So, the exceedingly expensive "superplane" that was chosen because of politics rather than capability or cost or common sense cannot handle the International Dateline? I find that quite humorous.

Communication, fuel subsystems, and navigation systems were rendered useless and repeated "reboots" were of no help.

I don't know what is funnier, the fact that these "reboots" didn't work, or the fact that they have a mid-air "reboot" process defined.

"... somebody made an error in a couple lines of the code and everything goes." What should have been a showy parade of $125+ million super fighters quickly turned to disaster for Lockheed who would've had a lot of explaining to do, had this happened during combat.

I think somebody still has a lot of explaining to do. This is not just an annoying little glitch, this is a mission-ending "show stopper." This is something that should have been caught in design and/or code reviews. Causing communications and navigation to fail also becomes a safety issue.

This reminds me of an old story passed around among software engineers...

Once upon a time, there was a group of F-16s flying towards South America. As was SOP, they were on autopilot for much of the trip. The fun began when they crossed the Equator, and the autopilot caused each aircraft to fly inverted (i.e. upside-down) and continue on its merry way. The lesson: do not assume that your software will only ever be executed in your own country, and of course, sign bits matter.

Labels: Aircraft, Software