The Billion-Dollar Mistake and Other Software Horror Stories

Intriguing Stories in Computer Science

A curated list of intriguing stories from computer science history, from catastrophic bugs like the Ariane 5 explosion and the Therac-25 radiation overdoses to legendary design philosophies like Unix pipes and Erlang's 'let it crash'. The author, reflecting on age, shares both cautionary tales and enduring principles that shaped software development.