
Gilb's Laws Of Unreliability

- Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable.
- At the source of every error which is blamed on the computer you will find at least two human errors, including the error of blaming it on the computer.
- Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
- Undetectable errors are infinite in variety, in contrast to detectable errors, which by definition are limited.
- Investment in reliability will increase until it exceeds the probable cost of errors, or until someone insists on getting some useful work done.
- The only difference between a fool and a criminal is that the fool will attack a system unpredictably and on a broader front.
- A system tends to grow in complexity instead of simplicity, until the resulting unreliability becomes intolerable.
- Self-checking systems tend to have a complexity in proportion to their inherent unreliability.
- The error-detection and -correction capabilities of any system serve as a key to understanding the types of errors it cannot handle.
- All real programs contain errors until proved otherwise which is impossible.
Found in NetDummy Humor.




