm *.tmp # or so you think
    '.tmp not found'
    # too bad

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#178

Post by corobo »

artursapek wrote: post #109
graylights wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, a lot of novice unix users are of the habit of removing files with -rf switch. I cringe everytime I see it. The command "rm -rf ~/blue/" is just a single space key from being equivalent to "rm -rf /" with "rm -rf ~/blue /"

More easily, "rm -rf ~" with a premature "Enter"

do the -rf after the directory to avoid this in future

Premature enter just results in:

[web@server /]$ rm ~

rm: cannot remove `/home/web': Is a directory

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#179

Post by Aardwolf »

jackschultz wrote: post #35

The issue form most new stories is that even when the truth comes out, the great majority of people will never hear the actual facts. One issue is because news stations move on from caring about the story quickly. Or, the bigger issue in my opinion, is that people won't believe the new, correct facts since the old ones will have been engrained in their head. Solving both these issues would be really helpful for socie…

When there is such chaotic news story, I usually switch from news to Wikipedia. That has all the facts and continues the story even after all media lost interest.

Re: Count to ten when a plane goes down

#180

Post by emn13 »

mseebach wrote: post #106
mikegreco wrote: post #4

The author states they felt it was appropriate when they were fired. In what world would it be appropriate to get fired for a single, simple, incredibly easy to make mistake? Doubly insane when there were exactly zero safeguards in place to prevent the mistake from being made.

Appropriate or not, it's probably what was to be expected in what I imagine even in 1981 was not the most enlightened HR management regime (the US foreign service). Also, 32 years is a lot of time to wash away the bitterness of having been unfairly fired from a summer job, especially if you, as the author, ended up doing pretty well for yourself. Also, whether or not it was appropriate is completely irrelevant to the…

I expect the HR management back then was more enlightened than it is now - the quick-to-pounce media and politically instigated witch hunts (terrorism, save-the-kids, etc.) have ensured that cover-your-ass is more and more a necessity.
Post reply on HN