AP: Buggy Software Increasingly a Problem with Consumer-Oriented Goods
Dave Aiello wrote, "Earlier today Slashdot pointed out an article that CNN published from The Associated Press called Spread of Buggy Software Raises New Questions. This is a very timely article that calls attention to a lot of little problems that people experience on a day-to-day basis, frustrate them beyond belief, but are never fully addressed due to the lack of focus on total quality in software. The article begins:"
When his dishwasher acts up and won't stop beeping, Jeff Seigle turns it off and then on, just as he does when his computer crashes. Same with the exercise machines at his gym and his CD player....
Dave Aiello continued, "Where can I start with my personal experiences that reinforce the anecdotes in this story? How about the annoying little bugs in the firmware for the Handspring Treo 180? A great example is the SMS application. I have had a Treo for more than a year, but I have never been able to hit the reply button to simply send a reply to an SMS message sent through the T-Mobile SMS-Internet email gateway."
"The reason is that the Treo thinks the message came from the SMS gateway and not from the original sender's email address. I've seen this problem thousands of times, I know how to fix it, I've told Handspring, yet the problem has never been fixed. The result is a small productivity loss every time I receive an SMS message to which I want to respond."
"I guess in the continuum of bugs that software developers have to deal with, this is low on the global triage list. Without a doubt, no one has died as a result of it. But, it's annoying if you communicate with your family the way I do. My wife is a pediatric resident, and pager-to-pager communication is our main mode of communication during the business day. So for us, this bug would be a fairly high priority. But, how many other Treo users are like us?"
"This is one personal example of a bug that wastes a little of my time every day. More examples from your own life may come to mind if you read this excellent article from the Associated Press."