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Post by Boyd Percy on Aug 9, 2016 13:39:50 GMT -5
Delta Airlines, the world's largest, proves the above point. They had a computer glitch at their headquarters in Atlanta that grounded their fleet worldwide for 6 hours.
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Post by PuLSe on Aug 9, 2016 18:17:04 GMT -5
To err is human, but to really screw things up requires a computer!
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Post by Ernest Bywater on Aug 10, 2016 0:04:40 GMT -5
All available data shows 0.0001% of computer problems are due to hardware failure. All the rest are due to human error of some sort, as either:
1. Operator error - entered the wrong command or entered the wrong data, or
2. Didn't write the program well enough to run without significant mistakes.
An absolute truth about computers is the GIGO theory - garbage in, garbage out.
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Post by Mikey on Aug 10, 2016 3:27:57 GMT -5
Delta Airlines, the world's largest, proves the above point. They had a computer glitch at their headquarters in Atlanta that grounded their fleet worldwide for 6 hours. An acquaintance who has friends in Delta IT tells me that the computer data base is fine, it's the building power system that is FUBAR'd. Supposedly a lightning strike hit a transformer bank and the megavolt surge blew up the UPS system, the generator and it's auto-transfer switching, and also toasted a few of the power supplies inside the servers themselves. The local power utility has wheeled in some transformers-on-semi-trailers and patched them in as a temporary solution. Delta IT swapped the blown server power supplies and they are back up and catching up. So at the moment the servers are running on raw power line voltage with no UPS, and no generator backup. Right now the local power utility is acquiring and installing new out-side-the-building-concrete-slab-mounted transformers. Simultaneously APC Corp is rebuilding their UPS system, and the generator manufacturer is swapping the generator and replacing the transfer switchgear. IT management is simultaneously trying to prevent the upper management from picking out a scapegoat to fire. Nobody in upper management is willing to admit that the IT folks have been saying for years that the building grounding wasn't sufficient to mitigate a nearby lightning strike and sooner or later there would be a lightning strike - and you should have paid to put the mitigation stuff in years ago, and now you have to pay more to fix what is blown and then you get to pay more in today's dollars to put in the mitigation system. At least that is what I was told. |
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Post by Ed Greenberg on Aug 10, 2016 6:49:20 GMT -5
Having worked in data centers, and also watched IT bring potential problems to management over and over, I find @mikey Guest's info to be very plausable.
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Post by Boyd Percy on Aug 10, 2016 14:04:50 GMT -5
That's all well and fine but Delta is still cancelling flights three days later. I haven't flown since 2010 and this doesn't give me any incentive to do so.
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Post by Jim Scott on Aug 10, 2016 19:02:53 GMT -5
What were the Delta IT staff thinking when they "put all their eggs in one basket"? Any IT system that critical to any private, corporate, military, or government operation should be mirrored and distributed over a wide geographically area so that as long as one node is operational the only immediate harm will be slower response. The old Arpanet and now the Internet has shown that is necessary.
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Post by ralph058 on Aug 11, 2016 12:20:11 GMT -5
Computer programs are supposed to have exception handlers. In general, they are written by people isolated from what the entire program does and concentrate on obvious errors.
Modern development companies use dummy programs to see what people would actually do with the program and focus or Delphi groups to conjure up exceptions.
Having said that, you can make anything foolproof but you can't make anything damned fool proof.
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Post by Rob on Aug 11, 2016 17:19:05 GMT -5
I suspect at least some of the IT personnel wanted to have redundant sites, but those controlling the money decided it wasn't needed. The more outspoken of those are likely to find their job at risk instead of the real culprits (CEO, CFO, COO and the rest of the higher executives...)
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Post by Boyd Percy on Aug 11, 2016 19:42:43 GMT -5
Yeah, the little guy always takes the fall.
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Post by Boyd Percy on Jan 23, 2017 0:14:04 GMT -5
I read that computer problems grounded United Air Lines flight for a couple of hours on Sunday.
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Post by Boyd Percy on Apr 27, 2017 11:45:04 GMT -5
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Post by Leo Kerr on Apr 27, 2017 19:02:14 GMT -5
for a while, now (six years? seven?) I've been driving instead of flying (somewhat inspired by how much cross-country driving they did in Dawnwalker). People say I'm crazy when I take some vacation time and drive from Maryland to Vegas for a trade show every other year or so, or up to Madison..
...but I'm not flying. And don't miss it.
And there's a lot more to Iowa, Kansas, or Nebraska than just something to spend a while flying over, as most people in "edge country" think about "the flat middle."
Leo
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Post by Ernest Bywater on Apr 29, 2017 6:34:55 GMT -5
Delta wasted thousands of dollars of fuel plus untold dollars of people's time because a passenger didn't comply with stupid, unrealistic instructions of the moron Delta employed. I strongly suspect that's one plane load of people who won't be flying Delta again, ever. |
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