Everyone who writes safety critical software should read this

[Joakim]

On Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 22:20:08 UTC, Chris wrote:
> On Tuesday, 29 October 2013 at 21:39:59 UTC, Walter Bright 
> wrote:
>> On 10/29/2013 2:38 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>>> I wrote one for DDJ a few years back, "Safe Systems from 
>>> Unreliable Parts". It's
>>> probably scrolled off their system.
>>
>>
>> http://www.drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/safe-systems-from-unreliable-parts/228701716
>
> Good man yourself! I still can't get my head around the fact 
> that companies fail to provide safety switches that either hand 
> over the control (to humans) or at least disable the software 
> based components completely by switching the machine off.
Heh, this reminded me of my current ultrabook, the Zenbook Prime 
UX31A, which is an absolutely fantastic machine, the best I've 
ever owned, but whose designers made the unfortunate decision to 
make the power button just another key on the keyboard, as 
opposed to hard-wiring it directly to the battery.  Combine that 
with the fact that the keyboard connector doesn't hold its place 
well and is actually held in place by masking tape:

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Unresponsive+Keyboard+Keys/11932

Cut to me late last year, unable to turn my ultrabook on because 
the keyboard connector had completely slipped out, a month after 
I had accidentally dropped it.  I had to find the linked 
instructions after a bunch of googling, go pick up a Torx T5, and 
fix it myself, as Asus support kept insisting to everyone that it 
was a software issue and that they should either reinstall the 
drivers or the OS!  I followed those simple instructions instead 
and no problems till a week ago, when I had to repeat the 
procedure again. :)