On Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:38:31 -0400, Sabrina Kilian wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:17:21 -0700, Darren New 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).
>> 
>> Jim
> 
> Even the custom built control software isn't always bug free.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

Oh, sure, I wouldn't say they were, but special purpose machines with a 
single purpose in life tend to be much easier to troubleshoot than a 
complex general-purpose system.

Jim

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