Crashing an In-Flight Entertainment System 322
rabblerouzer writes "Hugh Thompson, who was interviewed by Slashdot on the dangers of e-voting, now has a cool blog entry on how he was able to bring down the gaming/movie console on an airplane. He calls it one of the most interesting examples of a software 'abuse case' he has ever seen." Fortunately the IFE system is totally disjoint from the avionics.
Err (Score:1, Insightful)
No offense, but I don't think avionics are your run of the mill programmers.
I once crashed a bowling alley.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I made a trivial and totally unintentional mistake in the set-up (punching in
number of players, their names, etc) and it brought down the whole system.
Go look up "fortune" or something (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not a big surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Hm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Hm. (Score:4, Insightful)
A sad commentary on the state of freedom in this country.
Re:Slashdotted Already (Score:2, Insightful)
But seriously, those who generally read the article have less of a chance of getting a post higher up in the discussion that those who just jump in (Whether they jump in due to a high level of comfort in the subject, or sheer bravado.) This means that people who post early are more likely to have their post read. They are also much more likely to get a response, as there are people who want to use advantage of the nested system and get their post to show up higher on the page. Also, early posts are generally highly moderated, which I guess can be sort of a thrill to some people. So, the system is self reinforcing. Bringing trolls into the mix greatly amplifies the situation, especially FP! trolls.
intent... (Score:3, Insightful)
But this isn't just some kid accidentally hitting that remote, changing things to 5, then playing.. or then realizing they can hit up a few more times.. and then playing.
This guy actually knew, in his mind, what was going on.. Not only that... at the point where things would go wrong, he actually paused, sat back, made the change that might make things go wrong and enjoyed the half-expected result.
That's intent, right there. If nothing else, he should be slapped around for making the rest of the cabin annoyed because their in-flight entertainment was interrupted for no good reason whatsoever - causing a flight attendant to be occupied with a task he/she should not have been occupied with, etc. etc.
If this guy wants to have fun with mucking about with systems, have him get his own in-flight entertainment system, or apply for a job at a place that makes these things / the software
That said.. yay that he found the bug.. I hope they fixed it now.
Re:Profit? (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Steal underpants.
2. Short sell fruit of the loom stock.
3. Profit!
Re:Err (Score:5, Insightful)
Since 100 is an average IQ then the opposite of a number 80 points above average would be a number 80 points below average.
Re:There is a NAME for the bug... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because we all know that the constraint that you got wrong in the actual code will be correct in the assert. Right? Right?!
Re:As a side note... (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't believe that people in the real world build systems based on such a piece of crap.
Long? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Err (Score:2, Insightful)
Then the opposite of 180 would be appx 55-60...?
Re:Err (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Err (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Avionics programmers (Score:2, Insightful)