The Flag Nobody Deleted
Knight Capital lost $440 million in 45 minutes to a leftover code flag, and its got me thinking about dead code and kill switches in my own tiny projects.
Tech News
Tech News
The 45 Minutes That Nearly Killed Knight Capital
Knight Capital lost something like $440 million in 45 minutes this week because of leftover code on one server nobody bothered to remove. As a programmer, that detail is the part I cant stop thinking about.
The $440 Million Bug That Was Just a Bad Deploy
Knight Capital's trading software lost $440 million in 45 minutes because of a stale server left running old code during a deploy, and it's a story every developer who's ever shipped to production should read.
The Scariest Deploy I've Read About This Year
Knight Capital's trading software went haywire this morning and lost the firm something like $440 million in 45 minutes. A programmer's take on what that kind of bug actually feels like.
Android's Fragmentation Problem Finally Has a Real Answer
Google's new Nexus 7 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean show the company finally getting serious about controlling Android's version chaos. It might actually work.
Olympic Tech Infrastructure: Mostly Just Works
The 2012 London Olympics kicked off with surprisingly solid tech infrastructure handling millions of live streams and social media posts. The BBC's streaming platform actually held up.
Mountain Lion Landed, and Yeah, I'm Already Running It
OS X Mountain Lion rolled out yesterday. I upgraded immediately because I make poor decisions, and spent the morning finding weird little things that broke and things that actually do make sense.
Facebook's Lockup Expiration: What It Means When Everyone Gets Paid
Facebook's 180-day post-IPO lockup expires today. Insiders can now sell, and the market's bracing for impact. What does this moment really mean for the startup ecosystem?
When a Software Deploy Goes Really Wrong
A software deployment error at Knight Capital Group cost the trading firm $440 million in 45 minutes. An automated algorithm spiraled out of control on Friday, turning a tech fail into one of the costliest disasters in financial history.
Google Now Makes Me Actually Want to Use Voice Search
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean shipped last week with Google Now, and it's actually useful in ways Android hasn't been before. Voice search doesn't suck anymore.
What CERN's Data Just Taught Me About Sifting Through Noise
When CERN announced finding the Higgs boson last week, they were really celebrating a statistical signal emerging from petabytes of noise. That problem feels oddly relevant to what we're all trying to do with data right now.
Amazon's Fire HD Threatens iPad, But Tablets Aren't Actually What You Think
Amazon just launched the Kindle Fire HD to undercut the iPad's dominance. But the real tablet war isn't about specs or price—it's about who controls your attention and your wallet.