The Big Technical Mistakes of History 244
An anonymous reader tips a PC Authority review of some of the biggest technical goofs of all time. "As any computer programmer will tell you, some of the most confusing and complex issues can stem from the simplest of errors. This article looking back at history's big technical mistakes includes some interesting trivia, such as NASA's failure to convert measurements to metric, resulting in the Mars Climate Orbiter being torn apart by the Martian atmosphere. Then there is the infamous Intel Pentium floating point fiasco, which cost the company $450m in direct costs, a battering on the world's stock exchanges, and a huge black mark on its reputation. Also on the list is Iridium, the global satellite phone network that promised to make phones work anywhere on the planet, but required 77 satellites to be launched into space."
Re:What no Windows Vista? (Score:4, Funny)
You wound ME.
Re:Iridium? (Score:2, Funny)
Now, if only they had sales to match the business plan, they'd be billionaires.
They had a great sales plan. Make your primary customer the US Military, build a massive satellite network, declare bankruptcy after it's built, reform Iridium LLC, and continue operations through today offering satellite phone service at a price comparable to US international roaming prices.
Satellite will always have limitations until we can get congress to raise the speed on light (stupid greenies worried about photon pollution), can get rid of the line-of-sight issue, and can build the very strong radios required into a normal-sized handset; but Iridium is still the best sat phone network out there and can hardly be called a failure.
BTW, they knew exactly how many satellites they'd need from day one - take a look at the atomic number of Iridium and figure out how many orbiting electrons it should have in a non-ionic form.
Re:What no Windows Vista? (Score:3, Funny)
This isn't deserving of a Troll, I think. Windows ME edged out AN EXPLODING OIL PIPELINE.
Pentium 90 for sale (Score:5, Funny)
I still have one of the Pentium 90 chips with the math flaw. The bidding starts at $1.
Re:Microsoft... (Score:3, Funny)
Come on Node 3, refute this guy's anti-apple rhetoric!
Ob (Score:5, Funny)
When I tried to work it out it came out as $449.9999867' million.
Fuel Pressure Regulators? (Score:0, Funny)
At one time I owned a Hyundai Elantra (2000), Honda Civic (2004) AND Nissan Versa (2009) ALL had bad FPRs...
Re:Pentium 90 for sale (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Iridium? (Score:4, Funny)
Had it been reasonably cheap, I'm sure there woulb've been plenty of uses (if only for enabling people in isolate places, adventurers, ship & oil platform crew etc. to communicate).
Most adventurers I know buy one sword once, and then get all of their equipment updates from loot and drops. I guess the people in isolate places would have to buy double to replace the phones adventurers took, though, so maybe it balances out.
Re:Pentium 90 for sale (Score:4, Funny)
I offfer 1.50000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001
Re:OMG Internet BBS (Score:1, Funny)
I'm guessing "Iain Thomson" is not a day over 25, not very versed on the history of the Internet, and too busy to look up the meaning of "BBS". Am I right?
Like any self-respecting 25-year-old geek would have to look up "be back soon". Duh.
Re:Pentium 90 for sale (Score:5, Funny)
I thought the bidding would start at $0.99999574
Re:Pentium 90 for sale (Score:5, Funny)
I thought the bidding would start at $0.99999574
Well, that would be a higher bid than $1. We need to work up to $0.99999574
Re:Ob (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Iridium? (Score:3, Funny)
But they were mobile.
By the definition, mobile is something with one carry handle, semi-mobile has got two handles.
Re:Pentium 90 for sale (Score:1, Funny)
I wager 1000 quatloos.
Re:Iridium? (Score:4, Funny)
Actually it only took 66 satellites [wikipedia.org] due to changes in orbit configuration that increased coverage. They didn't bother to change the name to Dysprosium.
Re:Iridium? (Score:3, Funny)
But latency through multi-hop LEO is potentially as bad as geostationary. Absolute distance may be less, but add per-hop packet store-and-forward times.
In my (admittedly limited) first-hand experience, the US military tends to use Iridium for data comm. Stuff which, 20 years ago, would have been landlines with modems. Except you can't really string landline to some mountain in Upickastan, can you?
Re:The quirkiness of the 8086 affected all of us. (Score:4, Funny)
Hell yeah. The 8086 and the MSDOS legacy made more 680x0 fanboys that Motorola marketing ever could have.
Re:What no Windows Vista? (Score:5, Funny)
That's not my XPerience. At least 95 - 98% of the time.
I think thou DOS protest too much.
Re:What no Windows Vista? (Score:4, Funny)
No, he doesN'T.
Re:What no Windows Vista? (Score:4, Funny)
All these bad puns are making me WinCE.