{"guid":"ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","title":"Why are computers so @#!*, and what can we do about it?","subtitle":null,"slug":"31c3_-_6574_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412301245_-_why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_-_peter_sewell","link":"http://events.ccc.de/congress/2014/Fahrplan/events/6574.html","description":"Computers have become ubiquitous and essential, but they remain massively error-prone and insecure - as if we were back in the early days of the industrial revolution, with steam engines exploding left, right, and centre.  Why is this, and can we do better?  Is it science, engineering, craft, or bodgery?\n\nI'll talk about attempts to mix better engineering methods from a cocktail of empiricism and logic, with examples from network protocols, programming languages, and (especially) the concurrency behaviour of programming languages and multiprocessors (from the ARMs in your phone to x86 and IBM Power servers), together with dealings with architects and language standards groups.\n","original_language":"eng","persons":["Peter Sewell"],"tags":["Science"],"view_count":7718,"promoted":false,"date":"2014-12-30T12:45:00.000+01:00","release_date":"2015-01-02T01:00:00.000+01:00","updated_at":"2026-03-19T09:45:07.135+01:00","length":3554,"duration":3554,"thumb_url":"https://static.media.ccc.de/media/congress/2014/6574-hd.jpg","poster_url":"https://static.media.ccc.de/media/congress/2014/6574-hd_preview.jpg","timeline_url":"https://static.media.ccc.de/media/congress/2014/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77-timeline.jpg","thumbnails_url":"https://static.media.ccc.de/media/congress/2014/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77-thumbnails.vtt","frontend_link":"https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6574_-_en_-_saal_1_-_201412301245_-_why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_-_peter_sewell","url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/events/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","conference_title":"31C3: a new dawn","conference_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/conferences/31c3","related":[{"event_id":1802,"event_guid":"PPVcroSxtnY9RfXjkEmxGA","weight":2},{"event_id":1836,"event_guid":"SKDne_Zu6SPJc-ADxqiLnA","weight":2},{"event_id":1850,"event_guid":"n-OE9MQoWcUq2LFZB2e6DQ","weight":3},{"event_id":2156,"event_guid":"-n9QScyDLXMEwkqrCHASYw","weight":3},{"event_id":2158,"event_guid":"n2DFvyl_lWjW-gm317vT3A","weight":3},{"event_id":2172,"event_guid":"ELK9-ZQeFcqKxBYW8eay8g","weight":2},{"event_id":2175,"event_guid":"MghFmvDBS-J7T2ZOkNXUKA","weight":2},{"event_id":2203,"event_guid":"xvPazrSLJdMwzpnphpOEIQ","weight":3},{"event_id":2217,"event_guid":"Mw1wjnNzwxzSkM3Ip5Lg0g","weight":3},{"event_id":2253,"event_guid":"uMGv2XJJqkQodKm0_Mtr_A","weight":2},{"event_id":2265,"event_guid":"yN_BHtGEljjFHh2dl-Irug","weight":2},{"event_id":2268,"event_guid":"87b8f1ba-1f05-46c2-93ac-b575bbc9fb4f","weight":2},{"event_id":2273,"event_guid":"38ea922b-5b2d-4290-8c79-da0c891edd7a","weight":3},{"event_id":2276,"event_guid":"XGhOde-ujLyDS1gsvpebMg","weight":5},{"event_id":2291,"event_guid":"2f68e356-6c3f-4034-9640-c06d717ed96b","weight":4},{"event_id":2299,"event_guid":"KJiq3wTS9cMLTTrgJ8PqHA","weight":4},{"event_id":2300,"event_guid":"mzNAGavKy2KOcwOjGqC8pw","weight":2},{"event_id":2832,"event_guid":"489a414b-2d6b-4f20-8187-813169ca19c9","weight":2},{"event_id":2861,"event_guid":"01da121b-bd49-4805-aaaf-a6ec1f4f941f","weight":2},{"event_id":2862,"event_guid":"2f4cd1ef-dd90-4145-a734-141e5c081940","weight":2},{"event_id":2867,"event_guid":"341d7c6a-a8c0-47ec-8c24-4f6fc8639f3f","weight":2},{"event_id":2893,"event_guid":"371063d0-da9d-4d9f-bbe9-f5739eba2f30","weight":3},{"event_id":2938,"event_guid":"03c8501f-d327-4228-a9fe-2635370d25d2","weight":2},{"event_id":2955,"event_guid":"c3731bcd-04a8-49ba-a472-d1180944c106","weight":2},{"event_id":3632,"event_guid":"378cdf23-350b-4a05-afd0-6360139a7a06","weight":2},{"event_id":3676,"event_guid":"f6811c99-96af-44d5-b82d-5afe826b2caf","weight":2},{"event_id":3698,"event_guid":"994082de-ef8e-4f8e-8c46-ec0eb110b845","weight":2},{"event_id":3760,"event_guid":"1c75e6a1-e586-4b91-abce-92a4561d0181","weight":2},{"event_id":6394,"event_guid":"9629fcf4-6810-48d7-bd17-d81f924e6b47","weight":8}],"recordings":[{"size":null,"length":null,"mime_type":"application/x-subrip","language":"eng","filename":"31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it.en.srt","state":"complete","folder":"","high_quality":true,"width":null,"height":null,"updated_at":"2021-02-21T17:45:30.540+01:00","recording_url":"https://cdn.media.ccc.de/congress/2014/31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it.en.srt","url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/recordings/44393","event_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/events/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","conference_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/conferences/31c3"},{"size":228,"length":3554,"mime_type":"video/mp4","language":"eng","filename":"31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_sd.mp4","state":"downloaded","folder":"h264-sd","high_quality":false,"width":720,"height":576,"updated_at":"2016-02-03T14:08:06.982+01:00","recording_url":"https://cdn.media.ccc.de/congress/2014/h264-sd/31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_sd.mp4","url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/recordings/5922","event_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/events/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","conference_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/conferences/31c3"},{"size":40,"length":3545,"mime_type":"audio/opus","language":"eng","filename":"31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_opus.opus","state":"downloaded","folder":"opus","high_quality":true,"width":null,"height":null,"updated_at":"2015-01-02T01:46:25.330+01:00","recording_url":"https://cdn.media.ccc.de/congress/2014/opus/31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_opus.opus","url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/recordings/5924","event_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/events/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","conference_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/conferences/31c3"},{"size":81,"length":3545,"mime_type":"audio/mpeg","language":"eng","filename":"31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_mp3.mp3","state":"downloaded","folder":"mp3","high_quality":true,"width":null,"height":null,"updated_at":"2015-01-02T01:44:52.861+01:00","recording_url":"https://cdn.media.ccc.de/congress/2014/mp3/31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_mp3.mp3","url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/recordings/5923","event_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/events/ad722522-5817-4317-8f3d-bb443b4e6c77","conference_url":"https://api.media.ccc.de/public/conferences/31c3"},{"size":179,"length":3554,"mime_type":"video/webm","language":"eng","filename":"31c3-6574-en-de-Why_are_computers_so_and_what_can_we_do_about_it_webm-sd.webm","state":"downloaded","folder":"webm-sd","high_quality":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