it sounds highly unlikely to me, unless there is a safety-critical version of Windows that we don't know about, in which case it's unlikely to have crashed to a blue screen anyway. In most countries, and I can't imagine that the US would be any different, safety-critical software is compiled with safe versions of the compilers, runs on safe operating systems, which in turn run on safe hardware and so ad infinitum. It's one of the reasons why the stuff is so expensive and takes so long to develop. Anything else would be culpable negligence. An upgrade to WordPerfect once crashed the Utah phone system - that sort of thing can't be allowed to happen.
That's not to say that safety-critical software is all faultless, of course. The software and hardware could operate perfectly to spec, but the spec could be wrong. Getting the requirements right is the truly difficult part of system development. Here are a couple of examples given by M A Jackson: "The designers of an avionics system needed to ensure that reverse thrust was disabled except when the plane has touched down on landing. They reasoned convincingly that whenever the plane is landing and has already touched down, its weight is on the landing wheels and the wheels are rolling on the runway. But one plane using this system landed on a poorly drained runway in a rainstorm. The wheels were aquaplaning, not rolling; the system disabled reverse thrust; and the plane ran off the end of the runway. The aquaplaning possibility had not been considered. In an informal world there are always factors that have not been considered that might, just possibly, invalidate the analysis and its conclusions." "A US soldier in Afghanistan used a Precision Lightweight GPS Receiver-a "plugger"-to set coordinates for an air strike. He then saw that the "battery low" warning light was on. He changed the battery, then pressed "Fire." The device was designed, on starting or resuming operation after a battery change, to initialize the coordinate variables to its own location. The resulting strike killed the user and three comrades." -- Cheers, Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 20 November 2005 01:23 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: IE bashing --> was Re: full size img taken w/12-24 > > In a message dated 11/19/2005 2:52:21 PM Pacific Standard > Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > some of the navigation systems on US warships run on Windows. > there was a US guided missile cruiser that was disabled for a > few hours because one of its important Windows systems > crashed, taking a few other Window systems with it. > > Herb.... > ======= > I believe it. > > Blue screen error... hehehehehe. > > Marnie > > > >
