Top ten worst software bugs of all time:

http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69355,00.html

Is your favourite amongst them?

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The Prius sounds a bit like my Dad's Calibra he had when i was younger. I had been given a going over by Lotus who did the same thing for it that they did to the Carlton. I have memories of my father performing racing starts from the traffic lights, with a caravan on the back, (does similar things with the Capri but thats another story). Anyway, this Car had had a serious fault in the ECU, imagine this;
Driving down the motorway, no rush, 90, when suddenly everything goes off. Engine, lights, radio, everything, like someone just unplugged the battery. We cruise to the side of the road, engine will not start, won't even turn over. We ring the breakdown service then get out of the car, doors refuse to lock because the central locking has failed. We're sitting halfway up the embankment looking at it when di-di-di-avruuuuuumm, the engine starts. No key in the ignition, no-one even in the car, the engine is happily turning over while we're sat there staring at it.
So unreliable it not only cut out but kicked back in of its own doing. I think this unreliability was partly the reason my father got rid of it so soon after buying. The other was that it was costing him a fortune in tyres. According to Saab, the most power a front wheel drive car can have is 220 bhp, this Calibra had 320 bhp and 570 Nm of torque, need i say more? The engine red-lined at 14,000 rpm, it had so much power that breathe on the throttle and the engine just overwhelmed the tyres, especially if stationary. Once it got moving though, boy was it fast. Anyway i've rambled enough for now. See ya.

Simon

EDIT; Found some pictures of it;
First a Front View
Then a more realistic Side View

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.

Top ten worst software bugs of all time:

http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69355,00.html

Is your favourite amongst them?

This will probably get me shot or hung, but my favorite bug that I had some personal involvement with was with an application written and used by the weather 'department' of a certain military entity. The rollout was at the stroke of midnight on a summer night in July of 1998. As soon as the new program started handling data, all sorts of alarms and warnings started displaying on the CRT's and printing on the printer. It seems that every reporting base on the planet suddenly had dangerous weather conditions that would severely impare normal operations. A bug in the code that handled the conversions between celcius and fahenheit had all reporting stations at several hundred degrees below zero. Apparently all testing was done with the default celcius temps. When the fahrenheit option was selected, things got real cold.

Top ten worst software bugs of all time:

http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69355,00.html

Is your favourite amongst them?

This will ... things got real cold.

Fantastic! Reminds me of another story;
A recon mission to Mars from a few years ago, the launch went perfectly and for many months the rocket zipped across the intervening space. Just before it went behind mars for its photographs its last minute course corrctions were beamed across to keep it on track. There was a nervous silence at Control as they waited for the photographs which would make them famous.
They waited
...and waited
...and worried a bit
...and still waited
...and worried a lot
...waited some more
...and panicked a lot.
The Rocket never came back out, they later found it had smashed straight into Mars instead of making a slingshot around it. Why?...
The computer was programmed to recieve its instructions in metres and kilograms but the operators sent the corrections in feet and pounds. $980,000,000 in the toilet because of two simple mistakes.
I've just realised after typing this its not actually a bug at all, sod it i'm posting anyway, its a great story.

Simon

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Life on earth is the global equivalent of not storing things in the fridge.