Glitch: The Hidden Impact of Faulty Software

Chapter 1. Converging Forces

On July 15, 2009, 22-year-old New Hampshire resident Josh Muszynski swiped his debit card at a local gas station to purchase a pack of cigarettes. A few hours later, while checking his bank balance online, Muszynski discovered that he had been charged $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 for the cigarettes, as shown in Figure 1.1.¹

Figure 1.1 Josh Muszynski’s bank statement

That’s twenty-three quadrillion, one hundred forty-eight trillion, eight hundred fifty-five billion, three hundred eight million, one hundred eighty-four thousand, five hundred dollars. Plus the $15 overdraft fee charged by the bank. This is about 2,007 ...