Category: Mistakes

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Worst Software Bug Count

Windows 2000 (built on the NT architecture) was widely regarded by IT professionals as one of Microsoft’s most stable, secure, and reliable operating systems, especially compared to consumer-focused contemporaries like Windows 98 and Windows Me.

2. The Bug Count

Shortly before Windows 2000 shipped in February 2000, an internal memo was leaked. It was written by Microsoft software architect Marc Lucovsky. The memo revealed that the operating system contained over 63,000 potential known defects:

“BugBug” Comments: The memo noted over 27,000 developer comments tagged as “BugBug” (notes marking long-forgotten issues or work-in-progress code).

Automated Code Scan Results: Microsoft’s static analysis tool (PREfix) flagged over 65,000 potential issues, of which engineers estimated roughly 28,000 were likely “real” software bugs.

In the memo, Lucovsky famously urged developers to clean up the code, writing:

“How many of you would spend $500 on a piece of software with over 63,000 potential known defects?”

Context: Why So Many Bugs?

While 63,000 sounds alarming, software engineers noted that:

Scale of Code: Windows 2000 was massive for its time, containing roughly 29 to 35 million lines of code.

Rigorous Testing: Microsoft responded to the leaks by clarifying that the 63,000 figure was the result of exceptionally thorough internal testing and automated code analysis, capturing everything from minor cosmetic glitches to potential edge-case crashes.

Despite the leaked figure, Windows 2000 went on to become an industry workhorse renowned for its stability.

What about the current version of Windows? Microsoft doesn’t publish bug count, but you can bet there are some bugs, mostly harmless, of course. Whereas Windows 2000 consisted of approximately 30 million lines of code, Windows 11 is over 60,000 lines.

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Worst Fruit

Cherries taste great, but if you eat the leaves or twigs of a cherry tree, you could get sick or even die.

The leaves, twigs, bark, and seeds (pits) of cherry trees—along with related trees like peaches, plums, and apricots contain cyanogenic glycosides, primarily amygdalin and prunasin. When these plant parts are chewed or digested, enzymes break these compounds down into hydrocyanic acid, better known as cyanide.

  • Why it happens: Cyanide prevents the body’s cells from using oxygen, which can cause severe cellular hypoxia, respiratory distress, shock, and potentially death if consumed in sufficient quantities.
  • The biggest risk factor: The leaves are particularly dangerous when they are wilted. As leaves break, crush, or wilt (such as after a storm or pruning), the plant cells rupture and unleash higher concentrations of cyanide gas.
  • Who is most at risk: While humans can get sick from chewing on twigs or swallowing crushed pits, this is a major danger for grazing livestock (horses, cows, and goats), which frequently suffer fatal cyanide poisoning after eating fallen cherry leaves.

The flesh of the cherry itself is completely safe and free of these cyanogenic compounds.

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Worst Carpet Tacking Situation

I found the following in a book published in 1858:

“An English gentleman, traveling some years ago in Ireland, took a hammer and tacks with him, because he found dog’s-eared carpets at all the inns where he rested. At one of these inns he tacked down the carpet which, as usual, was loose near the door, and soon afterwards rang for his dinner. While the carpet was loose the door could not be opened without a hard push: so when the waiter came up, he just unlatched the door, and then going back a couple of yards, he rushed against it, as his habit was, with a sudden spring to force it open. But the wrinkles of the carpet were no longer there to stop it, and not meeting with the expected resistance, the unfortunate waiter fell full sprawl into the room. It had never entered his head that so much trouble might be saved by means of a hammer and half-a-dozen tacks, until his fall taught him that make-shift is a very unprofitable kind of shift.”

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Worst Woodstove

The First “Franklin stove” – a stove designed by Ben Franklin, survives to this day in many households. It is also known as the “Pennsylvania Fireplace,” The stove is a fireplace with cast iron doors as shown above.

His second stove invention, manufactured between 1771 and 1786, was called the “smoke-consuming” stove. This version has disappeared from modern times. It was an airtight, which is more efficient than most of the stoves used at that time. But, his invention was so complex and awkward to light that it never gained much favor in American homes.

It looked somewhat like an egg on a pedestal. The air came in through vents in the top of the egg, passed downward through the wood fire, and was sucked out the bottom, which was connected to the chimney through pipes running under the floor. This design caused almost total combustion of the wood, which most stoves cannot do, and the pipes under the floor warmed the floor, which was pleasant and efficient. The problem was that the system had to be warmed gradually in order to get the necessary draft or suction sufficient to avoid smoking up the whole house.

Ben claimed that the servants were too stupid to manage it. He was reluctant to say that maybe his design was just too cumbersome.


Ben Franklin's Smoke-Consuming Stove
Ben Franklin’s Smoke-Consuming Stove

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Worst Load of Rotten Fruit

Because Jared lived on the Big Island of Hawaii, he had few options for earning a living.

He found an orchard that would sell him a pickup truck full of too-ripe papayas for $25. He figured most of these were still quite edible, and so he could sell them to tourists near the hotels.

He bought a load, made a sign and parked his truck. The first day, he made $100 or so, and he was delighted with his new business idea.

The second day, all the papayas were becoming too ripe and he only made $50.

The third day, it was obvious he couldn’t sell any more papayas, even though his truck was still almost entirely full.

He tried to bury them in his yard, but after an hour of digging, he had only a small hole. He took them to the dump, but they were not accepting truckloads of produce. They rotted in the back of his truck.

Because of the stench, the truck was no longer drivable. I don’t know how the story ended, but I’m sure Jared’s truck was never completely clean and stink-free again.

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Worst Oil Change

A student at the University of Santa Cruz, California, was given a new front wheel drive car by her parents. After 1,200 miles, it was due for its first oil change at the dealer, but a fellow student offered to change her oil for free. He figured this would be a good way to get her attention. She reluctantly allowed him to change the oil because it seemed so important to him to do so.

He crawled under the front of the car and removed the transmission drain plug. She commented that the oil seemed awfully thick. He confidently told her that was the way it is supposed to be in new cars. After reinserting the transmission plug, he put four quarts of oil in the engine. Now there was no oil in the transmission and twice as much as there should have been in the engine. She drove a few blocks and the car quit working properly. The dealer towed it away, and after preparing a careful estimate, reported that the damage was not covered by the warranty, being abuse, and repairs would cost almost as much as a whole new car. Her friend got her attention all right!

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Worst Lost Airplane Mistake

A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in 1945.

On a foggy Saturday morning in July 1945, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell bomber lost visibility and crashed directly into the north side of the building between the 78th and 80th floors. Despite structural damage and fires that killed 14 people, the building’s steel frame remained intact, and parts of the building reopened for business two days later.

It holds a Guinness World Record for an elevator survival story. During the 1945 plane crash, elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver survived a catastrophic 75-story drop inside an elevator car after the plane’s engine severed the cables. Cables coiled at the bottom of the shaft and air trapped beneath the car cushioned the fall, making it the highest survived elevator fall in history.

The top of the Empire State Building flexes back and forth a few feet (a meter) in heavy winds.

It was built in just 13 months and completed ahead of schedule. Construction moved at a breakneck pace, progressing at an average rate of four and a half stories per week. Between March 1930 and April 1931, roughly 3,400 workers completed the 102-story structure in just 410 days—finishing under budget and well ahead of schedule.

The original spire was designed as a docking station for dirigibles. The top 200 feet of the building were originally constructed to serve as a mooring mast for commercial airships (Zeppelins). The idea was for airships to tie up to the spire, allowing passengers to disembark via an open-air gangplank on the 102nd floor, but high winds and safety hazards forced the idea to be abandoned after only a couple of brief tests.

It was involved in a fierce “Race to the Sky.” During the late 1920s, developers in Manhattan competed aggressively for the title of the world’s tallest building. The Empire State Building’s designers modified their plans mid-construction—specifically adding the mooring mast—to surpass both 40 Wall Street and the Chrysler Building, securing the crown of world’s tallest building for 41 years until 1972.

It generates more revenue from its observatories than from office rents. While hundreds of businesses lease office space across its lower floors, the 86th and 102nd-floor observation decks consistently bring in more money than commercial real estate leases, generating over $100 million annually from millions of global tourists.

It serves as its own zip code. Due to its massive scale, thousands of daily workers, and high volume of mail, the United States Postal Service assigned the Empire State Building its own unique zip code: 10118.

Its famous tower lights require a dedicated team and change color daily. The building introduced light displays in 1932 to announce Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential victory. Today, a state-of-the-art computer-controlled LED system displays over 16 million colors to recognize holidays, sports teams, global organizations, and cultural events.

It is an iconic lightning rod, struck around 25 times per year. Standing tall over Midtown Manhattan, the building’s top spire acts as a massive lightning rod for the city. It features a heavy grounding system that channels millions of volts safely into the earth, preventing structural damage and keeping visitors inside completely safe during storms.

Athletes race up its 1,576 steps in an annual footrace. Every year since 1978, the building hosts the Empire State Building Run-Up. Runners from around the world sprint up the 86 flights of stairs from the ground lobby to the main observatory, with top competitors finishing the vertical climb in under ten minutes.

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Worst Things to Eat

In 1985, a valve in a dairy leaked a little bit of raw milk into a large tank of pasteurized milk. Two hundred thousand people got food poisoning.

Fifty percent of all turkeys and 37 percent of all chickens that you can buy in grocery stores are contaminated with Campylobacter (food poisoning) according to the US Food and Drug Administration.

Last year 81 million Americans got sick from food poisoning and 9,000 of them died. The average American will get food poisoning 100 times in a lifetime. The symptoms are headache, sick feeling, diarrhea. Most people think this is the flu. To prevent food poisoning, clean all kitchen items with heat, never leave food at room temperature for more than a few minutes, and never handle prepared food after handling raw meat or poultry.

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Worst Computer Bug

Always double-check your work.

The programmer in charge of a computer with the job of issuing traffic citations goofed in September, 1989. The computer sent notices to 41,000 residents of Paris, France informing them that they were charged with murder, prostitution and illegal sale of drugs.

Here’s more about that mistake

What Happened

The Paris judicial system had recently automated its automated notice and collection system. Instead of generating routine notices for minor parking violations and traffic infractions, a bug in the code cross-indexed or misaligned the offense code database.

Rather than pulling the text strings for minor driving infractions (like illegal parking, speeding, or running a red light), the system pulled charges from the severe criminal code database.

The Aftermath

Over 41,000 residents opened official, sternly worded legal summonses from the Ministry of Justice informing them that they were under investigation or charged with major crimes—including:

Murder and manslaughter

Organized prostitution

Extortion and blackmail

Illicit drug trafficking

As you can imagine, the mistake caused widespread panic, outrage, and chaos at local police stations and court houses as thousands of bewildered drivers showed up trying to clear their names of hitman-level charges when they had simply overstayed a parking meter.

French officials quickly issued public apologies, clarified that it was a technical glich, and assured residents that no felony charges were actually being pursued. It remains a legendary classic example in computer science and IT history of what can go wrong with early automated database management.