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The Therac-25 Incident (2021)

(thedailywtf.com)
449 points lemper | 3 comments | 27 Aug 25 06:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.614s | source
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mdavid626 ◴[27 Aug 25 09:15 UTC] No.45037164[source]▶
Some sanity checks are always a good idea before running such destructive action (IF beam_strength > REASONABLY_HIGH_NUMBER THEN error). Of course the UI bug is hard to catch, but the sanity check would have prevented this completely and the machine would just end up in an error, rather than killing patients.
replies(1): >>45037182 #
1. b_e_n_t_o_n ◴[27 Aug 25 09:17 UTC] No.45037182[source]▶
invariants are so useful to enforce even for toy projects. they should never be triggered outside of dev, but if they do sometimes it's better to just let it crash.
replies(1): >>45037264 #
2. bzzzt ◴[27 Aug 25 09:30 UTC] No.45037264[source]▶
Making sure the beam is off before crashing would be better though.
replies(1): >>45048664 #
3. b_e_n_t_o_n ◴[28 Aug 25 05:19 UTC] No.45048664[source]▶
For sure :P