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"Bug Causes Losses for American Carrier" Southwest Airlines points the finger at a flaw in its network firewall. After the bug that caused the cancellation of more than 16,000 flights in December, the resilience of the company's computer system is being questioned. In the United States, after a technological glitch led to the temporary suspension of all Southwest Airlines flights, concerns are being raised about the resilience of the American carrier's IT infrastructure. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, the US company attributed the bug to a failure of a network firewall distributed by a supplier, causing a temporary loss of connection to key systems. In a statement to Reuters, the carrier said that flights had been suspended as a precaution, adding that there was no evidence of a cyber attack. It also refused to identify the supplier and did not address why this failure was not part of the company's planning. Although the exact cause is unclear, some industry experts have questioned why Southwest Airlines' systems didn't include more redundancy. The carrier has been under fire since a software problem during the Christmas vacations led to more than 16,000 flight cancellations, disrupting the travel plans of 2 million customers, and leading to a loss of more than a billion dollars. "This would indicate that resilience is not adequately addressed in their systems," said Eric Parent, private pilot and CEO of EVA Technologies, a cybersecurity company with offices in Canada, the US and Europe. "Some significant improvements should be considered to increase their maturity and ability to maintain operations." The continuation of the original article via Reuters can be read here.

When working with testers (or software testing service companies), there are three important considerations to remember: General miscommunication can disrupt interaction between project elements and teams. When it comes to software testing, it's important to use a common language and follow common principles; Differences in testing terminology can pose a considerable risk. Using unclear definitions or terms in the context of a testing services company can be detrimental, in the sense of causing errors or requiring the reorganization of some specific work. Differences in testing principles can cause misunderstandings or conflicts. When the subject of software testing is approached following a certain set of principles, and the testers follow other paths, then we can have project management problems, as well as friction between the elements. Fortunately, there is an easy way to avoid most of these problems: ensure that software testing professionals hold an ISTQB® Foundation Certification. This certification (recommended for testers with at least 6 months' experience) guarantees that: Testing professionals have a solid base of knowledge about software testing, used and recognized in over 130 countries; Testing professionals use common terminology, minimizing problems of understanding and miscommunication. Remember that by including certified testers, you are increasing your project's chances of success. ISTQB® Certification Exams can be taken at PSTQB in a variety of languages: English, French, Spanish, German and even Portuguese, in person or in the comfort of your own home.

Efficiency in software development allows for quality, punctual releases and happier customers. A large part of that efficiency depends precisely on the successful correction of bugs, and quality defect reports help developers make those corrections quickly. When writing defect reports, testers can be helpful by adding detailed and precise steps to reproduce the problems they find, in which you should find the expected results as well as the actual results - they can also include screenshots and video attachments to help you understand the defect in question. The details written in the defect report help programmers understand the depth and breadth of the bug's effect and discover the affected code. Locating broken code in a complex code base is not an easy task, especially when programmers are working on more than one project at a time. The more detail the defect reporter adds to the defect report, the easier it is to reproduce, locate and fix the bug. The greater the understanding of the defect, the more likely it is that the team will fix it correctly - and without generating new, related bugs. The details required for an understandable defect report include the following: - should include, for example: Unique ID for Tracking: This allows testers to find the defect by ID; Report Author Name: Name and contact information; Application and Code Version; Server or Environment: Define the location where testing took place; Browser and OS, if Applicable; Screenshots or Video, Log Files or Errors: Browser development tool logs or other log files help developers understand the defect - including video of the defect in action, or screenshots naturally helps with visual understanding; Expected Result/Behavior and Actual Result/Behavior: Developers may not know how the application works end-to-end, as they tend to code specific functions. Including the expected result - in addition to the actual result - provides crucial information for locating the defect; Severity/Priority: How critical is the defect?; Troubleshooting Notes: Include any notes on troubleshooting measures taken, database queries or error log results. Among others. The continuation of the original article via TechTarget can be read here.

Earlier this week, at an airport in Seattle, in the United States of America, a software error was responsible for an incident known as a 'tailstrike' on two Alaska Airlines flights. In the aviation world, a tailstrike is an incident in which the tail of the plane hits the runway, the ground or even another stationary object. Generally, these episodes occur during take-off or landing and are not normally considered dangerous movements - however, this is not always the case, as these incidents can seriously damage aircraft. At Seattle-Tacoma International Airport these accidents happened twice in the same morning, both involving Boeing aircraft operated by Alaska Airlines, even leading to the suspension of flights and temporary interruption of this company's air activity throughout the country. According to the subsequent investigation, it was discovered that a bug was responsible for this incident: according to the Seattle Times, these tailstrikes occurred after a software error in a program sold by a Swedish company called DynamicSource. This program is supposed to provide fundamental weight and balance information that pilots enter into their flight computers, to help determine, for example, how much thrust the engines will provide and how fast the plane will be available for take-off. In this particular case, the error ended up transmitting incorrect data that seriously underestimated the weight of both aircraft. The original article via Gizmodo can be read here.

Chrome users on the Windows operating system have reported problems when it comes to storing files on a network. In recent days, a bug report confirmed that Chrome version 109 refused to save files via a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path. When tested in different browsers, namely Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge (based on Chromium), the problem did not persist and the operation proceeded normally. As for the error itself, it manifests itself when searching for a file online; clicking on the save option and consequently storing the data on a network-shared device or cloud server. According to the same bug report, an error message appears in this context informing the user that the package cannot be opened as it contains system files. However, Windows users were not the only ones to face this problem. The British news site the Register carried out some tests and detected the same problem when trying to open a Dropbox file using the macOS Ventura 13.2 operating system. This Chrome file bug is expected to be resolved when version 110 is released. The original article via The Register can be read here.

BMW in the United States has issued a statement saying that more than 14,000 cars have been affected by a bug affecting the battery management unit. According to those responsible for the German brand on North American soil, the vehicles affected include the iX, i4 and i7 models produced between October 14, 2021 and October 28, 2022. In an official statement, BMW also said: "During internal quality checks, BMW has identified that incorrect diagnostics in the vehicle's battery management unit may occur from time to time. In very rare cases, this can lead to an unplanned interruption of the vehicle's battery charging or a deactivation of the high-voltage system. Software updates already available correct these occasional misdiagnoses." Although this software error has also been identified in Portugal, it poses no danger to drivers. The original article via NoticiasAoMinuto can be read here.

NASA announced in a statement last Wednesday that the Webb Space Telescope's instruments have been in safe mode intermittently since December, however, scientific operations resumed at the beginning of the week. During this period of safe mode, all of Webb's non-essential systems were shut down several times, meaning that no scientific operations were active and, naturally, making it impossible to carry out any observations. The US aerospace agency has since announced that the problem has been resolved. Valued at more than 10 billion dollars, the main purpose of the "Webb" telescope is to study not only the observation of stars, but also the evolution of galaxies and the formation processes of these stars and planets, using infrared wavelengths. From NASA's press release, it is also possible to understand that this bug was responsible for activating the attitude control system, which guides the direction in which this observatory should be pointed. The continuation of the original article via Gizmodo can be read here.

British Airways flights were suspended last Tuesday morning due to a bug in the flight planning system, leading to several planes being held up. According to the British airline: "Our teams have now resolved a temporary issue that affected some of our long-haul flight planning systems, leading to a number of delays." The problem is said to be related to the software that British Airways pilots access via their Apple iPads, according to Bloomberg, and that the system is being updated. The airline also confirmed that the vast majority of short-haul flights were not at all affected by the problem, stressing that none of its planes had any technical or safety problems. The continuation of the original article via World Times Todays can be read here.

Last Monday, Instagram said it had fixed a software bug that made it impossible for thousands of user accounts to access the platform. The problem lasted for more than eight hours and also led to the identification of suspended accounts. According to the outage tracking website Downdetector, the number of reports on this incident reached over 7500. "This bug was responsible for causing people in different parts of the world to have problems accessing their accounts, causing a temporary change in the number of followers for some," according to a tweet from Instagram itself. The US company, owned by Meta, has not detailed what caused the problem or whether the suspended bot accounts have been restored again. The original article via Metro can be read at: https://metro.co.uk/2022/11/01/instagram-fixes-bug-that-locked-people-out-of-their-accounts-for-hours-17675243/

Last Monday, Instagram said it had fixed a software bug that made it impossible for thousands of user accounts to access the platform. The problem lasted for more than eight hours and also led to the identification of suspended accounts. According to the outage tracking website Downdetector, the number of reports on this incident reached over 7500. "This bug was responsible for causing people in different parts of the world to have problems accessing their accounts, causing a temporary change in the number of followers for some," according to a tweet from Instagram itself. The US company, owned by Meta, has not detailed what caused the problem or whether the suspended bot accounts have been restored again. The original article via Metro can be read at: https://metro.co.uk/2022/11/01/instagram-fixes-bug-that-locked-people-out-of-their-accounts-for-hours-17675243/