Slashdot Mirror
Computer Error Grounds Japanese Flights
zephiros writes "Mainichi Daily News reports that a "computer glitch" in Tokyo air traffic control systems resulted in the cancellation of 203 flights this weekend. At 7am Saturday, the error "caused the names of airlines and flight numbers to disappear from radar screens." A Japan Times article suggests the problem may be related to upgrades on a system which exchanges flight plans with the Defense Agency. Makes one wonder about the integration and maintenance risks of systems like CAPPS II."
Must have been running linux.
No "Har har must've been running Windoze. M$ sUx0rs!!!" comments.
So I guess they are using Windows? :)
Suhit
Here!
Ummm,
Don't they have change control.
whatever.
Rob Malda is a 26-year old white male with a stocky build and a beard. His head is shaved. He responded to my ad to be interviewed for this article wearing only leather pants, leather boots and a leather vest. I could see that both of his nipples were pierced with large-gauge silver rings.
Questioner: I hope you won't be offended if I ask you to prove to me that you're a nullo. Just so that our readers will know that this isn't a fake.
Rob: Sure, no problem. (stands and unbuckles pants and drops them to his ankles, revealing a smooth, shaven crotch with only a thin scar to show where his genitals once were).
Q: Thank you. That's a remarkable sight.
(laughs and pulls pants back up). Most people think so.
Q: What made you decide to become a nullo?
(pauses). Well, it really wasn't entirely my decision.
Q: Excuse me?
The idea wasn't mine. It was my lover's idea.
Q: Please explain what you mean.
Okay, it's a long story. You have to understand my relationship with Michael before you'll know what happened.
Q: We have plenty of time. Please go on.
Both of us were into the leather lifestyle when we met through a personal ad. Michael's ad was very specific: he was looking for someone to completely dominate and modify to his pleasure. In other word, a slave.
The ad intrigued me. I had been in a number of B&D scenes and also some S&M, but I found them unsatisfying because they were all temporary. After the fun was over, everybody went on with life as usual.
I was looking for a complete life change. I wanted to meet someone who would be part of my life forever. Someone who would control me and change me at his whim.
Q: In other words, you're a true masochist.
Oh yes, no doubt about that. I've always been totally passive in my sexual relationships.
Anyway, we met and there was instant chemistry. Michael is a few years older than me and very good looking. Our personalities meshed totally. He's very dominant.
I went back to his place after drinks and had the best sex of my life. That's when I knew I was going to be with Michael for a long, long time.
Q: What sort of things did you two do?
It was very heavy right away. He restrained me and whipped me for quite awhile. He put clamps on my nipples and a ball gag in my mouth. And he hung a ball bag on my sack with some very heavy weights. That bag really bounced around when Michael fucked me from behind.
Q: Ouch.
(laughs) Yeah, no kidding. At first I didn't think I could take the pain, but Michael worked me through it and after awhile I was flying. I was sorry when it was over.
Michael enjoyed it as much as I did. Afterwards he talked about what kind of a commitment I'd have to make if I wanted to stay with him.
Q: What did he say exactly?
Well, besides agreeing to be his slave in every way, I'd have to be ready to be modified. To have my body modified.
Q: Did he explain what he meant by that?
Not specifically, but I got the general idea. I guessed that something like castration might be part of it.
Q: How did that make you feel?
(laughs) I think it would make any guy a little hesitant.
Q: But it didn't stop you from agreeing to Michael's terms?
No it didn't. I was totally hooked on this man. I knew that I was willing to pay any price to be with him.
Anyway, a few days later I moved in with Michael. He gave me the rules right away: I'd have to be naked at all times while we were indoors, except for a leather dog collar that I could never take off. I had to keep my head shaved. And I had to wear a butt plug except when I needed to take a shit or when we were having sex.
I had to sleep on the floor next to his bed. I ate all my food on the floor, too.
The next day he took me to a piercing parlor where he had my nipples done, and a Prince Albert put into the head of my cock.
Q: Heavy stuff.
Yeah, and it got heavier. He used me as a toilet, pissing in my mouth. I had to lick his asshole clean after he took a shit, too. It was all part of a process to break down any sense of individuality I had. After awhile, I wouldn't hesitate to do anything he asked.
Q: Did the sex get rougher?
Oh God, yeah. He started fisting me every time we had sex. But he really started concentrating on my cock and balls, working them over for hours at a time.
He put pins into the head of my cock and into my sack. He attached clothespins up and down my cock and around my sack. The pain was pretty bad. He had to gag me to keep me from screaming.
Q: When did the idea of nullification come up?
Well, it wasn't nullification at first. He started talking about how I needed to make a greater commitment to him, to do something to show that I was dedicated to him for life.
When I asked him what he meant, he said that he wanted to take my balls.
Q: How did you respond?
Not very well at first. I told him that I liked being a man and didn't want to become a eunuch. But he kept at me, and wore me down. He reminded me that I agreed to be modified according to his wishes, and this is what he wanted for me. Anything less would show that I wasn't really committed to the relationship. And besides, I was a total bottom and didn't really need my balls.
It took about a week before I agreed to be castrated. But I wasn't happy about it, believe me.
Q: How did he castrate you?
Michael had a friend who was into the eunuch scene. One night he came over with his bag of toys, and Michael told me that this was it. I was gonna lose my nuts then and there.
Q: Did you think of resisting?
I did for a minute, but deep down I knew there was no way. I just didn't want to lose Michael. I'd rather lose my balls.
Michael's friend restrained me on the living room floor while Michael videotaped us. He used an elastrator to put a band around my sack.
Q: That must have really hurt.
Hell yeah. It's liked getting kicked in the balls over and over again. I screamed for him to cut the band off, but he just kept on going, putting more bands on me. I had four bands around my sack when he finished.
I was rolling around on the floor screaming, while Michael just videotaped me. Eventually, my sack got numb and the pain subsided. I looked between my legs and could see my sack was a dark purple. I knew my balls were dying inside.
Michael and his friend left the room and turned out the light. I lay there for hours, crying because I was turning into a eunuch and there wasn't anything I could do about it.
Q: What happened then?
Eventually I fell asleep from exhaustion. Then the light switched on and I could see Michael's friend kneeling between my legs, touching my sack. I heard him tell Michael that my balls were dead.
Q: How did Michael react?
Very pleased. He bent down and felt around my sack. He said that it felt cold.
Michael's friend told me that I needed to keep the bands on. He said that eventually my balls and sack would dry up and fall off. I just nodded. What else could I do at that point?
Q: Did it happen just like Michael's friend said?
Yeah, a week or so later my package just fell off. Michael put it in a jar of alcohol to preserve it. It's on the table next to his bed.
Q: How did things go after that?
Michael was really loving to me. He kept saying how proud he was of me, how grateful that I had made the commitment to him. He even let me sleep in his bed.
Q: What about the sex?
We waited awhile after my castration, and then took it easy until I was completely healed. At first I was able to get hard, but as the weeks went by my erections began to disappear.
That pleased Michael. He liked fucking me and feeling my limp cock. It made his dominance over me even greater.
Q: When did he start talking about making you a nullo?
A couple of months after he took my nuts. Our sex had gotten to be just as rough as before the castration. He really got off on torturing my cock. Then he started saying stuff like, "Why do you even need this anymore?"
That freaked me out. I always thought that he might someday take my balls, but I never imagined that he'd go all the way. I told him that I wanted to keep my dick.
Q: How did he react to that?
At first he didn't say much. But he kept pushing. Michael said I would look so nice being smooth between my legs. He said my dick was small and never got hard anymore, so what was the point of having it.
But I still resisted. I wanted to keep my cock. I felt like I wouldn't be a man anymore without it.
Q: So how did he get you to agree?
He didn't. He took it against my will.
Q: How did that happen?
We were having sex in the basement, and I was tied up and bent over this wooden bench as he fucked me. Then I heard the doorbell ring. Michael answered it, and he brought this guy into the room.
At first I couldn't see anything because of the way I was tied. But then I felt these hands lift me up and put me on my back. And I could see it was Michael's friend, the guy who took my nuts.
Q: How did you react?
I started screaming and crying, but the guy just gagged me. The two of them dragged me to the other side of the room where they tied me spread eagled on the floor.
Michael's friend snaked a catheter up my dick, and gave me a shot to numb my crotch. I was grateful for that, at least. I remember how bad it hurt to lose my balls.
Q: What was Michael doing at this time?
He was kneeling next to me talking quietly. He said I'd be happy that they were doing this. That it would make our relationship better. That kind of calmed me down. I thought, "Well, maybe it won't be so bad."
Q: How long did the penectomy take?
It took awhile. Some of the penis is inside the body, so he had to dig inside to get all of it. There was a lot of stitching up and stuff. He put my cock in the same jar with my balls. You can even see the Prince Albert sticking out of the head.
Then they made me a new pisshole. It's between my asshole and where my sack used to be. So now I have to squat to piss.
Q: What has life been like since you were nullified?
After I got over the surgery and my anger, things got better. When I healed up, I began to like my smooth look. Michael brought friends over and they all admired it, saying how pretty I looked. It made me feel good that Michael was proud of me.
Q: Do you have any sexual feeling anymore?
Yes, my prostate still responds when Michael fucks me or uses the buttplug. And my nipples are quite sensitive. If Michael plays with them while fucking me, I have a kind of orgasm. It's hard to describe, but it's definitely an orgasm.
Sometimes Michael says he's gonna have my prostate and nipples removed, but he's just kidding around. He's happy with what he's done to me.
Q: So are you glad Michael had you nullified?
Well, I wouldn't say I'm glad. If I could, I'd like to have my cock and balls back. But I know that I'm a nullo forever. So I'm making the best of it.
Michael and I are very happy. I know that he'll take care of me and we'll be together always. I guess losing my manhood was worth it to make that happen for us.
OMG BIG PENIS ATE MY SOUP
I've work quite a bit with risk maintenance. Most often situations like these increase the budget for disaster prevetion and other related expenses. This failure *should* make fewer failures in the future and generally a safer airport. But then again that all depends on how much passion they have for their job.
Maybe I should take a trip to Japan in a few months.
This will most likely lead open source software such as atc finally getting the recognition it deserves.
Imagine: the buggy (and needless to say proprietary) flight control software is installed. Two months later, grounded flights are at an all time high. The FAA is in an uproar, the media is clamoring for a solution, America is in turmoil.
*ring ring*
What's that? It's the phone. Who is it? Someone named Linux Torvalds...says he has a solution to our problems.
Bing bang bong boing boom, Linux is running the major world airports. Due to the superior stability and dependibility of Open Source Software, Linux is now the poster boy for good production values. The few hundred lives lost in the meantime will be well worth the benefit to software that is Free as in Speech.
Perhaps some of these bsdgames (especially atc) will be incorporated into some Linux distributions. After all, that is the beauty of open source. These features might be what gives Linux that "edge" over Windows that we have all been waiting for.
Pointless IT Innovations Considered Harmful!!!
Fuck, why can't people just relax, pop open a beer, talk to friends, etc? Instead of this nonsense?
Stop the world!
Why even bring up CAPPSII, is has nothing to do with air control, only with passenger data.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Fark is so much better
-Drew Curtis
Fark.com
Does that seem like flaimbait to anyone else? Computers crash all the time, granted steps can be taken to ensure redundancy, but this is nothing new. This problem has nothing to do with the CAPPS II system other than the fact that they are both computerized systems, I'm not trying to defend CAPPS II, I just don't think that it is any way related to this this tokyo airlines problem. Computers crash, it's a fact of life, the real question here, is why weren't there multiple redundancies in place for such a mission critical application.
I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
"Computers are just no good," said one 51-year-old company manager leaving for Sapporo. "I'm sure they're helpful, but they're just too fragile."
Lol. Depends how they're set up. I'd say you can get them fairly robust. Clustered, load balanced, hot-swap, failover, etc.
Get your own free personal location tracker
1) How the hell did the flights get DOWN once the radar died? It said they disappeared from radar, and you don't keep radar on the planes that are on the ground, so....?
2) Whose bright idea was it to do a "systems upgrade" while there were large, flying metal objects carrying many people still in the air?!?! Wouldn't you do a test run, install it on a backup system, or one that's not systems-critical?
This just makes no sense....someone explain it to me?
what are these guys on?
Is it true that ol' Howie Hughes used to keep his piss in jars and refused to shave or clip his nails in his later years? I hope so, because it means I'm not alone.
I like to collect samples of my bodily excreta in all forms. Of course, eating it afterwards is required.
When I was a kid and broke my arm I had to wear a sweaty, stinky cast for about 4 weeks. I used a coat hanger to scratch inside the cast. To my delight it started bringing back treats after a few weeks of fermentation. Greyish leathery scraps of skin sloughed off from my sweaty arm. They tasted mostly salty, with a bit of rot to spice them up. I took a butter knife and pressed it against my arm after the cast was off to scrape off all the dead skin. I collected a fair bit, and saved it to eat afterwards. I chewed a tiny scrap at a time, since it was fairly tough stuff.
Now I just scratch myself with my nice long fingernails to see how much dead skin I can get for a tasty snack. Toejam is good for this. Of course, the long nails are great for picking spackles off the nasal cavity. Everyone at some time or another has eaten nose jewels - no need to wax poetic about them (although an epic in Beowulf form would be appreciated).
I decided to shave my body a few years back so I saved all the hair in a mason jar. Looked interesting... all the pubes and ass/leg/chest/underarm hair settled to the bottom. My pubes are black, while the rest of my hair is blondish. I could turn the mason jar upside down to do a pimp-in-fur-coat impression (roundish curly lump of pubes on the bottom, straight hair in the rest of the jar). Didn't eat much of it, although when you shave your head it gets really greasy - follicles just cumming all over your bald pate, spewing their greasy loads of sebum to no avail. Not a bad taste, but heavy, like olive oil.
I tried tasting piss. Thumbs up in my book. Salty with a hint of cola crispness. I've tried playing with urine a few times. I filled up a styrofoam cup with piss and let sit for a few weeks. Afterwards there was a orange-yellow sludge, about earwax consistency, which smelt pretty funky. I forget what I did with most of it, although I recall it was really sour.
Haven't actually bit down on a large grogan yet. Have just satisfied myself with licking my fingers after the final "I'm clean" check in the can. The shit itself tastes, well, like shit. Hard to describe; I prefer the pinworm larvae/ass lubricant/E Coli cheese that builds up around the rim on a hot day. Mmmmm. Now that goes great on garlic toast.
And of course semen. Yummy. Reminds me of egg drop soup taste. The salty unmistakable scent of semen along with the consistency of egg roll sauce (why is it semen always brings to mind chinese food? I dunno - the old sum yung guy joke?). I like the taste, but the thick sludginess of it ain't the best to roll around in your mouth. Have to content yourself with savoring the aftertaste. Referring to a previous thread, why would you worry about the taste of your own cum, from your SO's mouth? As long as it's still warm it does down ok - the saliva in her mouth usually waters it down to a manageable "hint o' cum".
Smegma: Affectionately known as penis butter: nice cheesy texture, earthy taste with a tang. I like mine, anyways. As one of the uncircumcised, the ol' choad hood allows smeg to ferment and lead to all sorts of wondrous odors and odd tastes. Now if only I could produce enough of the stuff to spread on sandwiches - could replace vegemite.
Earwax: Ah, earwax, juvenile treat. I used to love this stuff. Stick your #2 pencil in ear, and nibble on the earwax-crusted eraser all afternoon. I remember saving up a bit in my desk at elementary school. I took scratch n' sniffs (newly trendy) that had been scratched to oblivion and mooshed earwax all over them, then handed them around for people to guess what smell it was. A few guessed lemons or lemon cleanser of some sort but no one twigged on to earwax (the dumbasses, didn't they notice the decal was all greasy?). Has a nice tang, but hard to get used to. Tastes vaguely of soap or some plastic solvent.
Eyeshit: Crunchy, salty - not unlike potato chips without potatos.
Blood: A hackneyed old fluid; and no, it doesn't taste "coppery" as the horror cliche goes. Tastes like iron. If you know what really badly iron contaminated water tastes like, that'd be it. Good ol' hemoglobin. Haven't gained my "red badge of courage" yet so I can't judge menses for a taste difference.
Am I the only one wondering why there was no redundancy. As in effective. One would think something as important as airtraffic control should have several layers of complete redundancy. As in if a control tower has say a catastrophic failure there is another a.) civilian b.) military control center able to hand off instructions. which would include all flight information. including passengers, cargo flight log, flight plan everything.
His name is Linus, not Linux. Linux is the operating system, Linus is the person.
Passenger listings, airline booking systems, and related software are NOT connected to the ATC network. Since CAPPS II looks at booking data, credit card info, and related data, it would not be connected to the ATC network.
Out of curiousity, how does one go about testing a system like this? Do they test changes to the code in a live system? (not using the newer version, just looking at it along with the old one). Are there flight emulators that will feed fake data to the software which in turn displays what it is receiving? Do they do extensive testing between new systems that perform different functions yet interface as well? It seems to me a large part of the budget for these projects has to be testing.
1. Sir, Is your computer plugged in?
2. We are going to need some registration information before we get started.
3. Oh, we don't support that OS
4. Anything else, have a nice day
Anyone see the other news on this site?!
Police recover rock climber's body after fatal fall
Motorcyclist dies after being hit by a truck
61-year-old jobless man fatally abuses senile mother
Dad dies of shock after son's repeated beatings
Comic questioned over hitting woman in restaurant
Death row inmate dies in prison cell
Can someone in Japan please confirm that this is a freaky, awful day, and that Japan isn't normally this bad?
Although that last one is quite ironic.
Get your own free personal location tracker
They agreed to give access, but did they agreed to not hide names? :)
I think it's obviously Y2K related. Civilization as we know it should be coming to an end in a week or so.
I am NOT a man!
I am a free number!
"Computers are just no good," said one 51-year-old company manager leaving for Sapporo. "I'm sure they're helpful, but they're just too fragile." Uh, yeah, I also have a feeling they may be a little helpful. Good luck controlling 70 percent of all air traffic in Japan with abacii and the Everyday Memory Builder...
and it shattered into pieces. Talk about fragile.
Very poor taste.
Loger Murdock: We have crearance Crarence.
Captain Oveur: Loger, Loger. What's our vector Victor?
Tower voice: Tower's ladio crearance, over!
Captain Oveur: That's Crarence Oveur! Oveur.
Tower voice: Loger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower voice: Loger, over.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Captain Oveur: Huh?
see www.linuxisforbitches.com for insight into your sins
If this was an error in the code, then how were they able to repair it in just 54 minutes? That's a pretty narrow window when it comes to rounding up the programmers, searching through the source, then repairing, testing, redistributing to the entire system, and rebooting the whole thing.
Kind of like how Hugh Jackman can hack into the DoD from a computer he's never touched before in Swordfish.
I'm tempted to think that this was much more human error than a bonefide "computer glitch". Maybe that 54 minutes was the time it took to call in their expert, have him look at the system, and declare "Why, you must have hit F11, which toggles the flight information. Just hit it again and it comes back."
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
Godzilla of course, obviously he is currently running rampent over Japan!
You have seen the Simpsons episode where they go to Japan right?!
Prob'ly mildly offtopic, but whenever I see "Mainichi Daily News", I think of their Wai Wai section, which is full of crazy stories with headlines like "Schoolgirls selling panties open avenue of danger" or "Louis' leathers lure lasses into luxurious lunacy". It's the kind of Jap-weirdness that occasionally shows up on FARK.
I've lived here for several years now, and the above stories really are an average selection. On a true freaky, awful day, you would see stories far worse.
Was it computer that failed some operation or lousy programmer who made a mistake in the program?
I am sick of people complaining abour "computer errors" when they are at fault.
Strong winds strike fatal blow to do-gooder
Public servant disguised as delivery man rob mother, daughter
Osaka legislator slurs Asians
Computer cock-up continues plaguing domestic travelers
Prison death trial to see violent video images
Marine steals from cabby
Man sits by unaware as neighbor plunges to death
Jilted man busted for forcing woman to wear sailor suit
Old man slits own throat with paper cutter
Women call for sex scandal governor's resignation
Education evolves from coeducation to social equality
And the rest of the items were similarly strange. The thing is, you know how you watch the local news on television and they only seem to report items involving spectacular suffering or small fluffy animals. I think they get extra points if they can find a small fluffy animal suffering. The news items seem to be the standard fare but without the feel-good pieces that we're (that's the royal we, if you don't agree with me) used to.
... or at least upgrade as little as possible. No matter how much planning and testing is done, upgrades can and will screw things up. I'm always reading about , "luckily, you can recompile the new kernel every week or so", or, "a new version is coming out so I have to upgrade" and I'm thinking... yeah, at home, maybe, if you have nothing better to do. But this is an extreme example of why companies that are worth their salt don't upgrade at the drop of a hat.
I'll bet you they were running linux. They should have picked FreeBSD instead.
to the tune of: "Model of a Modern Major General", with apologies to
Gilbert and Sullivan...
Model of a Slashdot Personality
I am the very model of a Slashdot personality.
I intersperse obscenity with tedious banality.
Addresses I have plenty of, both genuine and ghosted too,
On all the countless topics that my drivel is cross-posted to.
Your bandwidth I will fritter with my whining and my sniveling,
And you're the one who pays the bill, downloading all my driveling.
My enemies are numerous, and no-one would be blaming you
For cracking my head open after I've been rudely flaming you.
I hate to lose an argument (by now I should be used to it).
I wouldn't know a valid point if I was introduced to it.
My learning is extensive but consists of mindless trivia,
Designed to fan my ego, which is larger than Bolivia.
The comments that I vomit forth, disguised as jest and drollery,
Are really just an exercise in unremitting trollery.
I say I'm frank and forthright, but that's merely lies and vanity,
The gibberings of one who's at the limits of his sanity.
If only I could get a life, as many people tell me to;
If only Mom could find a circus freak-show she could sell me to;
If I go off to Zanzibar to paint the local scenery;
If I lose all my fingers in a mishap with machinery;
If I survive to twenty, which is somewhat problematical;
If what I post was more mature, or slightly more grammatical;
If I could learn to spell a bit, and maybe even punctuate;
Would I still be the loathsome and objectionable punk you hate?
But while I have this tiresome urge to prance around and show my face,
It simply isn't safe for normal people here in cyberspace.
To stick me in Old Sparky and turn on the electricity
Would be a fitting punishment for my egocentricity.
I always have the last word; so, with uttermost finality,
That's all from me, the model of a Slashdot personality.
to the tune of: "Model of a Modern Major General", with apologies to
Gilbert and Sullivan...
Model of a Slashdot Personality
I am the very model of a Slashdot personality.
I intersperse obscenity with tedious banality.
Addresses I have plenty of, both genuine and ghosted too,
On all the countless topics that my drivel is cross-posted to.
Your bandwidth I will fritter with my whining and my sniveling,
And you're the one who pays the bill, downloading all my driveling.
My enemies are numerous, and no-one would be blaming you
For cracking my head open after I've been rudely flaming you.
I hate to lose an argument (by now I should be used to it).
I wouldn't know a valid point if I was introduced to it.
My learning is extensive but consists of mindless trivia,
Designed to fan my ego, which is larger than Bolivia.
The comments that I vomit forth, disguised as jest and drollery,
Are really just an exercise in unremitting trollery.
I say I'm frank and forthright, but that's merely lies and vanity,
The gibberings of one who's at the limits of his sanity.
If only I could get a life, as many people tell me to;
If only Mom could find a circus freak-show she could sell me to;
If I go off to Zanzibar to paint the local scenery;
If I lose all my fingers in a mishap with machinery;
If I survive to twenty, which is somewhat problematical;
If what I post was more mature, or slightly more grammatical;
If I could learn to spell a bit, and maybe even punctuate;
Would I still be the loathsome and objectionable punk you hate?
But while I have this tiresome urge to prance around and show my face,
It simply isn't safe for normal people here in cyberspace.
To stick me in Old Sparky and turn on the electricity
Would be a fitting punishment for my egocentricity.
I always have the last word; so, with uttermost finality,
That's all from me, the model of a Slashdot personality.
OMG WTF LOL
Computer related story about a programming error halting Air traffic control system in Japan is entered in a pre-posting queue to Slashdot.
DETAILS: Limited and not noteworthy.
REAL NEWSWORTHYNESS: Not really. No deaths reported.
DATELINE: SLASHDOT HQ
PREPOST WORD SEARCH: code runs check for Important items. - keyword search generate matches for two known hot item words [COMPUTER & JAPAN]
HENTAI AND GIANT ROBOT FACTOR?: n/a
CUTE BABE?: n/a
SEARCH FOR BIG NAMES- JOBS, ELLISON, GATES, TORVALDS, STALLMAN, CowboyNeal?: n/a
Microsoft Bashing Factor: High
PRIMARY ACTION TAKEN: Story authorizes posting of story to Slashdot
SECONDARY ACTION TAKEN: activate Inquisitors of the Holy Order of Linux, First Poster Squad IM'ed, new Sex story featuring Whicky the slashdot cat beta authorized.
STATUS REPORT: Status Quo Achieved.
RESOLUTION: Computer error found between keyboard and chair
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
to the tune of: "Model of a Modern Major General", with apologies to
Gilbert and Sullivan...
Model of a Slashdot Personality
I am the very model of a Slashdot personality.
I intersperse obscenity with tedious banality.
Addresses I have plenty of, both genuine and ghosted too,
On all the countless topics that my drivel is cross-posted to.
Your bandwidth I will fritter with my whining and my sniveling,
And you're the one who pays the bill, downloading all my driveling.
My enemies are numerous, and no-one would be blaming you
For cracking my head open after I've been rudely flaming you.
I hate to lose an argument (by now I should be used to it).
I wouldn't know a valid point if I was introduced to it.
My learning is extensive but consists of mindless trivia,
Designed to fan my ego, which is larger than Bolivia.
The comments that I vomit forth, disguised as jest and drollery,
Are really just an exercise in unremitting trollery.
I say I'm frank and forthright, but that's merely lies and vanity,
The gibberings of one who's at the limits of his sanity.
If only I could get a life, as many people tell me to;
If only Mom could find a circus freak-show she could sell me to;
If I go off to Zanzibar to paint the local scenery;
If I lose all my fingers in a mishap with machinery;
If I survive to twenty, which is somewhat problematical;
If what I post was more mature, or slightly more grammatical;
If I could learn to spell a bit, and maybe even punctuate;
Would I still be the loathsome and objectionable punk you hate?
But while I have this tiresome urge to prance around and show my face,
It simply isn't safe for normal people here in cyberspace.
To stick me in Old Sparky and turn on the electricity
Would be a fitting punishment for my egocentricity.
I always have the last word; so, with uttermost finality,
That's all from me, the model of a Slashdot personality.
THIS IS YOU
At 7am Saturday, the error "caused the names of airlines and flight numbers to disappear from radar screens."
I'm guessing there was an article posted yesterday on Slashdot that linked directly to their system.
I get the Airplane reference, but I don't get the switched 'r' and 'l' letters... there's too many to be considered a typo. Anyone want to enlighten a slightly embarrased laymen?
1) type "www.windowsupdate.com" and hit return - 2 seconds
2) download minor patch - 20 minutes, assuming T3 link
3) Read EULA, try call lawyer (not working Sunday), decide "aw fsck it" and Click OK - 12 minutes
4) "Windows is inspecting your hardware" (and software and calling home and installing DRM) - 16 minutes
5) Reboot - 2 minutes
6) Reboot - 2 minutes
7) Reboot - 2 minutes
Total time: 54:02. OK, they exaggerated a little.
This sounds like something that fat piece of shit Scott Lockwood and his SRU/GZ fags would post. Have you ever seen The Birdcage? WELL THATS THE TYPE OF FAGGOTRY I PRACTICE!
Differences in the phonetic alphabet used in Asian cultures.. no l, so it gets pronounced as r.
They do those things on purpose!
That's fine. I like the rough stuff, by my safe word is "apples".
I've yet to see a computer go postal without human help.
trouble is computers are designed by people.
air traffic control and missile guidance are two systems I'd never ever work on.
I'd like to program all the missiles to fly to the sun, but the consequences of a bug in the system are just too scary for me to contemplate.
-- it must be true, it's on the internet.
--around a year and a half ago a similar situation happened in japan if I am remember correctly. It looked rather like a military test that got out of hand. I am medium suspicious of two separate systems failing at the same time, it reminds me of that other "accident" that was rumored to be some pretty advanced jamming.
Note to anyone, yes, this is pure speculation, I admit it out loud. My default nature that I am completelycomfortable with is whenever strange occurrences happen with "government"- anyone's government - I am suspicious of it as being more than incompetence or actual random accidents. Too many events over the years that at first looked one way turned out to be completely different, they were either delibarately done, or somehow they were collateral damage from something bigger that needed to occur for some agenda, or allowed to happen, again, for a higher level agenda not readily apparent at the time.
No, computers shouldnt crash. But they will eventualy fail, just like everything else will.
Wait a second.. didn't they say that was going to happen when the Y2K bug was supposed to hit? Flights disappearing from radar, etc? Funny, they seem to have handled it fine. =)
Differences in the phonetic alphabet used in Asian cultures.. no l, so it gets pronounced as r.
:-P
IOW, a culturally insensative joke that will probably be banned or highly shameful 20 years from now and will go on your permanent record. Or is that pelmanent wecord?
Table-ized A.I.
that the text not just disappeared, but were replaced by flying dildo icons. However, the Japanese press was too embarassed to print that, so everybody thinks it is machine malfunction instead of a horny hacker at work.
Table-ized A.I.
If this was an error in the code, then how were they able to repair it in just 54 minutes? That's a pretty narrow window when it comes to rounding up the programmers, searching through the source...
If this was the 80's, I could say: "Their programmers are Samari trained, and if they don't work fast and accurate, they have to commit hari kari (disembowelment) in front of their peers.", and everybody would believe me. Guess I'll just have to make up shit about Islam instead.
Table-ized A.I.
Someone obviously broke the coffee cup holder right at the time the sysadmin had clicked on the 'uninstall' button of the old version.
Ah, no, wait...
Working in the software industry here in Japan for the last two years I have had my eyes opened to the true state of affairs. Most 'westerners' have an idealogical view of the high-tech world of Japan. This is far from reality. The fact is that software development here is at best poorly done, little design, short timelines (okay that one is universal), and lack of quality assurance. I can't say why this is the case, but shoddy products are in abundance. It may be trying to shove a relatively new industry into an old style organization, or the lack of individualism, I'm guessing at these. This story does not surprise me. All I know is I am looking forward to returning to the industry in Canada.
Bet it wasn't an open source application. If it had been open source, this problem would have never happened. With millions of eyeballs detailing the code, we'd have found and corrected this bug before it ever occurred. Whats more, if the flaw did get thru, the operator could have jumped in and fixed the problem real time.
Bet its an MS solution. MAybe not a Microsfot app per se, but something constructed by one of the Borg's disciples. Close source and full of bugs.
I'm not flying to Japan until I get some answers.
First, people need to understand that no Bad Things will happen if an ATC system goes offline while planes are under it's jurisdiction. ICAO member countries (and most nations for that matter) have strong procedural rules in place that keep planes separated without the help of radar. This is espcially true in the enroute case. (Area control centres handle overflight and enroute traffic. Eveyone is separated by at least 1000' vertical and 3 miles horizontal at all times. The altitude restrictions and clearances that each pilot receives are chosen specifically so that in the even of loss of communications, the pilot can continue to his "clearance limit" without any problem. Well, you ask, what happens when he gets to his clearance limit and still isn't communicating with air traffic control? They hold. This is all laid our quite clearly. These rules have been around since before RADAR because thats the way it was done.
Just take a look at the RADAR coverage map of Canada (one is visible at the link above). There are lots of places that don't even HAVE radar coverage.
The old tried and true clearance and time/speed based conflict resolutions works and works well.
Secondly, and more imporatantly, there really isn't any news in this article. It's scaremongering. This happens all the time. It's an inconvenience, but rarely a saftey concern.
For those who asked about it; yes, typically a new system is run in parallel with the legacy system for a period of time (sometimes 24 months) before it is used as the primary control. Notice that the old system is live and the new system is shadowing. That way, anomalies that are found do not impact any flights.
[*flame proof underwear on*]
Is it just me, or does the press dig around for 'news' in about as diligent a manner as Slashdot?
Redundancy started to suffer when the bean counters took over. Air Traffic Control is no longer an exercise in absolute safety but one of "risk management". This means that when the system designer says "I want a fully redundant hot standby system in a separate building powered from a different grid feed and on its own battery backup" the bean-counters say "you can have a warm standby (because we wouldn't want to have to pay for two software licenses) in a separate rack in the same computer room (have you looked at the cost of raised flooring lately?)". Instead of asking "what can we do to avoid a failure?" they tend to ask "how long will each failure last and how much will that cost us in lost revenue?"
This country is indeed a strange strange place, although they have less violent crime than most western countries, they do have crime, and it is usually that 'creepy kind of crime'. I've been here for two years and I'm heading home before it's too late :)
Mainichi is rather famous for its sensationalist journalism. In fact, I wouldn't even call it journalism. It caters toward lecherous Tokoyo expats and slants every article. (Not that's a bad thing.) Take everything you read at the site with a grain of salt.
here.
I take it they weren't running .Net?
Let's do a simple trichotomy of possible Slashdot headlines:
...
The Good: "Flight Software Runs Smoothly In Japan"
The Bad: "Computer Error Grounds 203 Japanese Flights"
The Ugly: "Computer Error in Flight Software Causes 203 Plane Crashes"
It could have been a lot, lot worse
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Intelligence reports about the terrorist threat to the Hawaiian harbor bombed by the Japanese in World War II were sent to senior U.S. officials in the past two weeks and coincided with reports of the planning of a major attack by Osama bin Laden's terrorist group.
GERTZ: Terrorists aim at Pearl Harbor; Plan to hijack airliners, fly them into nuclear subs
I believe Juanita
Click Here To Save Lives
So when is a problem a 'computer glitch' and when is it a human error? How can you blame something that is entirely of human design for making mistakes on its own? Garbage in, garbage out, surely?
Seems to me we are good at praising ourselves when machines do what we want, but we are quick to distance ourselves from them when they go wrong.
-= This is a self-referential sig =-
Oh ha ha. I suppose you find those Charlie Chan skits and those cartoon characters with the big front buck teeth a laugh riot as well.
So many @!!((@ racists on Slashdot.
I apologize. I didn't mean to offend the humor-impaired.