Endless loop

 

How many people out there who have done some programming? A computer program is nothing more than a list of instructions which the computer executes exactly. Therefore, if you were to write a piece of code which has no exit, it will continue to loop back and forth for as long as the computer is running. It is said to be in an endless loop. The computer has no way of determining that it is in an endless loop, and will not shut itself down unless it is programmed to recognize the situation. If it is thus programmed, it has that exit ramp to leave the program.

It seems that whenever you use a computer, there is always a risk that at some point, the program will not be able quit properly. Windows computers used to be notorious about that. You'd sometime get that "blue screen of death". That was a systemic problem. But any such program can lock up a computer. You wouldn't expect that from the operating system, though.

The reason I bring it up is that this computer seemed to get stuck this morning. It became unresponsive. I think I know how it happened, but I don't quite understand how I got out of it. Somehow or another, I might have found the "exit ramp", or it already had one that it managed to find itself. The computer is still new. It's about a month old.

I'm beginning to believe that all products seem to have their quirks. I've bought many cars and trucks over the years, and they've all seem to have a quirk or two in them. Now it is computers. The machine that this computer replaced had a strong tendency to lose power to the keyboard and peripherals. It appeared to be a flaw in the design, which allowed a poor connection to cut power to the mentioned devices. That was the reason for getting this new one. The problem was getting worse and making the computer unusable. It had to be replaced.

I'm thinking that this new computer has a design flaw that allowed this anomaly this morning. If it was an endless loop situation, it is fortunate that it was caught after a delay. The delay was about 45 minutes. But what if it wasn't caught?

Our society is becoming too dependent on computers. What if this happened in a life critical situation? You don't want your computer to frizz out on you if you have a self-driving car. The result could be an accident, and the people inside may not get out of it in one piece.

Know what I mean, Vern?