On 9/1/2018 11:42 PM, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) wrote: > On 09/01/2018 05:06 PM, Ola Fosheim Grøstad wrote: >> >> If you have a specific context (like banking) then you can develop a >> software method that specifies how to build banking software, and >> repeat it, assuming that the banks you develop the method for are similar >> >> Of course, banking has changed quite a lot over the past 15 years >> (online + mobile). Software often operates in contexts that are >> critically different and that change in somewhat unpredictable manners. >> > > Speaking of, that always really gets me: > > The average ATM is 24/7. Sure, there may be some downtime, but what, how > much? For the most part, these things were more or less reliable decades > ago, from a time with *considerably* less of the "best practices" and > accumulated experience, know-how, and tooling we have today. And over > the years, they still don't seem to have screwed ATMs up too badly. > > But contrast that to my bank's phone "app": This thing *is* rooted > firmly in modern technology, modern experience, modern collective > knowledge, modern hardware and...The servers it relies on *regularly* go > down for several hours at a time during the night. That's been going on > for the entire 2.5 years I've been using it. > > And for about an hour the other day, despite using the latest update, > most of the the buttons on the main page were *completely* unresponsive. > Zero acknowledgement of presses whatsoever. But I could tell the app > wasn't frozen: The custom-designed text entry boxes still handled focus > events just fine. > > Tech from 1970's: Still working fine. Tech from 2010's: Pfffbbttt!!! > > Clearly something's gone horribly, horribly wrong with modern software > development.
I wouldn't vouch for ATM reliability. You would be surprised what kinds of garbage software they run. Think Windows XP for OS: http://info.rippleshot.com/blog/windows-xp-still-running-95-percent-atms-world But in general, I believe the statement about comparative reliability of tech from 1970s is true. I'm perpetually impressed with is all the mainframe software that often runs mission-critical operations in places you would least expect. Telecom systems are generally very reliable, although it feels that started to change recently.