Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
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Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#2That was a temporary fix, then a software patch was released. I also wouldn't call that a "software" fix.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#3Even better, the timeline:
- February 11th: Vendor informed of the issue
- February 25th: 28 people die because of the issue
- February 26th: The vendor ships a fix
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#4I remember hearing about this in my numerical analysis class.
1. I remember hearing the system was only designed for XX operational hours but was being run over the operational spec.
2. The time was stored in base 10 so the calculation errors added up over time or something like that so if they had used some base 2 timing scheme it would haven't have had issues with rounding errors.
My class was in the mid nineties so the details of my 25 year old memory is pretty hazy...at best.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#5The scud missile lead to their deaths, not the software. There's no absolute guarantee it would have intercepted it, plus rebooting a deployed machine regularly is an acceptable fix when it's live in the field
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#6> The Patriot missile battery at Dhahran had been in operation for 100 hours, by which time the system's internal clock had drifted by one-third of a second. Due to the missile's speed this was equivalent to a miss distance of 600 meters.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#7Even better, the timeline: - February 11th: Vendor informed of the issue - February 25th: 28 people die because of the issue - February 26th: The vendor ships a fix I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall for that phonecall on the 25th (or early on the 26th).
Oh, gosh. Really?
It makes me kind of sick imagining that call.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#8Even better, the timeline: - February 11th: Vendor informed of the issue - February 25th: 28 people die because of the issue - February 26th: The vendor ships a fix I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall for that phonecall on the 25th (or early on the 26th).
Oh, gosh. Really? It makes me kind of sick imagining that call.
You're not even curious to see how it was dealt with and how the issue was expressed to the vendor? I'd never be in a meeting regarding deaths of users of my software, because I just make internal webapps, so I just cannot help but be curious as to how one of those meetings would go.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#9I've often wondered, considering the supposed low accuracy of Scud missiles, (wiki gives it a CEP of 450m) how much of the casualties from that incident were more due to the bad luck of the missile actually hitting its target.
Re: Failed intercept at Dhahran caused by a software error in handling of timestamps
#10The scud missile lead to their deaths, not the software. There's no absolute guarantee it would have intercepted it, plus rebooting a deployed machine regularly is an acceptable fix when it's live in the field
That's a reductio fallacy. If you want to play that game, it was being deployed to that specific place that caused their deaths. Or was it enlisting in the first place? Maybe merely having been born?
This is a strictly technical examination of the proximate cause of their deaths; it makes no claims about their ultimate cause. Whether or not a missile system with an accurate clock might have hit the target, it is unambiguous that this one missed specifically because of clock drift.