[LINK] Spread of buggy software raises new questions

[Chirgwin, Richard]

The state machine is by far the best way of implementing a simple operation
like washing machine, dishwasher, or refrigerator. (Tech jargon decode for
non-techs: by "state machine", I mean a processor with a small and fixed set
of output responses for a small fixed set of inputs; so 0001 at input =
start signal at output, always and forever.)

Yes, I know that there are supposed advanced functions which you can
implement if you get "really smart" and put a microprocessor + software in
the box. Yes, the software and therefore the device is more flexible and so
on. And I know that if you're relentlessly in love with gadgetry, you can
connect the refrigerator to the Internet.

But the value-add for all this is 99% of stuff-all, for the user. What does
a person want to do with a refrigerator? Stick it in a corner to keep stuff
cool, or learn how to reprogram it in their spare time? What you get for all
the "smart appliance" hype is an expanded margin for functions which will
fall out of use once the excitement wears off. I also don't want to set the
dishwasher off at 10pm at night, only to find a lockup and dirty dishes at
7am in the morning (not that I use a dishwasher anyhow!).

A state machine is simple, cheap, replicable, reliable. You can run a
washing machine with an eight-bit processor, using software that's written
in 1s and 0s and is small enough to be 100% regression-tested before it's
committed to silicon. A dishwasher doesn't need more than that, except in
the mind of the marketing department. 

RC

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Welykochy [mailto:rick at praxis.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, 28 April 2003 20:12
> To: Link
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Spread of buggy software raises new questions
> 
> 
> Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>  
> > Spread of buggy software raises new questions
> > Sunday, April 27, 2003 Posted: 2:17 PM EDT (1817 GMT)
> > CNN.com/Technology
> > 
> http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/ptech/04/27/buggy.software.ap/index.html
> [SNIP]
> > Of course, more deaths are caused by human error than by 
> bad software ...
> 
> Bad software is human error. Cast in silicon.
> 
> cheers
> rickw
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> _________________________________
> Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services
> 
> "Never express yourself more clearly than you think."
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