Category: Computer Systems and Networks

  • Outsourced Engineering-Software Development

    [2019-07-02. Modified to add a working link to the Ladkin-Simons paper on Static Deadlock Analysis.] Bloomberg has an interesting article by Peter Robison on the difficulties Boeing seems to have been having with outsourced software development. Such outsourcing has been going on for decades in all sorts of software-dependent companies, and is a well-developed model. Sometimes…

  • Yet Another KRACK

    Matthew Green’s blog post on the KRACK vulnerability, entitled “Falling through the KRACKs”, makes two points which have come up on the System Safety mailing list frequently. One is that the IEEE standards business model makes it difficult for researchers to access standards, namely they want you to pay lots of money for them. We have had…

  • Don Hudson and PBL on the ITU’s proposal for real-time flight data transmission

    The International Telecommunications Union has been conducting its four-yearly meeting. Its president has apparently promised everyone to make possible the real-time transmission of flight data from commercial transport aircraft in flight. This has been supported by the Malaysian delegate. All according to this news report: MH370: ITU Commits to Integrate Flight Data Recorders with Big…

  • Hijacking a Boeing 777 Electronically

    John Downer pointed me to an article in the Sunday Express, which appears to be one of their most-read: World’s first cyber hijack: was missing Malaysia Airlines plane hacked with mobile phone? by James Fielding and Stuart Winter. The answer is no. To see why, read on. The authors interviewed a Dr. Sally Leivesley, who…

  • We Had An Accident

    On Friday evening, 26th February, we suffered an accident. In what is known as the Swiss Cheese Model, stemming in all but name from Jim Reason, all the holes lined up. Pictures of the Swiss Cheese Model abound, for example here and here and here. The idea of the Swiss Cheese Model is that there…