Software Problems with a Breath Alcohol Detector (Schneier on Security)
source: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/software_proble.html
Apparently this is the result of a court case where a guy on a DUI charge got the source code to the Breathalyzer. It sucks that this is a tool that influences important decisions, almost as sad a reality as the courts' reliance on polygraphs.
It's also important to remember that a measure of Blood Alcohol Level from the breath is not necessarily a corresponding measure of subjective drunkenness. Besides the fact that different people will have different effects at the same level, the same person will feel more drunk at, say, a .08 as they are going up their "drunkenness curve" than they will when they register the same .08 while they are beginning to sober up - as they're coming down the "drunkenness curve".
That being said, drunk driving is not cool at all.
It's also important to remember that a measure of Blood Alcohol Level from the breath is not necessarily a corresponding measure of subjective drunkenness. Besides the fact that different people will have different effects at the same level, the same person will feel more drunk at, say, a .08 as they are going up their "drunkenness curve" than they will when they register the same .08 while they are beginning to sober up - as they're coming down the "drunkenness curve".
That being said, drunk driving is not cool at all.
