Gosh. Just heard. A GLOBAL TECH OUTAGE grounded flights, impacted hostpitals and public transit systems. Worldwide.
Due to a bad software update.
Do I hate to say “I told you so?” Or I like to say “I told you so?” Either way… I TOLD YOU SO. (So there.) You’ll find my opinion on the constant stream of software updates the computer industry is so blindly wedded to in various previous postings.
Once upon a when it was a good idea, even necessary. But we are long past that time. Software now should be thoroughly “finished” before it is ever released. No more constant updates! An update more than 4 times a year on any software bundle simply means the manufacturer is not doing his work, is relying on the update process.
But far too much software is now mission critical to far too much of the world. We can not keep doing things this way.
For example: I’ve been seeing Java’s updates (“running on over 2 billion devices”) for quite some time as a huge vulnerability. That Java dares even to claim how many devices it runs on tells me they have no idea what they are saying, which actually makes the vulnerability that much worse.
Now… the folks who do Java (and do not confuse Java with Javascript: two entirely different things, no relationship at all(1)) do a fine job and are extremely careful. I am not throwing aspersions (or aparagus(2)) in their direction, however, it is a stretegic point of massive vulnerability worldwide.
When is the computer industry as a whole going to wake up and quit smelling the profits!??? Software is far too important now for such childish games as profit motive.
Do your work — do it well, and gradually, very carefully and with maximum human effort make it better, by tiny steps carefully taken.
It is far too important now. The Human Race relies on software doing its job and continuing to do its job. The responsibilities is enormous!
Hospitals impacted? Unacceptable!!!
But then, why do hospitals put anything on such vulnerable equipment to begin with? Good question, no? Easy answer: they don’t know the equipment is vulnerable, that it could utterly fail at the glance of a single update — that’s truly a shame, don’t you think?
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(1) There’s an old joke about computer programmers an coffee, and that’s possibly the reason why two different software endeavors both ended up with “Java” in their names.
(2) Another old joke.You recognize it or you don’t. No biggie.