FAA outage reveals odd computing practices

By JOELLE TESSLER and JORDAN ROBERTSON , AP Technology Writers, Technology / Other

In this June 30, 2008, a controller watches over air traffic from the control tower at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. When a computer glitch at a Federal Aviation Administration center caused widespread airline delays this week, the agency and some of its critics called it a reminder of the importance of a pending modernization of the nation's flight system. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

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(AP) -- When a computer glitch at a Federal Aviation Administration center caused widespread airline delays this week, it served as a reminder that the U.S. flight system is waiting for a modernizing overhaul. But it also appears the FAA's management of its existing technologies falls short of standards in other vital sectors.

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Posted by DoctorKnowledge 08/30/08 00:17

Rank: 5/5 after 1 vote

Well, first off, my experience with Gartner is that they rated software I designed as being very good -- without having any idea even of what it did.

But that's not the main issue. The FAA has extraordinarily sophisticated software. But it's apparent from the comment by Tammy Jones that they're really not interested in 100% up time. And, I'm just guessing, protecting themselves against terrorist attack isn't high on their list, either. It wouldn't do any harm to do a major, independent investigation into the state of FAA software.