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The error-reporting service built into the Windows operating system is a massive global network for speaking truth to power. Be you a lowly clerk of accounts or a mighty captain of industry, when a Windows program crashes, you'll see a pop-up with an offer to 'tell Microsoft about this problem.'
Windows操作系统自带的错误报告机制 成了一个庞大的全球性实情汇报 络。不管你是名不见经传的会计师还是呼风唤雨的行业泰斗，每当一个Windows程序无法正常运行时，电脑都会一视同仁地蹦出一条提示：请向微软(Microsoft)汇报此错误。
Enough people around the world choose to do so that on the busiest days, 50 gigabytes of data from these error reports stream into Microsoft. Two dozen programmers are charged with monitoring them. The stories they tell of good computer programs going bad are full of the stuff of opera: pride and sloth, with lots of chaos theory and complexity thrown in.
全世界有不少用户选择了把问题汇报给微软，于是最繁忙的时候会有多达50G的错误报告数 从世界各个角落流向微软。微软有二三十名程序员专门负责处理这些信息。这些数 反映出的程序毛病真是无奇不有，充满戏剧色彩：傲慢和怠惰中掺杂着混沌理论和 杂化。
Errors come in two sorts. Kernel errors happen in the inner sanctum of the operating system, which lets in only essential programs -- drivers and the like -- and then gives them free rein. But if, say, a printer driver suddenly erases the kernel code needed to access the disk drive, the operating system will have part of its brain cut out. The result is the 'blue screen of death' in Windows and Mac, or a 'panic' in Unix.
这些错误主要有两类。核心错误发生在操作系统内部，这些部分只允许像驱动程序这样的关键程序访问，并给予这些程序运作的自由。但是，比如一个打印机驱动程序突然把接磁盘驱动所需的核心代码删除掉，操作系统就会出现部分停顿。结果，Windows和Mac电脑会出现显示死机的蓝屏，Unix电脑则会表现为黑屏。
The applications we use don't have the same all-access backstage passes as kernel programs. When they crash, the system itself usually stays up. Microsoft lists a dozen reasons for application crashes; my favorite is the absence of 'defensive programming.' Coders, just like freeway drivers, shouldn't assume other people are doing their jobs correctly. If you ask for two bytes of data, count the bytes when they're handed back.
我们平常使用的应用程序不像核心程序那样能自由进入电脑的深层。当这些应用程序崩溃时，操作系统本身一般还是运作正常的。微软罗列了十多个应用程序崩溃的可能原因，我最认同的一项是缺乏“防御性编程”，程序编写员就像是高速公路上的驾驶员，他们不能想当然地认为其他人都能把自己的工作做好。如果你要求得到两个字节的数 ，那么当它们被交回来的时候就要数一数字节数。
Microsoft folks like Trevor Kurtz, who heads one of the error-checking teams, are proud of their work: how scrupulous they are about respecting user privacy; how freely they share the aggregated data with outside software developers.
正如负责一个错误核查小组的特雷福•库尔茨(Trevor Kurtz)那样，微软人为自己的工作感到骄傲：他们小心翼翼地保护用户的隐私信息，但同时又随意地把收集到的数 跟外部的软件开发商共享。
Some things they won't tell you, though: which programs from Microsoft or others crash the most; who is at fault, Windows or the program.
有些事情他们是不会告诉你的：微软的哪个软件或哪个公司设计的软件最容易崩溃；问题到底出在谁身上，是Windows还是那个应用程序。
The Microsoft nominations from my household include Internet Explorer, which regularly stalls, and Windows Explorer, which on full drives can't properly execute the keyboard shortcut for opening all folders and subfolders.
从我在家使用电脑的情况看，经常出问题的微软程序包括IE浏览器和Windows资源管理器，前者间或变得缓慢迟钝，而后者在机器同时执行好几项任务时没办法正常按照用键盘快捷键输入的指令打开所有的文件夹和次级文件夹。
It's far from all bad, though. Word and Excel seem like Gibraltar, and months now go by in-between blue screens.
但这远不是最糟糕的。Word和Excel似乎冥顽不灵，几个月以来一直不停地出现蓝屏。
The experience of dealing with a software bug can involve an emotional journey that starts with helpless blind rage and ends with, if not a Kubler-Ross style of acceptance, then at least a little empathy.
面对程序崩溃，我们往往要经历一个情绪变化的过程，先是束手无策的暴怒，最后，即使不是库伯勒－罗斯模型中(Kubler-Ross)的无奈接受，至少也表示出一点理解。
