Fault tolerance (was Re: OT Don't read this (was Re: Altair MBL source))

woodelf> chris wrote: woodelf> I guess nobody in DC watches Classic Star Trek and installed woodelf> "manual over rides". Funny in WWI & WWII warships worked woodelf> well with out puters but then they had 'sound powered woodelf> phones" for commication on ship -- no electricty needed -- woodelf> just wire between phones. In fairness, a lot of modern machinery can't be controlled by hand. Don't know about ships, but, for example, most fighter planes can't be flown without the help of their computers. Then again, that's why those computers are 3-way (or more) redundant, and their software development practices are supposed to be far more rigorous than PC desktop software. In extreme cases (Space Shuttle) you may see multiple control computers with separately-developed software in them. In the case of the space shuttle, that didn't prevent a startup sync problem that tripped up the countdown to the first launch, but in general it's a good concept. Hard to do and expensive, of course... paul