Exploration Through Example

Example-driven development, Agile testing, context-driven testing, Agile programming, Ruby, and other things of interest to Brian Marick

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Thu, 15 Dec 2005

Bugs matter

A working undo command can sure be handy:

After initially denying any responsibility for the J-Com snafu, exchange executives acknowledged this week that flaws in their electronic trading system prevented Mizuho from correcting its order and minimizing losses. Mizuho traders realized their mistake within 85 seconds of placing the erroneous order and made four attempts to cancel it. It was rejected each time. [...]

On Monday, Japan's market regulator estimated Mizuho's loss at $331 million.

Evidence continues to mount that no honorable election official should support voting machines without a paper trail:

[...] in three separate attempts over a four month period, computer experts Dr. Herbert Thompson and Harri Hursti visited the Leon County Elections Office in their efforts to penetrate the county voting tabulation equipment and alter election data. [...]

Granted the same access as an employee of our office, it was possible to enter the computer, alter election results, and exit the system without leaving any physical record of this action. [...]

Based upon the data developed out of this exercise it is the opinion of the Leon County Supervisor of Elections that any effort to limit or remove the manual examination of paper ballots to confirm the correctness of election results is not in the public interest.

## Posted at 07:35 in category /misc [permalink] [top]

You know you overuse particular examples on your site when...

... you receive mail like this:

I'm impressed with your professional website related to goat and cow milking devices. My website is a NON-COMPETING informational site offering collections of articles, diagrams, and other publications that relate to and may help supplement your website. Since some of your site visitors may be interested in learning more about animal milking devices, feel free to link to my site. By linking to my site, you will be adding value to your own site by providing relevant content for your site visitors. Following is the link I think will be the most helpful for your customers: http://www.braindex.com/products/175+-ANIMAL-(GOAT-&-COW)-MILKING-DEVICE-RELATED-PATENTS-ON-CD-29.htm. Please visit this link yourself and consider inserting it on your website.

(I don't think this is phishing or some variant, which would be less interesting than having a search bot—albeit one with wide tolerances and low cleverness—think my site is actually about cows.)

## Posted at 07:35 in category /junk [permalink] [top]