[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Dark Wing]

fyi

[quantim]

accesses 120 Mbytes of RAM and 256 Mbytes of flash

For Heavens' sake, my Pocket PC phone has more "byte" power.  A classic example of bureaucratic incompetence, not unlike the metric conversion nonsense awhile back.  While I totally support these projects, bloated management is responsible.  Every code 'bit' in such a small reserve needs to be scrutinized in a larger logic pattern.  Geez, I wrote Y2K bugs in the early 80's in IBM assembler 360/370 hexadecimal just to save two bytes.  That's where I learned to KISS; Keep it Simple Stupid. 

 

[Bronco_Buster_FweetHyagh]

LOL it got crashed from too many Pop-ups offering it 30% larger genetalia

[JOE6PAK]

And to think, we put a Man on the freakin' MOON with no more software then a shoebox and a brick!

[don-o]

I say good on JPL for finding and fixing the problem.

I say "Phooey" to the armchair geekxperts, who invariably show up to say how screwed up everything is. If y'all are so smart, why aren't you programming for interplanetary missions?

[Old Professer]

The better the explanation, the poorer the excuse.

[Redcloak]

What really happened...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for posting this.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

As a postscript, Klemm noted that the other day he heard a car commercial on the radio that made reference to the Mars rover, comparing, for example, the car's speed over the ground to Spirit's. In the process of touting the car's extended-warranty program, the ad noted that the Mars rover came with "interplanetary roadside assistance." "That phrase just stuck in my mind," Klemm said. " love it."

LOL!