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True stories from PriorIT If you think you've tested your software... It's easy to think you've tested
your software. There are endless stories of
infamous software bugs. The final result is
always the same - bugs which escape the testing
process cost a company dearly. Here are some
PriorIT favourites. Mariner 1 Venus probe loses its way: 1962A probe launched
from Cape Canaveral was set to go to Venus. After
takeoff, the unmanned rocket carrying the probe
went off course, and NASA had to blow up the
rocket to avoid endangering lives on earth. NASA
later attributed the error to a faulty line of
FORTRAN code. The report stated, "Somehow a
hyphen had been dropped from the guidance program
loaded aboard the computer, allowing the flawed
signals to interplanetary command the rocket to
veer left and nose down...Suffice it to say, the
first U.S. attempt at flight failed for want of a
hyphen." mission as "the most The
vehicle cost more than million, prompting Arthur
C. Clarke to refer to the expensive hyphen in
history." Pentium chip fails math test: 1994The concept of
bugs entered the mainstream when Professor Thomas
Nicely at Lynchburg College in Virginia
discovered that the Pentium chip gave incorrect
answers to certain complex equations. In fact,
the bug occurred rarely and affected only a tiny
percentage of Intel's customers. The real problem
was the nonchalant way Intel reacted.
"Because we had been marketing the Pentium
brand heavily, there was a bigger brand
awareness," says Richard Dracott, Intel
director of marketing. "We didn't realise
how many people would know about it, and some
people were outraged when we said it was no big
deal." Intel eventually offered to replace
the affected chips, which Dracott says cost the
company millions. To prove that it had learned
from its mistake, Intel then started publishing a
list of known "errata," or bugs, for
all of its chips. Now isn't it time
you thought of us testing your software...
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