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The Burj Dubai, like any other structure is full of bugs. The point of engineering is to make a system that is resilient to a certain level of faults. That's w
by kjhgfvgbjnm 17y ago
The Burj Dubai, like any other structure is full of bugs.
The point of engineering is to make a system that is resilient to a certain level of faults. That's why the tower doesn't collapse if there is a 0.1 mm crack in one of the bolts.
- Groxx 17y agoIt also depends on how you define a "bug". A car that crumples too much and injures the driver when hit at this angle or that angle within these speeds could be considered a bug. In which case, counting the number of knobs that fall off, plastic that cracks, and parts that wear out prematurely, not to mention discoveries of toxic fumes / paint / etc, cars do have thousands of bugs.
- dkl 17y agoThe door knob example is terrible. How about this: an office that is either too hot or cold? Would that qualify as a bug? I think it does, and it happens all the time in new buildings.
- kjhgfvgbjnm 17y agoThe main problem with software 'engineering' is the fragility of software. In a structure you know there will be cracks, so you choose a material that is ductile enough that a crack can't grow to dangerous size in the lifetime of the component. The problem with software is that generally a single bit wrong is a total failure. I was involved in a case with a turbine blade fracture. The user claimed that there must have been a flaw, and yes the crack must have started at a single atom sized crystal flaw in the meta. But the choice of alloy was such that the crack would have grown at a rate which means it was under the failure size for at least twice the inspection interval - where the customer missed it.
- khafra 17y agoPerhaps the problem with software is that, after the original QA process, there's seldom a regular inspection except adversarially.
- abstractbill 17y agoThe problem with software is that generally a single bit wrong is a total failure. This doesn't mesh with my experience to be honest. I often come across code that contains nasty bugs but is still somehow working accidentally. And even more often, there are bugs that stop just one feature from working while the rest of a large system pretty much acts as if the bug didn't exist.
- nostrademons 17y agoTunnels in Boston or bridges in San Francisco, however...