2 ms·
IMHO a typo in a document is a serious error that we should put substantial effort into preventing. There are even worse potential outcomes: * A single bit er
by jl6 4y ago
IMHO a typo in a document is a serious error that we should put substantial effort into preventing.
There are even worse potential outcomes:
* A single bit error in a stream of compressed or encrypted data stream that renders the stream unreadable.
* A permissions check being yes instead of no.
* Backups being silently corrupted
- bruce511 4y agoWhile a typo can be significant, statistically speaking it almost certainly isn't. Equally I'm not saying that all bit flips are inconsequential. I'm saying that most bit flips likely go either completely undetected, or have meaningless consequences. Saying that say 1 bit per 4Gb will flip every day is a long way from saying that a _significant_ (or even detectable) bit flip will happen every day (per 4Gb). From a simple feel for "what memory is used for", coupled with "how much of the ram is actually used" makes me suspect that it's a very low probability of it being an issue. Which makes the parent comment, about 1600 bits of data being flipped since the machine last rebooted [1] being both "true" and likely "meaningless". [1] I'm not sure what rebooting has to do with anything though.