Reliability


 * Reliability**

Reliability refers to the operation of hardware, the design of software, the accuracy of data or the correspondence of data with the real world. Data may be unreliable if it has been entered incorrectly or if it becomes outdated. The reliability of machines, software and data determines our confidence in their value.

Read //Tomorrow's Technology and You// p. 382, 383, 589 - 544

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 * Part 1: Computer/Software Reliability**
 * 1) During the past month, our ISP (Internet Service Provider) has had many interruptions that have limited the functionality of our school to only offer Intranet services and not Internet services.
 * 2) What is "server up time" and what is its relationship to reliability?
 * percentage of how long a server is available (availability percentage)
 * the percentage allow people to know which server is more reliable and accessible for longer period of time.
 * 1) How has this affected you?
 * It doesn't affect me very much because I don't really use Internet at school since all my assignments and researches are basically done at home. It will only affect my ITGS course because it is the only course that requires Internet the most.
 * 1) How has this affected your classes?
 * In-class assignments or group projects will be difficult to complete because students often use Internet to find sources and information.
 * 1) What affect has this had on the entire school?
 * Classes, teachers have to make new plan for their teaching because everything they planned were prepared using Internet or websites so they need to find some other materials to teach that doesn't require Internet when the school Internet server is down.
 * Communication problem, teacher's and staffs often communicate with each other through emails, this affect the convenience and efficiency of work because they have to call or find each other instead.
 * 1) Often software is released while it still has bugs. For example, operating systems such as Mac Os X Lion and Windows 7 have reliability issues in that they sometimes freeze or do not do what you ask. How do companies deal with software related reliability issues?
 * They would collect reports sent from users and fix their software problems. Then, they would send patches or updates for users to update their softwares and fix the issues.

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 * Part 2: Product Reliability**
 * 1) Read the article Jeff Gelles: Learning about risky products
 * What is product reliability
 * The probability of product to perform its function without failing.
 * How reliable the product functions and the percentage of failure of a product can have.
 * 1) How can you report an unsafe product?
 * Visit the website www.SaferProducts.gov or other local websites to review reports from consumers.
 * 1) Where can you go to ensure the products you currently own are safe?
 * Keep yourself update with the latest news online or on TV
 * Visit Recalls.gov to see incidents reports or recalls about your products.
 * 1) Find a recent new article about a recalled product
 * Colgate Recall Motion Electric Toothbrush After Nine Reports of the Product Exploding
 * Why was the article recalled?
 * Colgate Motion Electric Toothbrush was recalled due to nine reported incidents of the toothbrushes exploding.
 * Who were the people affected?
 * Consumers injured from the explosion
 * Colgate company lost the motion toothbrush license for sale and no longer produce the toothbrush, and it is monitored and investigated according to consumer reports about the incident of explosion.
 * What is the company policy for someone who has purchased a defective product?
 * The company policy for consumer who purchased a defective product was unclear, but the company recalled all the products from stores and assured the incident does not result any long-term injuries to consumers.
 * 1) The [|iPhone 4 had reliability issues] . How does Apple (or other companies) deal with these issues?
 * Apple offered to replace the affected handsets.
 * Companies offer fixed patches or updates for any reliability issues of their products. If incidents are reported from consumers, companies would recall products to get them fixed.
 * 1) Read the article on p. 543 of //Tomorrow's Technology and You.//
 * Write a brief summary that explains what the article is about.
 * The article is about how cyber incidents in a control systems can be annoying and resulting problems and inconvenience. An example was shown where an engineer from //Southern Company// who manages the technology operations installed a software update for the nuclear power plant system on a computer and resulted a great error in the system. Due to reboot of the system after installing new update, the lack of data was received by the automated safety systems at the plant and went shutdown for lack of water reservoir in the nuclear plant. The failure of the plant system led to an unplanned shutdown and was costly for the utility to purchase power from other parts of the grid. This incident also became a lesson for other industries to increase their cyber securities because a system failure from "cyber incidents can be as deadly as a carefully planned attack from the outside" said Joe Weiss, managing partner at Cupertino, California based //Applied Control Solutions//.
 * What other types of systems do you think are vulnerable to this kind of error?
 * Automated systems such as security systems, heating systems, alarm systems are vulnerable to this kind of error because once the system is affected by error updates or data, the whole system will be facing the problem of data loss and automatically shut down it self. These incidents will affect people who are using it and it may be costly for repairing.
 * What kinds of measures need to be taken to prevent computer errors from having disastrous consequences?
 * Data back-up need to be done every month to prevent any data loss when updates are installed or reboot in systems.
 * Security softwares, anti-virus protection and firewalls should be installed and updated into the systems to increase protection from intrusion from attackers to manipulate or destroy the systems.