If you accidentally build your garage too small

[MikeSharp01]

I think it probably comes down to horses for courses. If all software had to go through the same processes as new medicinal drugs we would probably still be where we were in 1983 - so its probably a cost / complexity / value / benefit issue. Formal methods are used rightly perhaps when safety, and these days security, is at the core and sometimes, even then when it really matters, you need three formal methods focused teams working independently from the same functional specification to develop a code solution which can then be used to saturate test the other two. If all the tools also have to be developed using the same approaches the costs run away into a land that nobody wishes to go. So you have the other approach, which is curiously more human, our wet logic is very buggy after all, so engineers and others surround us with protection that allows us to use our buggy wetware and survive. Air bags and auto saves are examples of these approaches in action which also allow the systems around us to fail - burst tyre causing a crash for instance where the air bags deploy to save lives, or the blue screen of death - is that still a thing, appears but your document appears again when you restart. It is true that in some circumstances, usually arising from changes since the software / system was first envisaged, it looks like the software was badly built but you cannot build in environmental changes at the point of design. So I am relatively confident that the software in the chopper evolved over time, new engines for instance, which implies that at some time it was not longer fit for purpose no matter how diligent the implementation was. On the flip side however the issue of letting the public be the test team is, I agree, very frustrating but the ability to automate bug feedback helps massively and makes the evolutionary path clearer as bugs in bits of the software nobody uses are not found while the really useful bits evolve very quickly and stabilise - while you pay only a few quid for the product rather than millions.

[SteamyTea]

3 hours ago, AliG said:

I never thought anyone needed a £500 phone when the iPhone came out, look where we are now.

I still think they they don't need to spend anything like that.  My phone now costs about £80 and probably does much more then most iPhones as it is an Android one.

 

I had a friend who was a programmer about 30 years ago, she did not understand hardware at all, just some vague thoughts that her software had to runs on it.

 

I think most housing lacks technology of all sorts, my car has more technology than my house.  But we tend to place priorities on the wrong things.

Lights and heating that work from a phone that is anywhere in the world is really a bit of a nonsense.  They add nothing to your quality of life really, but would quickly take away from it when they fail.

Then take kitchen appliances.  Do I really need another digital clock on stuff, or a microwave that has 10 buttons and a couple of knobs.  A cooker than can turn itself on when I am out.  Really a case of planning ones life a bit better, not buying excess technology to cover every eventuality.  Then finding out it does not work and you need to go to the Indian takeaway anyway.

 

There was something mentioned about a vacuum cleaner on here somewhere.  It had given two years trouble free use.  WOW, does that may my 60 quid one that is now 12 years old 6 times better.

 

My Aunt has a kettle with a variable temperature setting on it.  What is that all about.

[jamiehamy]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

My Aunt has a kettle with a variable temperature setting on it.  What is that all about.

 

Proper tea should be brewed at around 80 degrees  (when I say proper, I mean TeaPigs or something similar with actual leaf not dust in it).  

 

[Onoff]

55 minutes ago, jamiehamy said:

 

Proper tea should be brewed at around 80 degrees  (when I say proper, I mean TeaPigs or something similar with actual leaf not dust in it).  

 

 

I've been making masala chai from scratch lately (Nepalese friends recipe). Very nice too.