Computers Don't Make Mistakes
Do they? It's the fault of the person operating them or inputting information that causes the problems. Well something has happened with our computers at work which makes me believe that computers are more than capable of doing things for themselves.
As I posted last week our server hadn't been backing up whilst I was on holiday, and since my return it's been taking about twelve hours to back-up when it should take less than two. Anyway, having checked everything out I discovered that the back-up software had, in addition to backing the data up to a DAT tape, been backing-up to the server's own hard drive. Now the weird thing is that the only way that the software could make that choice is if somebody ticked a box in the programme and there are only two people who know the password, me and our external I.T service provider, but I was on holiday and he hasn't been in the office for three weeks.
Spooky or what?
2 comments:
A couple of years ago I was having one of those tests at hospital where they wire you up to a computer and set you away on a treadmill. During the test I looked at the PC in question and it appeared to be running Windows. "Oh no!" I thought, "NHS software provided by Bill Gates and his minions" Fortunately nothing crashed and I'm still here.
Actually, I once borrowed Microsoft Visual C from a mate of mine when I was doing my PhD. There was a disclaimer on it which was along the lines of "Do not use this software to write programs which are life critical such intensive care monitoring programs or air traffic control programs".
Computers/software do make mistakes.
NHS running windows that is scary - you could just imagine somebody being wired up to a heart monitor and a message on the screen saying "Fatal Error:Close All Applications and Restart"
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