https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/ David Gillon - Dreamwidth Studios Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:27:37 GMT LiveJournal / Dreamwidth Studios davidgillon personal https://v2.dreamwidth.org/15930145/2310248 https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/ 100 100 https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/223694.html Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:27:37 GMT https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/223694.html <div data-contents="true"><div data-block="true" data-editor="71ca5" data-offset-key="fjgs0-0-0"><div data-offset-key="fjgs0-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj"><p><span data-offset-key="fjgs0-0-0"><span data-text="true">...&nbsp; using Adobe Flash to run your real-time train-tracking software</span></span></p><p>If it's not immediately obvious why this might be an issue, imagine if you were using software with widely known security flaws (and widely known non-security flaws) to run the radar screens in an air traffic control centre.</p><h1 itemprop="headline"><a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/deactivation-of-flash-cripples-chinese-railroad-for-a-day/"><span style="font-size: smaller;">Deactivation of Flash may have crippled Chinese railroad for a day</span></a></h1></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="71ca5" data-offset-key="4b5h1-0-0"><div data-offset-key="e1rvd-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj"><span data-offset-key="e1rvd-0-0"><span data-text="true">You need to dig down into the top few comments, you want the one by Aube, to get to the explanation of what they were actually doing, but it sounds like a perfectly feasible use - that should never have been contemplated! The comment above it with the company using Flash to run their door security system is another &quot;what were you thinking?!?&quot;</span></span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="71ca5" data-offset-key="e1rvd-0-0"><p>We've known for over a decade that Flash is a bug-ridden security black hole, there's no excuse for using it in safety critical, or security critical applications. At least it's going to be more difficult from now on.</p></div></div><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=davidgillon&ditemid=223694" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/223694.html software safety-critical Ghost Train Eeeek!!! public 4 https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/9602.html Wed, 05 Nov 2014 19:53:22 GMT https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/9602.html <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://liv.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://liv.dreamwidth.org/'><b>liv</b></a></span> mentioned her piece on <a href="http://liv.dreamwidth.org/389934.html">why you shouldn't do a PhD</a> at <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://kaberett.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://kaberett.dreamwidth.org/'><b>kaberett</b></a></span>'s do on Sunday and I just got around to looking it up to read. I expected to be able to find it if it was online anywhere, but where I'm impressed is that Google found it in my Dreamwidth reading stream for early January 2013, which is over 18 months before I joined Dreamwidth. And it wasn't simply Liv's post showing up, but a properly formatted set of posts from everyone I follow. As a software type, that impresses me. Yes, it's how you would probably like it to be done, but it's something that would be so very easy to screw up.<br /><br />And <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://liv.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://liv.dreamwidth.org/'><b>liv</b></a></span>, having read the article, I'm so glad I bailed on going back to academia to do a PhD after Evil Aerospace ejected me, because if I hadn't I'd have needed someone to write that article for me and I didn't know you then! I physically crashed and burned over the next couple of years without the added stress of an advanced degree, god knows what I'd have been like if I'd tried it.<br /><br />(Edited because I shouldn't try to analyse software while barely conscious...)<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=davidgillon&ditemid=9602" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments https://davidgillon.dreamwidth.org/9602.html software nerdery Is too complicated an idea right now geeky public 1