The Day the Phones Stopped Ringing

I like reading real-life experiences used to illustrate a technical point rather than a dry dissertation. Like 1 of the other reviewers - I feel that this title should be reprinted but it should be updated and revised in light of changes in the software/hardware/systems world since the time it was published. AND it needs to have both an index and pointers to sources (i.e. footnotes, bibliography, etc.) The lack of the latter 2 items diminished the usefulness of the book for me as I could not follow up/get more in-depth information and I could not easily find a particular fact or passage I wanted to find in the book.

This book should be reprinted. With the upcoming Y2K bug as well as other incidents of software creating problems for people's lives, this book is necessary reading. It contains actual real life information about the extent of the problem and how a society that relies on computers as much as ours does is vunerable.

This book is filled with true stories of the deadly and costly consequences of computer systems gone haywire. It is not technical and does not contain alot of techo-babble. Instead it deals with subjects such as surgical procedures gone wrong, airplane crashes, military mistakes, cases of mistaken identity and more...all caused by the misuse of computers or the misguded ideas of humans who use them. The author is a TV news reporter who presents this like an investigative reporter. However, he offers solutions and expert opinions on how to prevent each of these diasters from happening again. The question is: Is anybody listening ?