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RE: the importance of the timer rollover bug in Win9x
- From: "Dave Korn" <dave dot korn at artimi dot com>
- To: "'well, zero is less isn't it?'" <cygwin-talk at cygwin dot com>
- Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:24:31 +0100
- Subject: RE: the importance of the timer rollover bug in Win9x
- References: <loom.20080904T183156-413@post.gmane.org> <48C0316C.F9E434A9@dessent.net> <00fc01c90f39$f4006970$9601a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> <loom.20080910T172329-77@post.gmane.org> <007101c9136b$a62b3e10$9601a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> <loom.20080910T174541-80@post.gmane.org> <007c01c91372$1c48c3a0$9601a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> <5E25AF06EFB9EA4A87C19BC98F5C8753016D87EE@core-email.int.ascribe.com> <gabfo8$rrf$1@ger.gmane.org> <014a01c9142c$eb129570$9601a8c0@CAM.ARTIMI.COM> <gabi99$5qg$1@ger.gmane.org> <48C97CC9.5020602@etr-usa.com>
- Reply-to: The Vulgar and Unprofessional Cygwin-Talk List <cygwin-talk at cygwin dot com>
Warren Young wrote on 11 September 2008 21:17:
> What you had was a bug that was absolutely deterministic, which affected
> hundreds of millions of machines over many years. Multiply it out and
> you come to something like 100 billion times the bug could have
> happened. Sounds like a programmer's dream, right? A bug you can count
> on to happen that reliably with such a huge installed base....yet it
> took ~5 years to diagnose and fix.
>
> For such a bug to last so long, you're looking for probability of
> discovery down around 1 in 10 million.
You make it sound as if win95 actually /did/ have a one in ten million
chance of staying up for fortynine days! I can assure you, it was a lot less
than that ... :)
cheers,
DaveK
--
Can't think of a witty .sigline today....