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> Operated by a systems provider named Intrado, the server kept a running counter of how many calls it had routed to 911 dispatchers around the country. Intrado
by PhasmaFelis 8y ago
> Operated by a systems provider named Intrado, the server kept a running counter of how many calls it had routed to 911 dispatchers around the country. Intrado programmers had set a threshold for how high the counter could go. They picked a number in the millions.
I'm really curious if there's some explanation that makes this sound less catastrophically stupid, particularly the part where they picked a threshold less than INT_MAX.
- MacroChip 8y agoGreat question. Maybe they did pick a sensible constant, but it still wasn't enough. I.e. INT_MAX wasn't big enough.
- swiftcoder 8y agoWhat do you mean, VARCHAR(8) is a perfectly valid way of storing counters...
- ineedasername 8y agomuch better to future proof it by using a BLOB. You know, just in case you ever need to shove something else in there.
- AdamJacobMuller 8y agoif you're going to use a BLOB how can you know the type and how to decode it? Make sure to serialize that data with something like protobuf.
- oneplane 8y agoNah, describe it using some custom binary format and have a 1000 page spec to document it!
- justinclift 8y agoYay, seralised bluetooth! ;)
- dharmab 8y agoAllocating pieces of a resource without accounting for reusing released resources?