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Fatal Defect: Chasing Killer Computer Bugs
Contributor(s): Peterson, Ivars (Author)

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 ISBN: 0679740279     ISBN-13: 9780679740278
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
OUR PRICE: $16.15  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: April 1996
Qty:

Annotation: This arresting and at time terrifying book tells us just how prevalent these defects are and how they are multiplying as computers become more sophisticated and more deeply embedded in our daily lives. It is also a riveting portrait of the men and women who find and 'exterminate' those bugs, whether they occur in pocket calculators or nuclear reactors.
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Computers | Programming - General
- Computers | Reference
- Computers | Programming Languages - General
Dewey: 005.3
LCCN: 97105469
Physical Information: 0.69" H x 5.46" W x 8.42" L (0.86 lbs) 288 pages
Features: Index, Price on Product
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
An airplane crashes, killing eighty-seven passengers. A cancer patient receives a fatal dose of radiation from a machine designed to be foolproof. The ATMs at a New York bank debit customers twice their actual withdrawals, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars. In every case, the culprit was a computer bug, a software error or design defect that may escape detection until it erupts into the real world with sometimes catastrophic results.

This arresting and at times terrifying book tells us just how prevalent these defects are and how they are multiplying as computers become more sophisticated and more deeply embedded in our daily lives. It is also a riveting portrait of the men and women who find and exterminate those bugs, whether they occur in pocket calculators or nuclear reactors.

Fatal Defect reveals what you should know about the computers in our lives. Read it before you buy a computer, use a cash machine, or book an airplane flight. Then pray that one of its real-life heroes was on the job.
 
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