5/24/2005: PSP billboard fails with Windows error

Making the rounds are images of the blatant Windows error on a Sony PSP billboard on Houston Street in Manhattan.



In fact it seems it was that way for a while.



Long enough for many different people to get a shot of the error, from many different angles, and to share them on the web.



Of course this sort of thing happens in the UK too.



And it's not just a Windows problem.

it's good to know that while not yet self-aware technology does have a sense of humor

OH MY GOD!!!

RUN!!!


TERMINATORS!!!



oh wait...this PROGRAM will be terminated.

never mind.

I'll go four the for bottles of bubbly............ :drunk:

Ugh , that ain't the only place it happens ,

oh crap! is that what i have to look forward to in a year?!?!? thanks zip, now i'm reconsidering my career change!

damn, that would freak me out, be flyin' along and oh shit.

REALLY didnt need to see that at the moment zip.. :~o

Relax...it's a trainer. That never happens in real planes. :fingerx:

[SIZE=1]I think she's going for it...sell her the ticket quickly.[/SIZE]

I was going to point out that the new signs at Penn station are running Linux, and I see them down about 2x/week - Me thinks they have some problems in their system (the signs at platform level are 486dx4s BTW

I have to admit, I kind of freak out back about 10 years ago when I came up to the ATM where I worked and it was hung on the BIOS setup screen for a 386 computer. I never found out what OS it was.

SteveDallas wrote:

I have to admit, I kind of freak out back about 10 years ago when I came up to the ATM where I worked and it was hung on the BIOS setup screen for a 386 computer. I never found out what OS it was.

Most were (and as far as I can tell when I see them re-boot) are running some version of OS/2. Believe it or not, one of the guys I know from another mailing list wrote the code that ran something like 70-80 percent of all ATMs at one time (don't know if that is still true) - he retired on the royalties

zippyt wrote:

Ugh , that ain't the only place it happens ,

:mg: :mg: :mg: :mg:

Um, that sh*t ain't funny. Ok, is funny, but scary.

If that did happen on a "real plane", I wonder if they would scramble to
a, Fix the computer, or
b, Fly the damn plane
Hmmmm.....

Heh, gives new meaning to the term, "plane crash"...

Pilot,
copilot,
navigator/radioman,
rebooter. :eyebrow:

That's obviously an old cockpit. The new Airbus A380 only has one pilot and a dog.
A dog you ask? Yes a dog.
What is the dogs job? To bite the pilot if he touches the controls.
And the Pilot's job? To feed the dog.

It's an old pilot's joke oops that an old joke about pilot's

As a programmer, these kinds of crashes really make me wonder.

These have to be single-purpose computers, right? And it would make sense that these be closed systems - no network connection to anything. And they're probably running this one processs. So what's to make them crash?

The only thing I can think of is that they must have special video drivers for these screens that aren't written or tested too well.

That makes me think of this cartoon, and also this.

These have to be single-purpose computers, right? And it would make sense that these be closed systems - no network connection to anything. And they're probably running this one processs. So what's to make them crash?

The same stuff that makes every other program crash? Memory leaks, buffer overflows, incorrectly validated incoming data from controls or sensors.....Sure some of that stuff shouldn't bring down the system but this is windows and it is embedded.

jaguar wrote:

The same stuff that makes every other program crash? Memory leaks, buffer overflows, incorrectly validated incoming data from controls or sensors.....Sure some of that stuff shouldn't bring down the system but this is windows and it is embedded.

But with no user input and the data input well known? I'd be embarrased if that were my code.

No user input? It's there over 200 controls in the average modern cockpit? Controlling a few hundred systems from aircon to pressurisation to hydraulics many of which have to interact with custom interfaces for all of them, no off the shelf stuff here...It's not excuse but it's not exactly the easiest thing to code.

That's not Ph*t*sh*pped??

jaguar wrote:

No user input? It's there over 200 controls in the average modern cockpit? Controlling a few hundred systems from aircon to pressurisation to hydraulics many of which have to interact with custom interfaces for all of them, no off the shelf stuff here...It's not excuse but it's not exactly the easiest thing to code.

Sorry I wasn't more explicit. I was referring to the PSP billboard and friends.

Suddenly the term "crash" has new meaning.....in parallel with the topic.