Chapter 7. Cowboy Coders

The millennium arrived and you didn't even know it! Software reliability became, at long last, a reality. And how was this breakthrough in software engineering achieved? I quote from a 16-page marketing blurb from Nanomush, Inc., mailed to millions of benighted users and developers: “One of the most powerful additions to Blerbbleflox 3.1 is 'parameter validation.' Parameter validation means that when information is passed from an application to the Blerbbleflox operating system, Blerbbleflox checks the information to make sure it is valid.” What a novel idea! Why didn't you think of that, eh? (Of course, everyone knew I was talking about Microsoft and Windows 3.1. LLC).

This bit of attempted self-congratulation revealed ...

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