Mission Statement - De-Spinning the Pro-Taser Propaganda

Yeah right, 'Excited Delirium' my ass...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The primary purpose of this blog is to provide an outlet for my observations and analysis about tasers, taser "associated" deaths, and the behaviour exhibited by the management, employees and minions of Taser International. In general, everything is linked back to external sources, often via previous posts on the same topic, so that readers can fact-check to their heart's content. This blog was started in late-2007 when Canadians were enraged by the taser death of Robert Dziekanski and four others in a short three month period. The cocky attitude exhibited by the Taser International spokespuppet, and his preposterous proposal that Mr. Dziekanski coincidentally died of "excited delirium" at the time of his taser-death, led me to choose the blog name I did and provides my motivation. I have zero financial ties to this issue.



Saturday, April 11, 2009

Test tasers before updating software

Taser Model X26 Test Concepts [LINK]

MPB Technologies Inc., Issue Date: January 22, 2009, Revision: 4

Page 10: "Check for latest software update; if necessary, update by inserting a fresh battery pack with the latest revision software."


If you're auditing a taser to see if it does, or does not, meet the published specifications, then it should obviously be tested 'as is'. You should not allow the taser software to be updated until after the taser has been tested with the software that was already installed.

Updating the taser-under-test software before testing it is basically leaving the barn door wide open for the escape of any possible defective software loads (either defective in design, or corrupted during previous software loads). Now, I'm not aware of any evidence that there are any actual problems with the X26 taser software, but with the test process described in the Test Concepts document you'd would never find them even if they did exist.

No comments: