> Why would Twitter be constantly in danger of crashing without human intervention? Isn't it just a bunch of software that just runs? If not, why was it not properly engineered, and who needs to be fired for that?
I can write software that runs today. I don't know about tomorrow. Disks crash, other services crash, networks go down. No matter how competent your Byzantine Generals are, sometimes you have to recover data that was in-flight during a crash because disks and networks don't just crash, they slow down and they lose packets and sectors.
Add on security patches and changes in architecture (I'm looking at some Java 1.3 code that runs INSIDE an Oracle DB right now, ask me how I feel about not updating your architecture). You may say that architecture doesn't change that fast. If the business is successful, it will happen eventually.
I can write software that runs today. I don't know about tomorrow. Disks crash, other services crash, networks go down. No matter how competent your Byzantine Generals are, sometimes you have to recover data that was in-flight during a crash because disks and networks don't just crash, they slow down and they lose packets and sectors.
Add on security patches and changes in architecture (I'm looking at some Java 1.3 code that runs INSIDE an Oracle DB right now, ask me how I feel about not updating your architecture). You may say that architecture doesn't change that fast. If the business is successful, it will happen eventually.