The trouble with Rover is revealed

EE Times ^ | 2/20/04 | Ron Wilson

[Cboldt]

*bump* for a lucid explanation

[Bobby777]

it was probably that pre-installed Microsoft Works and free AOL trial that did it ... plus, it turns out the Rover was playing Minesweeper and Solitaire all the time it wasn't communicating ... 8)

interesting details on the equipment though ...

[Semper Paratus]

So the original specs either did not take into account pre-launch directories or assume they would be erased somehow.

Project Management failure.

[billorites]

It does an amazing job with comparatively little RAM.

[LibWhacker]

Here's what got me:

Luckily, early in the process of proposing failure scenarios, someone remembered the earlier failure to upload the second piece of the utility.

Makes it sound like it was total serendipity that the problem was ever correctly diagnosed. Criminy, I'm losing my faith in that agency!

[patriot5186]

Here is the uploaded code that was in error!
for (i=1; i>0; i++)
waste_dollars(i);

[Who dat?]

"The irony of it was that the operating system was doing exactly what we'd told it to do,"

That is very often the case, BTW.

Wind-River. I'd been trying to remember the name of that company... just happened to pop up in this article. Ha.

[Cboldt]

It does an amazing job with comparatively little RAM.

The article does a pretty darn good job of explaining how filling up memory space resulted in hanging. It's great to read of the programmers' abilities in resolving the matter. The fact of the program keeping a log file that dutifully recorded events ... wow.

[Cboldt]

"The irony of it was that the operating system was doing exactly what we'd told it to do,"

That is very often the case, BTW.

As far as I know, that is most often the case. The first time a digital machine takes off with its own mind will be extremely newsworthy.

[Highway55]

Incompetence!

[Final Authority]

My experience with SW engineers is that the job is most always completed as to be adequate but never finished to completion. They seem to always offer that upgrades can be added as needed. More than once code writers have informed me that my desire for a program to work in a specific fashion was not the way he understood it, therefore it was written in a way that was not correct for the functionality of the system. Days and sometimes months later corrections were made to make the system run correctly.

The job for writers of code is never finished, for any job, and I can't figure it out unless it is just plain communication, at the human level.

[Cboldt]

Incompetence!

Mistake. Not as bad as the one that doomed previous Mars missions, and obviously, not as bad as the errors in judgement that doomed Columbia.

[Thebaddog]

I was wondering why they chose Wind River for the OS, but I bet it's that they gave human support for questions about their products.

[thoughtomator]

Sloppy code... patched by more sloppy code. For more information on that sort of thing, try this example.

[Cboldt]

Sloppy code... patched by more sloppy code. For more information on that sort of thing, try this ....

LOL. Web-page loop by MS. Hey, $hit happens. Not being in the know about Rover code, my comments are those of a casual observer. I find the description illuminating.

[El Gran Salseron]

"... plus, it turns out the Rover was playing Minesweeper and Solitaire all the time it wasn't communicating ... 8)"

While we are on the subject, would you happen to have a cheat for ms solitaire?

[thoughtomator]

Hey I'm even funnier than I thought... the Microsoft web site looks to be down at the moment LMAO... worse, actually, it's up and times out on response ROFL!

[Flyer]

The team then uploaded a script of low-level file manipulation commands that worked directly on the flash memory without mounting the volume or building the directory table in RAM

Sometimes ya gotta get a command prompt and do a little DOS.

[Cboldt]

Hey I'm even funnier than I thought... the Microsoft web site looks to be down at the moment LMAO... worse, actually, it's up and times out on response ROFL!

Linux desktop here, computers being a hobby and meant for fun. I don't recall your name on the SCO threads, but it you like to poke at MS, you really should check the SCO threads.