No Windows Allowed On Ex-Battleship Cruise Liner

uucee writes "Wired has a story on an ex-warship cum cruise ship. Owner of the ship, Doug Humphrey, on why no Windows aboard his ship: 'We didn't want to have viruses blowing up systems that we depend on for navigation and monitoring engines and other systems. And since nothing seems to be able to stop all of these Windows viruses, the best way to win is to just stop using Windows.' However, it's not clear why Mac programmers can be trusted more than Windows programmers to keep a ship running: USS Yorktown was brought to a halt not by a virus but by bad coding: divide-by-zero. As Windows viruses don't travel through 'the ether,' it's also unclear how mission-critical systems, properly cut off from the outside world, would become infected in the first place."

Comments

Whatever

[Otter]

1) This is a coastal patrol boat with a 40 mm cannon and two machine guns. It isn't remotely a "battleship".

2) The owner doesn't mention the Yorktown incident at all. Given the way it's constantly, erroneously invoked here, I'm surprised this is the story picked in which to debunk it.

3) So, somebody with a fairly sketchy understanding of computers made a billion by selling his startup to someone else before it cratered. It's been a while since people like that were a novety worth expending thought on.

Re:Whatever

[Henry V .009]

Doug, if you have your navigation and engine systems connected to a network and to the internet you are in for some trouble. Especially now that everyone knows about your boat. If you are going to brag about your secure computing solution to the world--well, at least get a set-up that has security as a major focus.

A Mac isn't that hard to crack--all it takes is one hax0R getting offended, and then sailing your boat to Antartica.

I have to say...

[Smidge204]

"We didn't want to have viruses blowing up systems that we depend on for navigation and monitoring engines and other systems."

It's note-worthy that this is not a military vessle anymore. Unless I'm reading the article wrong, this boat is a glorified private yacht. I fail to see the importance of the whole issue from this perspective.

I can see the ads now...

"My name is Doug Humphrey, and I'm a rich bastard who downsized my company and bought a disused warship-turned-yacht for my own private use!"

Good for him. Worried about your navigation systems? Get a stand-alone GPS unit (Assuming the Royal navy stripped out the navigation equipment that the ship originally had, that is, which I'm sure didn't run Windows!). And I'm sure an engine room in a ship like that still requires a trained engineer and at least one assistant to operate.

The only 'critical system' I can imagine on that ship that could possibly rely on the stablility of an OS is his stock-market update streamer.

Now... if anything, the interesting story here is how they converted his *company* to use Macs, and is supposingly saving the firm a bunch of money on maintainance. That's something to talk about. Now we can have a meaningful discussion on the Mac vs. Windows situation in the business world.

=Smidge=

Keeping Out Viruses the Easy Way

[MBCook]

Why don't they just isolate the network that the ship's computers are on (the important ones like navigation) from all other computers. Don't connect it to the internet. And have every computer on it locked down, take out disk drives/etc. It would be very hard to get a virus that way, and you could run whatever you want for an OS.

READ THE FREAKIN STORY!!!

[SensitiveMale]

Here is the BIG REASON!

When the firm underwent a drastic downsizing recently, he moved his entire staff to Macs because it was too expensive keeping a fleet of Windows machines shipshape.

"We forced everyone to go to Macs for the desktops," he said. "The support load dropped to almost nothing and the only complaints were from people who couldn't play games on their machines any longer.

I expect slashdot reader to comment on the story before reading it, but shouldn't the SUBMITTER read it first?

goddammit timothy...

[BiOFH]

What the fuck is that all about? Half the facts in the headline are wrong (battleship, cruise liner, yadda yadda) and then you strike off on a tangent that's just plain inflammatory and, from the looks of it, shows off your ignorance of closed system infections.

Argh! I've so had it with this bullshit. Slashdot has become incredibly unreliable. You guys fucking lie in your headlines (let's call it what it is.. it's no merely "inaccurate", it's fucking lying for the sake of sensationalism) and then just go on about your business when half your [huge] readership makes note of it.

ARGH! I defy you [Slashdot editorial staff] to address this issue. I defy you. Go ahead... prove that you all aren't the true 'anonymous' cowards hiding behind your 'code of silence'.

Headline: Slashdot makes shit up just for shits and giggles. Facts secondary to inflaming the masses.