Code Offsets are a novel way to offset crap code.
It works like carbon offseting. You know you’re going to write a few rough lines, so pay it forward to make less bad code overall.
What are Code Offsets?
Have you ever written a line of bad code… or twenty? Relax, it happens to the best of us. What’s important is what you do next.
When you purchase a pack of Code Offsets, the proceeds go to our partner organization TECH CORPS, a nonprofit group that helps promote good code through education.
The Bills
Featuring some of the most notable characters from computing’s history, we’ve designed nine different bills, each offsetting a select amount of bad code.
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Partner Organization
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Proceeds from Code Offsets currently benefit TECH CORPS.
TECH CORPS is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring K-12 students have equal access to technology programs, skills, and resources that enhance early learning and prepare them for college and career.
TECH CORPS develops technology programs and deploys tech-savvy talent to assist K-12 schools and youth-serving organizations across the country.
Bad Code can be Stopped
It disrupts our jobs, hides in our homes, and stows away in our cars. It’s probably even in your pocket more often than not.
Bad code is a problem that affects everyone, and with Code Offsets you can finally do something about it.
Now that you’ve read our alarmist and overblown examples, you can be part of the solution and offset bad code today!
Bad Code is Disruptive
In 1990, a single line of code led to a mechanical failure in one of AT&T’s key switching centers.
The center shut down unexpectedly, and when it came back online it sent a message to other switching centers causing them to reset.
The result? Over 70 million calls went unanswered! Don’t let bad code drop your call!
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Boom!
Crash on Mars!
The Mars Climate Orbiter arrived at Mars just fine, but crashed into the red planet since its software didn’t make key measurements in metric as NASA specified.
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Lost
X isn’t on
the spot
Apple released its own mapping software for iOS 6. It worked, but barely. Clouds obscured satellite images, places were misplaced, and entire towns were missing.
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Busted
Jigsaw plane
In 2006, Airbus used separate software when designing two halves of their Airbus A380. When they attempted to assemble the parts, they literally didn’t fit!
Bad Code is Expensive
Knight Capital Group was a well-respected market-making company, at least until 2012. On the morning of August 1st, for only half an hour, their trading software malfunctioned. It bought high, and sold low on hundreds of different stocks.
In just that short window, the company lost $440M, decimating their reputation and stock price.
Don’t let bad code cost you (or anyone else) so dearly.
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Taxing
Death and Glitches
In 2006 the I.R.S. lost hundreds of millions to fraudulent tax refunds. The culprit? A non-functioning program meant to detect potential fraudulent claims.
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Us Too
Hunt the
bugs
We aren’t immune to bad code! In fact we have hidden several bits on this page. Find one, and report it to us, we will send you some free code offsets, and pay for them ourselves!
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Oops
Wrong division!
In 1993, Pentium sold a chip that made errors in certain division problems. This frustrated users, and compromised the credibility of the entire company.
Bad Code is Deadly
The year 2003, the place; a hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In the blink of an eye, 8,500 lives were snuffed out by bad code. Kinda.
Due to a mapping error, every patient who had a procedure at the hospital was reported dead to the Social Security office, their insurance, and ultimately, themselves. Of course, none of them were actually dead, which makes the whole thing a bit awkward.
Don’t stand for digital murder, eliminate bad code.
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WWIII
Almost
was!
In 1983 the Soviet nuclear early warning system reports an attack from the US. Thankfully, Air Defense Officer, Stanislav Petrov, double checks and discovers it was just a glitch.
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Hakkar
The Blood God!
In World of Warcraft, Hakkar was an enemy that infected heroes with a virus. An error caused it jump to others, and rack up a huge death toll of annoyed players.
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A Break
From
jail
California reduced prison population in 2011 by paroling non-violent offenders. But a mistake in programming led to unsupervised parole of about 450 violent felons.