4 Jan
1999
4 Jan
'99
8:05 a.m.
Alas on a few of the more complex systems there is a
real time clock chip
- sometimes there's even an embedded PC in there.
And if the code is
badly written then there can be problems. Note that AFAIK in every case
things fail _safe_. But they could fail - like the fire trucks not
working.
For one thing, the issue with 'expired' credit cards is real. Of course,
the end of the world isn't going to occur because of this, but it is still
serious enough to try to fix the problems. You wouldn't really _want_ that
elevator to stop working when you're trying to make the appointment on the
40th floor, would you? Sure, it could fail for other reasons too, but this
is something that ought to be double-checked since we know about it.