On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:56:32 -0500, Mike Raiford wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>>> And I wouldn't be surprised, anyway, if some MS software had a bug
>>> that caused some patient to get over-dosed with radiation during
>>> cancer treatment or some such.
>> 
>> I would be, since the machines that control that sort of thing tend to
>> be custom-built and not PC-controlled, at least not that I've seen
>> (admittedly, I've not spent a lot of time in cancer treatment
>> facilities).
> 
> I remember seeing the heart monitor in a NICU reboot. Looked like it was
> running some customized *NIX judging by the lines of boot information
> that scrolled across.

That seems most common - for implementations that involve life and death, 
the systems tend to be custom-built for a specific purpose, not based on 
a general purpose operating system.

Jim

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