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Irony: iPhone 5S Users Reporting Blue Screen of Death

MojoKid writes "It's been a long time since many have seen a dreaded 'blue screen of death' (BSoD), but it's back and in the most unlikeliest of places. Oddly enough, some Apple iPhone 5S owners are reporting BSoD errors, though they're a little different from the ones you may remember seeing on Windows desktops. Rather than spit out an obscure error code with a generic description, some iPhone 5S devices are suddenly turning blue before automatically restarting. The Numbers app in Apple's iWork suite, a free program with new iPhones, seems to be the primary cause, though BSoD behavior has also been observed in other applications, according to complaints in Apple's support forum."

192 comments

  1. Hell freezes over. by o_ferguson · · Score: 5, Funny

    Guru Meditation: BSoD.

    --
    - In Soviet Korea, only old people loose all their bases to Natalie Portman's petrified hot grits overlords.
    1. Re:Hell freezes over. by fisted · · Score: 1

      Don't panic()

    2. Re:Hell freezes over. by msauve · · Score: 1

      Wrong paradigm.

      DSAT

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:Hell freezes over. by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Funny

      But damn it, I'm jealous! I'm running Linux on my computer and Android on my phone and they don't have that feature! Damn.

      Always behind the curve, I am.

    4. Re:Hell freezes over. by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Available here, for your pleasure (scroll down to BSOD). Someone told a story here once about having it on their computer, when the manager walked in and saw it and nearly fired them for having that server running Windows.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:Hell freezes over. by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      http://www.flickr.com/photos/iruk/5840082663/ - screen isn't blue, but the first word on it is "Blue"

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    6. Re:Hell freezes over. by behrooz0az · · Score: 1

      apt-get install xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
      Problem solved.

      --
      Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
    7. Re:Hell freezes over. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      I wondered what a kernel panic looked like. Ten years of Linux and never experienced that myself. I guess KDE is more stable than Android (or the computer's hardware is better).

    8. Re:Hell freezes over. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry, Android has been crashing for years. It's so common it doesn't get a slashdot headline.

    9. Re:Hell freezes over. by Guy+Harris · · Score: 1

      I wondered what a kernel panic looked like. Ten years of Linux and never experienced that myself. I guess KDE is more stable than Android (or the computer's hardware is better).

      Presumably you either mean "the Linux kernels I've run on my machines are more stable than the Linux kernel running on that particular Android machine" or "KDE and the rest of the userland is less likely to provoke a kernel panic than the Android userland".

    10. Re:Hell freezes over. by antdude · · Score: 1

      Well... Linux has the black screen, beep, with blinking keyboard lights. ;)

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    11. Re:Hell freezes over. by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Yes. More likely I was just lucky.

  2. How unusual... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Aside from the whole 'a tightly sandboxed "app" taking down the system' thing (which makes one wonder if Apple's apps follow the same rules as everyone else's, or whether there is some Nasty bug in an API), don't iDevices use a totally different design for their screen of death? Macs, certainly, both PPC and Intel, can be made to execute BSOD-level crashes; but the process looks totally different.

    1. Re:How unusual... by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

      There are plenty of bugs in iOS, even for low-permission apps. I've been messing around with the mach parser, and I've found several ways to crash the device (other people have reported similar things). The interface between userland and kernel is just complicated, and sandboxing has never been and never will be a magic bullet.

      That said, your second point is a good one, why would it suddenly turn blue when ever other crash just causes it to turn black with a rotating circle? Doesn't really make sense.......

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      There are plenty of bugs in iOS, even for low-permission apps. I've been messing around with the mach parser, and I've found several ways to crash the device (other people have reported similar things). The interface between userland and kernel is just complicated, and sandboxing has never been and never will be a magic bullet.

      That said, your second point is a good one, why would it suddenly turn blue when ever other crash just causes it to turn black with a rotating circle? Doesn't really make sense.......

      Because iPhone fanboys are also hipsters, and the blue screen is old enough to now qualify as "Retro". You're just not cool unless your device dies with a warm, blue glow!

    3. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Dude, what are you talking about.

      This is not a bug! If you see this happening, it's an indication you're among the chosen ones!

      All glory to the hypno-Jobs

    4. Re:How unusual... by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

      Pffft. Everyone with an iPhone gets a blue screen. My phone is built with a CRT - they only make those at this one old Soviet factory that they recently found.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    5. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The issue is a user app likely triggering a problem in a system function. I haven't seen many blue screens in Windows over the recent years, but when I have, it is some sort of invalid pointer exception usually in a .sys file.

    6. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      My phone has a cord, faggot.

    7. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Aside from the whole 'a tightly sandboxed "app" taking down the system' thing [...]

      Ideally, it would not crash at all. Next preference would be to only crash the particular app.

      However, in some ways rebooting the system (while a DoS, and a serious security issue) is better than running arbitrary code of some kind. If you're going to have your system go off into the weeds into an unknown state, it's better to reset everything into a known-good state than trying to guess about trying to recover things.

      Regardless, certainly something that needs to be properly fixed.

    8. Re:How unusual... by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

      My home phone has a _string_.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    9. Re:How unusual... by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

      Pffft, my smart phone doesn't even use screens. It uses the teletype interface on printed paper and a the equivalent of a BSoD is that it just spits out a few blank paG3$j<:J!@*
      &x%
      ChX?_S
      p8}#o

      [CARRIER LOST]

    10. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      My home phone is a large fire and a blanket.

    11. Re:How unusual... by _xeno_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      Aside from the whole 'a tightly sandboxed "app" taking down the system' thing (which makes one wonder if Apple's apps follow the same rules as everyone else's, or whether there is some Nasty bug in an API)

      It looks to be a bug in their text-to-speech API. If you watch the video, he triggers the BSOD by starting the app speaking, then returning to the home screen (which stops the app, remember, iOS doesn't do real multitasking*), then restarting the app. So presumably it's a bug in the accessibility APIs that are used to do text-to-speech.

      * OK, yes, it does, but you know what I mean in this instance, yes? User apps are not allowed to use multitasking, so the running app is stopped.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
    12. Re:How unusual... by Columcille · · Score: 4, Funny

      My home phone is a piece of dried mammoth hide stretched across some sticks that I beat with a rock.

      --
      I love my sig.
    13. Re:How unusual... by MightyYar · · Score: 4, Funny

      You win.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    14. Re:How unusual... by Mordok-DestroyerOfWo · · Score: 1

      I was causing kernel panics before it was cool.

      --
      "Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
    15. Re:How unusual... by Mitchell314 · · Score: 0

      My home phone is the remnant of a massive dying star, spinning rapidly and emitting its radio signals deep into the universe.

      --
      I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
    16. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've had it blue screen after tapping play on a video in the facebook app (only posting anon 'cause I don't want to admit I use facebook).

    17. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heck - isn't the BSoD color configurable ?

    18. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My home phone is an AT&T terminal.

    19. Re:How unusual... by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of bugs in iOS, even for low-permission apps.

      It may not even have to exploit a bug. You could reboot DOS with a program a few bytes long. You could exploit a feature of the OS in a way nobody thought of before to BSOD any device, provided everything fell into place.

    20. Re:How unusual... by mcgrew · · Score: 0

      No, I laughed harder at "you win" (but I've been smoking tonight). Somebody mod these jokers up, I enjoyed that!

      Of course, right now I'd probably laugh at the government... Oh, wait...

    21. Re: How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The blue isn't a crash screen at all. Apple uses a default tint/color in iOS 7 that is that blue color. So what's happening is we are seeing an empty view rendered with that default color. I have come across a very similar result while updating apps to iOS 7. In some of the GUI elements the default color was rendered over the entire element instead of what should have been rendered.

    22. Re:How unusual... by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You can effectively sandbox but for it to really work it requires a major change in system design and, a major commitment to a bug free OS, OS on chip. Offers far faster boot time, keeps the OS really secure but if it isn't bug and security issue free, then you have real problems. Software coders have always been as slack as hell compared to CPU engineers.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    23. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Presumably because it's crashing the GPU driver in such a way that it fills the frame buffer with 0xFF000000, and the frame buffer is arranged in BGRA... That doesn't sound like a particularly unlikely scenario tbh.

    24. Re:How unusual... by jd2112 · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of bugs in iOS, even for low-permission apps. I've been messing around with the mach parser, and I've found several ways to crash the device (other people have reported similar things). The interface between userland and kernel is just complicated, and sandboxing has never been and never will be a magic bullet.

      That said, your second point is a good one, why would it suddenly turn blue when ever other crash just causes it to turn black with a rotating circle? Doesn't really make sense.......

      Because iPhone fanboys are also hipsters, and the blue screen is old enough to now qualify as "Retro". You're just not cool unless your device dies with a warm, blue glow!

      Why can't they go even more retro and have a nice psychedelic fireworks display like my Commodore 64 did when it crashed? At least when it crashed you got some entertainment value out of it.

      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    25. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I took a look at some of the forum posts. What is interesting is that this isn't happing for everyone, everywhere. That is very strange. My suspicion is that every user with the problem has restored the new phone from a backup kept from an earlier model... and that once upon a time, they had a jailbroken device. I have a strong feeling when its all said and done, it will be revealed definitively that the user somehow did something to cause this. I'll bet my shorts that if they restore the phone, and do not restore an old backup, they won't be able to reproduce the problem. Also, I predict they will all lie their pants off to hide the fact that once upon a time they were hacking their phones until they got bored or fed up with keeping up with the jb community. (As awesome as the doers and devs in the jb community are, it is not easy for a mere mortal user to stay abreast of everything... there is no order, no central authority, and they have limited resources, and support for the number of available devices becomes impossible; meanwhile, Apple is (or was) actively trying to suppress them.)

    26. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      don't iDevices use a totally different design for their screen of death?

      Yes indeed; the Apple BSOD has rounded corners.

    27. Re:How unusual... by pmontra · · Score: 1

      So retro... My smart phone teleports to destination and talks in person to the recipient of the call without wasting my time and my money. It has all of the Internet inside, so I don't need a data plan. Unfortunately when it crashes it wormholes the place out of existence until it reboots. I never understood how we get back but it's usually difficult to explain the matter to bystanders.

    28. Re:How unusual... by MysteriousPreacher · · Score: 1

      I always preferred pulsar dial over tone dial phones.

      --
      -- Using the preview button since 2005
    29. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Too high tech and bug prone for my blood. My phone is simply the highest rock, tree,etc that I can climb up on top of. I then ring the other party by beating my fists into my hairy gorrila like chest while making howling noises.

    30. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been messing around with the mach parser, and I've found several ways to crash the device (other people have reported similar things).

      there are bugs in the parse sdk, have been there for some time

      That said, your second point is a good one, why would it suddenly turn blue when ever other crash just causes it to turn black with a rotating circle? Doesn't really make sense.......

      Seems odd that this bsod is only repeatable by some users, and not all iphone 5s / iOS7 devices, doesn't it? I believe it will be revealed that the users reporting bsod have jailbroken iOS at some point in their history of iOS devices (i.e. not necessarily jailbroken iOS7), and they restored earlier device backups to their new device, bringing with the backup some artifacts of that earlier jailbreak process. I think that's why its a weird crash screen... some of those jailbreaks did low level exploits. I'll bet that a newly restored iPhone5s that hasn't had a previous backup applied to it will not exhibit this behavior.

    31. Re:How unusual... by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I remember a version of Powerbook that was 'supported' on NetBSD, but the only way that NetBSD could run on it was over a serial terminal connection, because the screen wasn't supported.

    32. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think your phone is actually a tampon.........

    33. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      \o/ (yay!) ...

    34. Re:How unusual... by sribe · · Score: 1

      That said, your second point is a good one, why would it suddenly turn blue when ever other crash just causes it to turn black with a rotating circle?

      Because the more detailed description I've read doesn't sound like the whole OS is actually rebooting. More like the app picker or some other userland process, crashing and restarting, and the lock screen coming on.

    35. Re:How unusual... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Mammoth hide? Luxury! I have to beat a rock with a rock.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    36. Re: How unusual... by jones_supa · · Score: 1

      +1

    37. Re:How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least it's got touch control, but it looks like the sensitivity is still a bit off...

    38. Re:How unusual... by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That makes sense, I've been seeing similar things for the past couple days as I've been debugging an app (except in my case the screen goes black). The system doesn't respond to anything, no swipes or anything EXCEPT double pressing the button, which brings up Siri. Not particularly useful, so I end up rebooting the phone.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    39. Re: How unusual... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm curious to know what universe you live in where a userspace-accessible feature that can be abused to crash the machine is anything other than a bug.

      Also, what drugs do you need to take to get there? Asking for a ... friend.

    40. Re:How unusual... by CptNerd · · Score: 1

      I used to be called "Colonel Panic." Then I took an arrow in my knee and got demoted...

      --
      By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
  3. Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course, without Job's magic aura Apple software is as crappy as Windows software.
    Hence the BSOD. Iphone reliable as always. ;)

    1. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except of course that Apple software is much, much more expensive...

    2. Re:Obvious... by HiThere · · Score: 1, Informative

      Sorry, but Apple used to be a lot more reliable. I'll admit that I don't know anything about their systems since the late 1990's, but they USED to be a lot more reliable than MS. AND easier to use.

      I switched away from Apple not because I considered their systems poor, but over licensing issues. (Admittedly MS was worse, but Apple snuck in licensing modifications in a security patch, which I find unforgivable.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    3. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I would dispute that. I don't recall MS-DOS ever crashing itself. True, programs were allowed such low level access to the PC hardware that they could cause a crash, but MS-DOS itself was rock solid and even program crashes were rare. I'm remembering all of the old demoscene stuff that used weird, undocumented functionality and were still stable.

    4. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, but Apple used to be a lot more reliable. I'll admit that I don't know anything about their systems since the late 1990's, but they USED to be a lot more reliable than MS.

      Apple did produce fast and reliable software in the mid 90's. System 7.1 absolutely rocks. The only real problem I ever encountered with it was when somebody decided to addd 030 extensions to a 020 system (both being 68k CPUs). It was also fast for normal operations like opening windows in finder and stuff like that. In fact Windows 7/8 or OSX on a brand new high end computer is slower than they were back then. However starting with MacOS 8.0 the OS became bigger and bigger and both performance and stability suffered. Modern Apple OSes aren't bad at reliability or performance, but they aren't that much better than other OSes as they were back then.

      Having said this I don't really consider OSX to have either performance or stability problems. Personally I encounter more issues with Windows 7 than OSX even though I spend more time in OSX and develop software mainly in OSX. Also I have yet to see iOS crash. The problems I read people have now is a bit of a surprise to me. Admittedly I don't own anything with iOS personally (don't have the need), but that isn't the same as I never use it.

    5. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One of the most reliable setups I remember was a plain Mac SE with a 20-40 meg hard drive, System 6, and Word, with very few INITS/CDEVs loaded.

      After 8.0, Macs just got too unstable to be usable. If I wanted to change to another application, I'd reboot. When done for the day, I'd reboot. All this to prevent having to reboot unexpectedly when I have work going on.

      At least OS X fixed the stability issues, although the Mac's filesystem is still craptastic, still using a variant of the filesystem used in the late 1980s, except ditching resource forks. Apple should have just bit the bullet, licensed ZFS, and actually had a modern, reliable filesystem for their stuff.

    6. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you had to reboot when switching applications in OS 8, then you were just playing doing it wrong, or running buggy applications. This, combined with your confused HFS+ whining, leads me to conclude that you don't know much.

      For starters: OS X contains other bits that would be, by your definition, variants of 80s software. HFS+ did not drop resource forks - that was OS X that has largely moved away from them. Remember? OS 8.1 used HFS+, and still had resource forks.

      I can only conclude that you've heard people suggesting ZFS and are now calling for it, without really understanding the problems or the solution, but it makes you feel like a real boy. I don't necessarily disagree on ZFS. More I think you're a toy.

    7. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you conclude from the headline that iOS is less reliable, how exactly?

      A sensational headline about a just released new version of an OS (with many seen and hidden changes) crashing for some users in a specific situation, doesn't mean apple is less reliable. A patch fixing the problem will most probably available in a week or two.

    8. Re: Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MacOS (pre-OSX) was exactly as stable and reliable as MS-DOS/Win3.x in that all it took was a single poorly-behaved process to bring the system down either by refusing to yield or by spewing all over RAM. Yes, it's possible to have a very stable system as long as you are very careful about what software you run but that reliability is not a function of the OS at all.

    9. Re:Obvious... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      7.1 was one of the last versions of MacOS launched under Sculley's successor 8.0 was launched under Jobs as CEO so now you know why it sucked.

    10. Re:Obvious... by Macgrrl · · Score: 1

      MacOS 8.x wasn't too bad, MacOS 7.5.x however sucked donkey's balls. MacOS 7.6.x was ok.

      --
      Sara
      Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
    11. Re: Obvious... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      MacOS (pre-OSX) was exactly as stable and reliable as MS-DOS/Win3.x in that all it took was a single poorly-behaved process to bring the system down either by refusing to yield or by spewing all over RAM. Yes, it's possible to have a very stable system as long as you are very careful about what software you run but that reliability is not a function of the OS at all.

      Yet somehow it was a function of the type of programmers that each OS attracted.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  4. Most unlikeliest? by ShaunC · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sounds like somebody's grammar checker had a blue screen...

    --
    Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
    1. Re:Most unlikeliest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      His irony sensor is also misincalibrated.

    2. Re:Most unlikeliest? by mcgrew · · Score: 1
    3. Re:Most unlikeliest? by BluBrick · · Score: 2
      --
      Ahh - My eye!
      The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
    4. Re:Most unlikeliest? by donscarletti · · Score: 2

      OP was referring to "unlikeliest" being a superlative and thus cannot be used with "most".

      Still, if he was offended by the word itself, showing him a Google search full of instances of it is unlikely to help him "chill out".

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
    5. Re:Most unlikeliest? by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Ah, I missed the word "most". Good catch.

    6. Re:Most unlikeliest? by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Ah, I missed the word "most". Good catch.

      Puff, puff, pass. You shouldn't have missed that with your bionic eyes.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  5. Well by The+Cat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a great deal of evidence to indicate we are no longer capable of advancing software.

    It has been remarked that if we built buildings the same way we build software the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

    Take a look around. The government apparently spent $165 million on a web site that doesn't work.

    There's no discipline in software development. It's slapped together to meet an artificial deadline. It's considered done if it compiles. It's shoved out into the marketplace so everyone can stuff their pockets and then all the developers are fired to make way for the new employees who will design the next piece of shit.

    The only measure of how good software is depends on how shiny and "innovative" the user interface is. What the software actually does is utterly irrelevant.

    1. Re:Well by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Arguably, the sheer lousiness of software is more striking because it (still, despite decades of work and the amount of money riding on some of it) crops up in the face of well heeled customers, whether retail buyers of expensive personal electronics or enterprise/gov buyers who are willing to spend nearly unlimited amounts on their pet contractors...

      With buildings, there is plenty of construction that's roughly on the standards of software (Just do an image search for 'Shantytown' if you doubt me...); but structural quality is mostly stratified economically. If you want a building that works, and you have the cash, you can have one. With software, the cities of the world would be a nearly random assortment of mostly shacks, some incrementally nicer than others, with a scattering of structures that were built in 3,000 BC and are in perfect condition, buildings that are constructed from graphene and carbon nanotubes; but have doors made of soggy cardboard stuck to the frame with chewing gum, and other such oddities.

      That's the odd thing. Plenty of kinds of engineering are hard and expensive, and sometimes subject to unexpected cost overruns and such; but we've gotten it to the point where if you live in a country with a functional society and fire codes and things, you can buy good buildings, aircraft that don't crash, and other nice things.

      With software... your mileage may vary.

    2. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There is a great deal of evidence to indicate we are no longer capable of advancing software.

      It has been remarked that if we built buildings the same way we build software the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

      Take a look around. The government apparently spent $165 million on a web site that doesn't work.

      There's no discipline in software development. It's slapped together to meet an artificial deadline. It's considered done if it compiles. It's shoved out into the marketplace so everyone can stuff their pockets and then all the developers are fired to make way for the new employees who will design the next piece of shit.

      The only measure of how good software is depends on how shiny and "innovative" the user interface is. What the software actually does is utterly irrelevant.

      Writing good software is an engineering task. As is building bridges, skyscrapers etc...
      Unfortunately CS courses are not about teaching software engineering. They're all about teaching the latest fad in computer language and off you go into the marketplace. And lets not even mention of the sunday-day programmers that barely can put 4 lines of code in javascript right.
      Put penal/civil responsabilites on those that code, and see how the whole industry changes for the better. Until that time you'll have shitty and not so shitty coders that write shitty code (hint just because it compiles doesn't mean it works correctly) because we ship code as is. It brings down your server room ? Not our fault. Just look at what software companies write in their EULAs. No other industry could do such a thing. We're not responsabile for anything. My ass you're not.

    3. Re:Well by gweihir · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There are people that can write solid, dependable, secure software and advance the state-of-the-art in this area. There are also people that can learn to do this with the right education. Both groups are small and highly intelligent. Most of them chose to go into careers where they actually have a career path, managers that do not tell them how to do their jobs and a salary in line with their talents.

      On the other side, most people writing software today are incompetent, or at best, half-competent. I have seen teams needing several months to write software that I can create in a week with significantly better quality. I have reviewed business-critical software for large organizations, where the programmers did not even understand the very basics. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2010/02/the-nonprogramming-programmer.html does _not_ overstate the problem.

      So we are very much capable of advancing software, but advancing software has been a game for competent experts for a while. Just look at what people are advancing other engineering disciplines, or mathematics or physics. More and more people of that quality are needed for software as well. But the culture is not there. Software is regarded as a solved problem, which is anything but true. But it drives down wages, cause bad working and career conditions and turns away many of the few people that have the required talent. Stupid.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    4. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >Put penal/civil responsabilites on those that code, and see how the whole industry changes for the better.
      And it'll cost 10 times more.

      Software seldom kills people when it breaks.

    5. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, you're saying you want to pay government prices for software?

    6. Re:Well by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 1

      There's no discipline in software development. It's slapped together to meet an artificial deadline. It's considered done if it compiles. It's shoved out into the marketplace so everyone can stuff their pockets and then all the developers are fired to make way for the new employees who will design the next piece of shit.

      The only measure of how good software is depends on how shiny and "innovative" the user interface is. What the software actually does is utterly irrelevant.

      All deadlines are, by definition, artificial. Aside from that, your comments are disturbingly descriptive of the status quo in software development in many organizations.

    7. Re:Well by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      but we've gotten it to the point where if you live in a country with a functional society and fire codes and things, you can buy good buildings, aircraft that don't crash, and other nice things.

      That's just silly. Everybody knows that safe buildings, aircraft and "other nice things" are all a product of magic free market fairy dust. Because the economic elite only want what's best for us.

      But not for Bhopal. Or Love Canal. Or the Gulf of Mexico. Or West, Texas. Or Fukushima. No free market fairy dust for them.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    8. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hey, what if I miscalculate the frequency responses in the fart app I'm currently engineering and it'll make your bowels explode on first listening?

      Seriously, "let's add all kinds of certifications and civil penalties!" pops up after every semihigh profile bug and doesn't get more sensible with the time. We already got all kinds of PCIs, HIPAAs, SARBOXes and ISOs to follow. Adding a few levels of bureaucracy to general purpose computing is not a smart idea.

    9. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the whole discussion started with the premise that even "government prices" can't buy you quality software.

    10. Re:Well by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      Sometimes it does, see Therac-25.

    11. Re:Well by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      There is a great deal of evidence to indicate we are no longer capable of advancing software. It has been remarked that if we built buildings the same way we build software the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.

      That seems a bit contradictory. If the state of the art sucks (i.e., is primitive) there is certainly room for advancement.

      The only measure of how good software is depends on how shiny and "innovative" the user interface is. What the software actually does is utterly irrelevant.

      Well, the front end and back end are equally important. But the thing is, anybody can write software. Learn a language and outdo everybody. Or learn assembler and write a new language that overcomes the downfalls of present languages.

      But I think your gripe is with how commercial software is developed. Fuck commercial software, real nerds will do without it.

    12. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is a great deal of evidence to indicate we are no longer capable of advancing software.

      It has been remarked that if we built buildings the same way we build software the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilisation.

      Frankly, this analogy is bullshit. If we build buildings the way we build software, we'd build hundreds of thousands of them before one fell down, because the number of unique parts in them is tiny compared to the number of unique parts in software. Oh wait, one in every few hundred thousand buildings *does* fall down.

    13. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Unlike buildings that are made to stand the test of time, there is a lot against having good software made these days.

      For example, if a company spends 100,000 man-hours in dev/QA/testing/beta cycles [1], they will be lunchmeat for a firm who pays the lowest offshore bidder and ships an alpha-quality product. Part of this is customer expectation -- people expect 1.0, 1.01, and such to be worthless versions, and to expect crashes as a part of life. So, a company that spends time making a reliable product will fail while one that can always make a deadline with blocks of code from offshore companies will always come out ahead.

      This hit hard with the evolution of the game console. Games that could not be updated were made extremely well. Now, with patches stored on local hard disks, the game can ship unplayable, patched to a late beta quality, and then called finished by the software developer who then goes onto other projects.

      So, like with most things in life, "they don't make them like they used to" applies to software.

      [1]: I'm talking real beta cycles, not "public preview" shit.

    14. Re:Well by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Well, that is the flip side of the fact that safe buildings are a kind of engineering that money can buy (fairly reliably), along with the fact that copying buildings is more expensive than copying bits.

      The bugginess of the software you use says very little about your perceived value. If you can afford something Turing complete, you probably enjoy the same crap as the rest of the world (except if you live in South Korea, in which case your odds of using a weirdo encryption algorithm that only works with IE are significantly higher). Outside of a few tiny niches, where higher levels of verification are demanded, at nontrivial expense, you can't really buy your way into a 'better neighborhood' with software.

      With buildings, though, you get the buildings that people think you are worth. Often, that isn't good news.

    15. Re:Well by opportunityisnowhere · · Score: 1

      Did you take a puff off of your bubble pipe after writing this? Your post describes a considerable amount of devshops but software advancement is alive and well. Not every developer out there is trying to throw things together for a deadline to "stuff their pockets".

    16. Re:Well by real-modo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately CS courses are not about teaching software engineering.

      Of course not. CS is a branch of mathematics. Software Engineering courses teach software engineering. Totally different disciplines.

      They're all about teaching the latest fad in computer language and off you go into the marketplace.

      No; as above, computer science is mathematics. Air-quote CS air-quote courses taught in community colleges and the like are misnamed, because "introduction to software construction" doesn't stroke the egos of either the teachers or their students.

    17. Re:Well by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      There is a great deal of evidence to indicate we are no longer capable of advancing software.

      In what way do you want software to advance? Self check and heal it's own bugs? Software does stuff with hardware. Different scenarios call for different design cases. Send a man to the moon and you want your software to error check itself at every turn to make sure some external influence or hardware fault can't affect what it's trying to do. Play a fart on a handheld toy and you want to do it efficiently without draining the battery.

      This has been the case since we have first used software. There's not been any advancements.

      The government apparently spent $165 million on a web site that doesn't work.

      Spoken like someone who's never designed a complicated website that has to manage a clusterfuck of legal hoops for the medical industry and has to serve some millions of customers at the same time. This isn't a case of rolling out a LAMP stack (or LAPP stack given the hate for MySQL) and calling it a day. Sorry but given the scale $165million is actually a pretty good spend. There's been far worse overspends in history on websites. .

    18. Re:Well by pmontra · · Score: 1

      I had mod points yesterday, I'd modded this up as +1 informative.
      Many people forgets that the S in CS is Science and the E in CE is Engineering. Names tell a lot sometimes. There is the same difference between (Physics && Chemistry) and Civil Engineering: if your goal is building bridges you must pick the latter.

    19. Re:Well by MurukeshM · · Score: 1

      The government apparently spent $165 million on a web site that doesn't work.

      I thought the budget was initially $165 million and then they overspent by $500m?

    20. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Thanks for posting... saved me the trouble of posting nearly the same thing. Nearly. Quoting GP:

      Writing good software is an engineering task.

      I have, and still take issue at this assessment, and believe that the term Software Engineering is just marketing-speak. Programming is programming is programming. There is nothing engineered as engineering requires something tangible, like raw or refined materials, to be engineered into something. If "Software Engineering" is a valid notion, then authors and journalists and poets are Sentence Engineers, some philosophers are Epistemology Engineers, statesmen and congressmen are Law Engineers, movie directors are Visual Entertainment Engineers, stylists are Hair and Makeup Engineers, I sleep and dream every night, so I am a Dream Engineer and the misapplications go on and on. Basically, the term Software Engineering waters down the meaning of engineer to the detriment of actual engineers and anyone that speaks a language in which the word 'engineer' has any meaning whatsoever.

      Further, all that study true engineering usually take identical fundamental engineering courses for a couple years, and then course load begins to diverge as engineering students choose a specialty, such as civil, aerospace, mechanical, industrial, and the like. Then, after graduation, there is an engineering test engineering graduates must take in order to be licensed as engineers, in order to be able to legally work as engineeers. Software engineers do neither... they're not really "engineers."

      The life's work of a "software engineer" doesn't have a shape, doesn't weigh anything, and only exists in representations of 1s and 0s... their implementations and deployments are like tokens (in a type-token relationship) the same as an implementation of an author's work, a novel, is a book... and the type itself is only a concept and only exists conceptually. No engineering subdiscipline is so gaunt in the physical world, but are always working with tangible things... something you can literally put your finger on.

      Software engineering isn't even necessarily Computer Science, either, for the reasons you've already detailed (CS is a subset of mathematics, and programming... is not, no more than a cake recipe is math), and also because it isn't necessarily science. Software engineering is just programming, or coding, it is development of software, and no matter how complex or grand it becomes, it isn't engineering.

    21. Re:Well by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      Most software isn't life or death. With most software, "good enough" is good enough.

      Life is full of tradeoffs.

    22. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Programming is programming is programming.

      Code monkeys are not engineers. They're programmers.
      Designing a complex software architecture is not programming. And it is very much an engineering task.

    23. Re:Well by The+Cat · · Score: 1

      Spoken like someone who's never designed a complicated website

      For $165 million I could replace Yahoo.

      And I've been doing web sites since the Earth cooled, so settle down, Timmy.

    24. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Programming is programming is programming.

      Code monkeys are not engineers. They're programmers.
      Designing a complex software architecture is not programming. And it is very much an engineering task.

      Design absolutely is a requirement of programming anything complex enough to need more than 50 lines of code. And it definitely is NOT engineering, at least not according to any state licensure within the US, nor are those that design complex softwre architecture required to pass a standard Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examiniation, nor are they require to pass a Principles and Practice in Engineering (PE), like every engineer that works with in the US on any engineering. Therefore, software architecture designers are not engineers... they just programmers or "developers" with bigger salaries and bigger egos to go with them.

    25. Re:Well by steelfood · · Score: 1

      The line I like to trot out is that we as a civilization have been building structures for well over twenty-five thousand years, ever since we developed agriculture. We've been working with software for less than 200 years, and the maths behind programming for around 200 years more. The first 200 years of building houses by humans probably would have amounted no more than lean-to's and shacks. Our C and Fortran would be as basic as mallets, dowels, and ramps (assembly would be a rock). Java would be a hammer and nail. Haskell might be a screwdriver and screw. On the other hand, physical engineers have spent many thousands of years refining, testing, and understanding their systems (the screw has been around for close to 3000 years now). Software engineering has only with in the past 10-15 years gained recognition as an actual discipline, as opposed to some subset of computer science or computer programming. The book on software engineering is still being written--just started in fact--whereas the books on mechanical, materials, structural engineering are more or less complete (yes, new things are coming out, but that's the science part, not the engineering part).

      There is a second reason, which is not mine, but I forget the original source now. Programmers are not engineers. The function of programmers is analogous to that of architects. They design. The act of writing code is analogous to drawing up blueprints. Given this, the actual act of creation is during compile. And that makes software cheap to build. One button click, and a complex product appears within an hour. Real structures, on the other hand, are not cheap to build. Architects can't go around experimenting with designs until they get it right, which is what programmers do. Real structures are expensive to build. This is why need an engineer, to make sure the design works as intended. This is why engineers of real structures go above and beyond their specs, as an engineering failure would be costly in both time and materials. In software, materials are virtual, and build time is negligible. Thus the value of an engineer for software is significantly diminished, and the engineering discipline itself takes a back seat to everything else.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    26. Re:Well by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yep and you would fail.

      Or if you think for $165million you could from the ground up design the 2nd most popular search engine then why are you still wasting time on slashdot? There's more than $165million in payback to be made there if you could actually do it.

      The reality is again you don't seem to realise it's not the website that is complicated but the service is provides and the rules you must follow. I wonder how much of that $165million you would spend on hardware and how much you'd spend on cross licencing, patents, oh and the really big one; populating your database.

    27. Re:Well by Xest · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's got nothing to do with software engineers, it's the classic project management triangle:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management_triangle

      We know full well how to write good solid software, developers can do that just fine, it's a well researched area that's pretty well understood.

      The problem is that no one is willing to pay for or wait for that software.

      You can't blame software engineering for the priorities society and project managers have decided to prioritise. It's not the fault of software engineering if users want a new shiny every year rather than a perfectly secure and stable shiny every 5 years.

      Some buildings are built quickly and cheaply from kids wendy houses and tree houses, to a tramps cardboard box or buildings in a shanty town. None of which last particularly well in the face of a bomb or natural disaster because none of which are engineered to.

      It's just the way project management works, the issue you take isn't a problem with software engineering and everything to do with the project managers and the priorities forced upon them by society and business needs.

      I'm not even sure it can actually be classed as a problem though anyway, if society has pushed things this way then it just means you're in a minority that has been outvoted by society at large in wanting something stable and secure rather than something new and shiny ASAP. It just means most people have different priorities to you and so the market has bent that way, that's all. Effectively it's just working as intended, unless you're suggesting software engineers should be responsible for somehow warping reality and laying waste to the project management triangle, something no other profession has ever managed to do, and in that case you're just being unrealistic.

  6. So much for Apple's "attention to detail..." by bogaboga · · Score: 0, Troll

    You find it everywhere... I mean, just Google that phrase. Let me see what the fan boys will spin this out...

    1. Re:So much for Apple's "attention to detail..." by ColdWetDog · · Score: 0

      Look! A detail! How cute!

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:So much for Apple's "attention to detail..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What attention to detail? The CPU itself is manufactured by their arch competitor, would you trust such a hardware?

  7. Gerald M. Weinberg by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "It has been remarked"

    yes, and we know WHO made the remark.

  8. The pic... by xushi · · Score: 1

    For such a view/picture being displayed, I wouldn't blame the iPhone for restarting ! :)

  9. According to SJ... by bob_super · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... They're just looking at it wrong.
    They didn't make a shiny golden backplate for you to waste your time looking at the screen, people!

    1. Re:According to SJ... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Dude's been dead for a couple years now... it might be time to find a new meme.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    2. Re:According to SJ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      How about using appl€ for the name?

  10. Unlike Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Who would shrug and tell you it's a driver problem, Apple will actually fix their problems.

    Linux Fanbois will of course howl, even though they don't use Apple products. Pussies.

  11. Don't be surprised if by djupedal · · Score: 4, Funny

    . . .these turn out to be forced/silent restarts by Apple on the backend, due to a laundry list of reasons best left to others - don't ask how I know.

    1. Re:Don't be surprised if by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . . .don't ask how I know.

      You should run. NOW!

      By the time you hear the black helicopters it will be too late.

    2. Re:Don't be surprised if by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      . . .don't ask how I know.

      You should run. NOW!

      By the time you hear the black helicopters it will be too late.

      Kids these days and your monochromatic Apple surveillance helicopters. Back in MY day, they were seven colors, and we liked it!

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  12. Hmmm by stevez67 · · Score: 1

    When I searched the Apple support communities for BSoD and even just "blue" I find issues dating all the way back to 2008 across all Apple products and OSs, but no cascade of BSoD reports recently. I've been using the iWorks suite on my iPhone for weeks and no BSoD yet. I feel deprived lol.

  13. Warning RDF Collapsing! by meerling · · Score: 2, Funny

    Uh oh, looks likes Job's Reality Distortion Field is collapsing.
    If this keeps up, Macs may start turning into fruit or something. :p

    1. Re:Warning RDF Collapsing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Most of their users are already fruits. And vegetables.

  14. Seriously? by Dunbal · · Score: 0

    Poor little Apple users. I'll just leave this here, shall I?

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  15. Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anti Apple comments just flame the fanboys. Jokes about hipsters and "gone to the dogs" don't help but get the fanboys rabid again, and they don't add to the discussion.

    Ok, BSOD: So what? Is this a trend? I Haven't heard of it from Apple in a long time, so no.
    Linked to post Jobs era? Probably.
    End of the world for Apple? No
    Apple as bad as Microsoft ? No
      No one is perfect, not even Apple. Don't lose sight that valid comments are the best defense against any fanboy, and rest assured I've thought about starting "punch an Apple fanboy in the head" day numerous times.

    1. Re:Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Apple is worse than Microsoft. People like to slam Windows 9x for being unstable, usually rightfully so, but they forget that the Macs of the time were even worse. By the time OS X came out, MS had Windows NT 4, 2K and XP out, which were all very stable. Since then, every MS OS has been stable, including Vista.

      On top of that, Apple freaks out when people want to customize or doing something "out of bounds" with their Mac. Microsoft has always encouraged people to do what they want with Windows.

  16. It is *not* a bug! by msobkow · · Score: 2

    It's Apple's new "iBoot" feature, which automatically restarts the phone when it detects an NSA probe, acting as if you noticed the spies and shut off your phone as a result. The more frequent your reboots, the more interested the goobernmint is in you. :P

    --
    I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
  17. also an apprenticeship system where you learn from by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    also an apprenticeship system where you learn from pros in the field with real work. Not some professor reading from a book and / or loads of theory.

  18. Oh no, it's frozen, ah BSoD, it's rebooting? by VortexCortex · · Score: 1

    Siri, WTF just happened? Siri?!

    ::OK:: ... The NSA now has root.

  19. 64 bit CPU issues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The crashes appear to only (mainly?) affect the new 64 bit CPUs. It would appear that some parts of the API/apps use code hardcoded to 32 bit applications. If this is really the case, then it should be a matter of time before bugfixes are released. It's not ok for a phone of that pricetag, but it isn't a complete disaster either.

    I have seen people blame objective C as the culprit as some other programming languages have abstraction levels high enough to make the code immune to bugs due to CPU type. The thing is that C/C++/objC can write code with great performance, which translates to longer battery life. It is possible to write code immune to 32/64bit bugs in all of those 3 languages, but it takes more skill from the programmers and increase development time and costs. It doesn't surprise me if 64 bit considerations was skipped intentionally before Apple announced 64 bit phones. Testing 64 bit software before the 64 CPUs became available was naturally out of the question as well and 3rd party developers was given access to new phones possibly way too shortly before the release.

    This excuse works much better for 3rd party software developers than for Apple as we would assume insight knowledge of new CPUs, but maybe it was secret inside as well due to risk of spies or leaks. It might also be a sign that the software was rushed a bit too much. People also complain about power usage in iOS 7, which also hints immature software.

    1. Re:64 bit CPU issues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't take this personally, but you can't realistically speculate the problem is because of 32 bit applications running on 64 bit hardware. It's completely unfounded.

      While it's inevitable that the processor changes will lead to some crashes I have seen first-hand what code runs fine on iOS 6 vs crashing on iOS 7 and it's far from obvious. My company's main app bit the dust because of CoreData issues that weren't a problem before.

      Sort of glad I'm an Android developer transitioning to platform-agnostic development for our core library. As a developer I get pretty pissed about Android's shortcomings but you eventually adapt to third party libraries and move on. There's no getting around Apple's abrupt and significant changes to iOS with this latest version. Our designers were shitting bricks trying to get our products ready in time. We've gotten things mostly together but the UI won't feel quite right for awhile.

    2. Re:64 bit CPU issues by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also having said this I have to applaud Apple for finally changing up their tired old UI. They royally screwed up by making a drastic change so quickly but I can't hate the flat design and iOS users finally have better multitasking like Android and WebOS (RIP).

      Still I feel like I fit better with Android culture. Fuck the manufacturers' skins, I'm a nexus guy. Even with my love for the Nexus, Linux, and FOSS, I find myself using a top-end MacBook and IntelliJ IDEA for development rather than the popular Linux/Windows + Eclipse. Use the best tools for the job, regardless of who makes them, even if they are proprietary. I'll pay for something good, but I won't pay for the iPhone when I feel the Nexus line does more for me.

      Many of you slashdotters (though I rely upon you for insight) will disagree, but when you work at a startup and have stupid deadlines you use what makes you productive over what you philosophically prefer- then expense it to your beloved founders :)

    3. Re:64 bit CPU issues by SternisheFan · · Score: 1
      Workarounds: Always make sure you back out of documents before tapping that Home button.

      Disable iCloud sync for the iWork apps by going to Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data, and sliding Pages, Keynote, and Numbers to off.

      Try to use apps that have been updated to take advantage of iOS 7. Apple has not updated Pages, Keynote, or Numbers. You can tell. Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/iphone-5s-problems/#ixzz2hbat50sJ

  20. OpenBSD phone encrypted with TrueCrypt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is this too much to ask?

  21. Microsoft will sue Apple because of this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The BSOD is a patented invention of Microsoft.

  22. Differences by Horshu · · Score: 1

    Microsoft: obscure error code with a generic description Old Apple: Bomb icon that says 'Error' New Apple: Plain blue screen, nothing else So simple and refined!

    1. Re:Differences by graphius · · Score: 1

      Windows 8, a f**king frowny face saying something is wrong... WTF

  23. Re:How unusual... iSky showing through? by j-stroy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Could it be in the iCloud API? Native apps like Numbers store docs in iCloud.

  24. Re:iOS 7 has practically bricked my iPhone 4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Check the net. People speculate that iOS intentionally cause problems for old phones, specially the battery life is attacked. The purpose should be to make people believe their phones are worn out and make them buy new ones. While I wouldn't be surprised if Apple or any other company did something like that, I must say that I'm not convinced. New phones are affected as well, which points to the direction that Apple really did screw up somehow. Still it could be intentionally and they screwed up at the same time.

  25. Re: iOS 7 has practically bricked my iPhone 4 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you're comparing iOS 7 on the iPhone 4 to the shitpile that was iOS 4 on the iPhone 3G, you lack experience with one of the two. It's slower, sure, but "bricked" is right over the top. There's a difference between constantly reminding you that you're not using the most current hardware and causing you to consistently miss calls that you attempted to answer before the first ring had ended.

  26. Re:O Rly? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, if you got a BSOD on a PC, you should upgrade your version of windows, since it's well known that the blue screen of death was eliminated in windows 7 or 8 (can't remember which), as it's now a black screen of death. Granted, maybe you meant black screen of death by BSOD, but BSOD is still synonymous with blue screen of death.

    And as for an android device that won't reboot if you let the battery go too low, well, duh. How can it reboot with a dead battery :P

  27. It's official. by MouseTheLuckyDog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Apple is the new Microsoft.
    Just with a shinier surface.

    1. Re:It's official. by Sqr(twg) · · Score: 1

      And the iPhone BSoD is soo much cleaner-looking! No ugly fixed-font text to detract from the experience.

      I wish it had rounded corners, though.

    2. Re:It's official. by slash.jit · · Score: 1

      Microsoft should sue Apple. This technology belongs to MS and Apple should not copy it without license.

    3. Re:It's official. by steelfood · · Score: 1

      Apple is the new Microsoft.
      Just with a shinier surface.

      iSurface.

      --
      "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  28. DOS extender by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    some of the DOS extenders crashed time to time

  29. Re:How unusual... iSky showing through? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Could be, but today I'm seeing that setting the text in a UITextView in a thread other than the main thread will cause iOS 7 to freeze irrecoverably. So the bug could be in a lot of places, I guess. They've changed a lot.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  30. So that was the problem with those 486 desktop PCs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We were holding it wrong!

  31. Now thats bad... by ulzeraj · · Score: 1

    And thats a damn phone OS. I'm quite scared of how Mavericks will turn out. Or the OS X team is still competent as they used to be?

    1. Re:Now thats bad... by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      What makes you think a handheld computer OS is less complicated than a laptop or desktop OS?

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  32. So, it's the iDon'twork suite then? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The Numbers app in Apple's iWork suite"..."seems to be the primary cause"

  33. Finally! by FuzzNugget · · Score: 1

    Apple has caught up with Microsoft.

  34. User apps are allowed to do real multitasking by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Informative

    User apps are not allowed to use multitasking,

    User apps are allowed to do anything for around ten minutes after they are shut by the user (they may be killed sooner if they use too many resources or the foreground app needs all the resources).

    User apps can also have periodic tasks that run in the background (in iOS7).

    User apps can also run indefinitely in the background under some conditions, like for navigation or... for background audio. So it might be some hiccup in the text to speech system operating while the app it is attached to is running in the foreground. I would think anything reading text generally would keep reading even if you closed the application, though it would depend on the application and how it set up the audio session...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:User apps are allowed to do real multitasking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you notice, the app keeps speaking until he brings up the new (annoying, IMO) running app overview screen. It then stops despite obviously having text left to speak, he touches the app to bring it in the foreground, and it crashes. My money is on the text-to-speech stopping when the overview is brought up causes a bad state, then when the app comes up it probably checks whether it's running or not, gets bad info, and then goes BOOM. I would put good odds on it being either in the text-to-speech API or in the audio API.
       
      In my own work, I found iOS 7 introduced a major flaw in the audio where it no longer acts appropriately in a particular situation in the background and I had to write a workaround -- a hack, really, but it's the only solution that doesn't require months of work -- in order for my app not to get in a bad state where it can no longer run audio again.

  35. crash frequency by tgibbs · · Score: 1

    App crashes used to be fairly frequent on the iPhone, while system crashes were much less frequent, but happened now and then. In recent years, system crashes have pretty much vanished, while app crashes have gotten a lot less common. I don't think I've seen a single system crash with iOS 7 on my 4s, which is unusual for a major OS revision. My new 5s does appear to crash a bit more. I see an app unexpectedly quit every day or two, and I've had 2 or 3 system crashes--more like the frequency of crashes I remember from the first year or two of the iPhone.

  36. A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 0

    Where did anyone get this idea of the BSOD taking a hiatus? I deal with it almost daily in Windows 7. Maybe these win7 systems were not informed of the BSOD furlough?

    1. Re:A Long time? by LodCrappo · · Score: 2

      Your computer is broken. Have it repaired. (Or stop trolling... Sometimes it's hard to tell so apologies for giving a serious answer if so)

      The typical Win 7 machine is impressively stable. I haven't seen a blue screen in years.

      --
      -Lod
    2. Re:A Long time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like you just have a crappy system since I've never had a BSOD on Windows 7 on my machine.

    3. Re:A Long time? by The123king · · Score: 1

      I think your hardware might be dying

      Or your box has more viruses in it than an AIDS sufferer

      --
      If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
    4. Re:A Long time? by graphius · · Score: 1

      They do still exist. I was setting up a win8 machine a while back and it kept blue screening. It seems that the manufacturer installed AV was fighting with Microsoft's security and would bring the whole machine down. I removed the AV and suggested only connecting to the internet for updates (system was a mission critical laptop running medical software)

    5. Re:A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 1

      Not trolling, I work in IT and i'm part of a team that services around 500 computer. I see the BSOD everyday. Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP even the occasional Windows 2000.

    6. Re:A Long time? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      You don't deal with it daily in Windows 7. You deal with it daily on your computer with the bad RAM in it. Treat yourself to this.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    7. Re:A Long time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nuhuh. I can believe this if you work in a service center and people bring you _broken_ computers. But if by "servicing" you mean "your company's computers" and not "we're a repair shop", then you're either trolling or incompetent.

      At my previous job I've been supporting ~500 machines with XP SP2, and later with Win7, and (uncommonly seen) BSoDs are roughly divided by reason, ordered by percentage:
      a) bad RAM, sometimes other hardware, like HDDs suddenly growing bad blocks.
      b) viruses.
      c) buggy/incompatible drivers, usually for DRM dongles.

      If you keep seeing BSoDs every day, it means you're bad at identifying and correcting those three.

    8. Re:A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 1

      And for disambiguation, I don't own a computer with Windows or OSX on it. I have a laptop with Linux and this laptop with ChromeOS. None of which I have any issues with. My GF, on the other hand, went with a snazzy Windows 8 laptop and I am always fixing that damn thing. Along with other users I deal with that have Windows 7 and 8, I am always fixing their computers. The users that have iMacs? Never hear a peep out of them. The servers that run Linux? Often times forget they exist because never have a problem with them. But those windows machines and servers? Always get reminded they are there. Haters gonna hate, but that is what it is in my corner of the world.

    9. Re:A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 1
      Hi, Not quite sure at your last job if you had actual people using the computers or if the computers just sat there unused, but at mine we have real people sitting in front of them that put the hardware to use.You know, people that:
      1. Hard reboot the machine in the middle of an update "because it takes to long."
      2. When a fan begins to make noise they hit the machine until it stops instead of reporting it
      3. Want to lean back in their chair with their keyboard in their lap and instead of requesting a wireless keyboard and mouse combo, grab the keyboard and yank
      4. Try to send an email with 80+Mb worth of PDF attachments and when it doesn't work they hit the machine a few times, then they notify IT something is wrong
      5. claims they ran a server "at home" and instantly knows better then you and insists that anti-malware and anti-virus software should not be installed on their computers and will do everything they can to circumvent them
      6. Will move hardware around, e.g. remodel their desk, and yank and pull cables when they are not long enough to reach
      7. Seem to think that computer towers make excellent dinner/coffee tables
      8. Believe that the computer tower makes an excellent foot rest.
      9. Will replace their UPS with a $3 powerstrip because their UPS starts making annoying beeps and instead of notifying IT they just remove the UPS all together.
      10. Will make every effort to install software that shouldn't be installed on the computer
      11. Will make every effort to circumvent proxies/firewalls that do website/content filtering
      12. Will have Chrome and Firefox open with each browser having 15-20 tabs open and each browser having 10-15 plugins, while having quickbooks open, and outlook, and their CRM and skype, and 10 emails, and pandora, and their VoIP softphone, and who knows what else
      13. Dialog prompt pop up? Who needs to read it, just keep clicking "OK" until it goes away.

      This list can easily go on. And again, I am not quite sure what magical section of the universe you live in where once the issue is resolved the user does everything they are supposed to with their computer, but I don't live there.

    10. Re:A Long time? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incompetent, then. Working with users is part of IT team's job, as well as proper configuration so "every effort to install software that shouldn't be installed" is just fruitless. What's with your users and their fondness for percussive maintenance?

      PS: Yes, we had ~500 active users with about quarter of those in rather computer unfriendly warehouse environment, and yes, seeing a BSoD was at most once in two months experience. Three of us was more than enough to handle all the IT needs.

    11. Re:A Long time? by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      And for disambiguation, I don't own a computer with Windows or OSX on it.

      Cool story, bro. Now tell us about how you don't have a tv.

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    12. Re:A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 1

      Cool story, bro, but to you I gift you this: http://i.imgur.com/DPDXQqb.jpg

    13. Re:A Long time? by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      What's a dotslash?

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    14. Re:A Long time? by chr1st1anSoldier · · Score: 1

      touché

    15. Re:A Long time? by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Your computer is broken. Have it repaired. (Or stop trolling... Sometimes it's hard to tell so apologies for giving a serious answer if so)

      The typical Win 7 machine is impressively stable. I haven't seen a blue screen in years.

      As was XP.

      It was almost always shitty drivers that bought down Windows. This is still occurring with Windows 7 but not as often as Windows comes with more default drivers which are more stable than the crappy vendor drivers of yore. I only need to install drivers for my wireless card and video card these days, I still put the mobo drivers on out of habit and they do improve the sound.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  37. not only 5s or os 7? by LodCrappo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here is video of an older iPhone and os making exact same blue screen/restart.
    Seems to take different actions to trigger, but not sure this is a new bug.
    From the comments sounds like it wasn't too uncommon either..

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KjyQLlEHomQ

    --
    -Lod
    1. Re:not only 5s or os 7? by Sqr(twg) · · Score: 1

      That vid is of a jailbroken phone.

    2. Re:not only 5s or os 7? by SternisheFan · · Score: 1

      PC Mag has another video of BSOD http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425512,00.asp

  38. Re:iOS 7 has practically bricked my iPhone 4 by Phroggy · · Score: 1

    My iPhone 4 seems to handle iOS7 pretty well. I've found that although the UI *looks* slow, the responsiveness is actually not that bad - for example, when entering my PIN on the lock screen, under iOS 5 and 6 sometimes there would be a bit of lag and it wouldn't register all the keypresses if I tapped the numbers faster than the phone was ready for. With iOS 7, there's even more lag in the visual and auditory feedback when pressing the buttons, but it registers all the keypresses correctly despite the lag, so even though it looks worse it works better.

    And of course it's not just slow - everything looks worse. The new Windows 8-inspired theme looks stupid anyway, but on the iPhone 4 all the transparency effects are disabled, so it looks even worse, but it functions. There are some nice features and enhancements. I really haven't had any significant problems.

    --
    $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  39. just keep in mind... by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    For every one iphone there are approximately 4.5 android phones and there's a darn good reason for that. The overly-fragile, drug-trip colored UI-having, overpriced hardware created by suicidal semi-slaves at Foxconn isn't a good product. It just isn't! This isn't 1999. This is Apple 2013, get use to it. On the same note, sell any and all Apple stock you may have.

    1. Re:just keep in mind... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      xiao mi 3 is better on all accounts, including aesthetics (iOS looks and handles like shit compared to MIUI), and it costs a third of an iphone 5s.

  40. MS should sue on base of design/artistic IP by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BSoD is MS's intellectual property. If curved rectangles are protected, so does BSoD. This might confuse consumers too.

  41. BSoDs still happen by Annorax · · Score: 1

    My work Windows 7 machine BSoDed all over the place not a month and a half ago.

    Windows still BSoDs just fine, TYVM.

    1. Re:BSoDs still happen by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

      Your computer is broken. It's not the OS.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    2. Re:BSoDs still happen by networkzombie · · Score: 1

      Why don't you examine the dmp file and find out exactly why it crashed? You can do it online here: http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=analyze, Or user this tool to examine it yourself: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html.

  42. Ooooh, my phone crashes to a blank blue screen... by The123king · · Score: 1

    LETS POST IT TO SLASHDOT!!!!1!11!!ONE!

    Seriously, how the hell is this news? Sure, a brand new phone crashing a lot is a pretty newsworthy item, but why does everyone go "Oh how "ironic"?!?!". It's not ironic, it's blue, much like the crash screen on a PSP or some Nintendo DS'. Just because Microsoft used it predominantly doesn't automatically make this a news item.

    I'm sure if it came up with a Mac OS X kernel panic, or a screen of death of another colour, it wouldn't have made it on Slashdot....

    --
    If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
  43. Re:also an apprenticeship system where you learn f by knarf · · Score: 1

    Well, yes, and no... learning from experienced people is fine but care should be taken that the 'apprenticeship' does not turn into 'indentured service' as it does so often - have a look at other fields where this system is used to see what I mean. Often the 'apprentice' is just used as cheap labour to do most of the work for only a fraction of the pay while the 'master' takes home the profit. It also opens the doors for protectionist systems comparable to the medieval guilds where your ability to work in a given field depends on getting yourself accepted by the guild. If you go down this route you'll be up to your knees in ITIL (et al) without an escape route.

    --
    --frank[at]unternet.org
  44. You caught us by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 1

    We really run Windows 95 under the hood. You guys finally caught us.
    -Apple

    --
    Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
  45. Re:How unusual... iSky showing through? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 1

    No it could not. It could be anywhere but that. That is the one place it couldn't be. All software ever written has bugs except the iCloud API.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  46. my homophone is two by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Too

  47. your holding ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H restoring it wrong by raymorris · · Score: 1

    I prefer if my systems don't BSOD if they've been restored from backup. You know, a backup and restore that actually works, rather than bricking the device.

  48. SELL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They still teach JAVA and student graduate unable to begin work at leading companies.

    Classes should be set up to incorporate multiple technologies in a single semester curriculum.
    Microsoft Server, C# web development, and SQL Server database administration should be one of multiple tracks employed to begin graduating successful candidates for new-hires.
    Another track: Linux system administration, Ruby on Rails, and MySQL database administration.
    Yet another: Linux system administration, JAVA, and Oracle database administration

    Argue as much as you like but that is the absolute truth.
    You can't pick one area to master anymore. You'll always need multiple groups to fall back on.

  49. non-engineers fail at engineering systems by raymorris · · Score: 1

    Software people normally educated in engineering, and the systems they build fail. Does that mean that engineering a software system isn't engineering, or that non-engineers failed to engineer it properly?

    Novels, movies, hairstyles, etc are not systems subject to unyielding laws which must be accounted for, or the project fails. Physical systems, such as buildings, and software systems such as databases ARE subject to unbreakable laws which will cause or prevent failure.

    Engineering is about applying a set of known rules which govern the behavior of systems to a specific design. You can calculate the shear load on a bridge member, based on a specific amount of vehicle traffic, and know exactly how thick your steel must be. That's engineering. You can calculate what the IO load will be on a specific storage unit, based on a specific amount of web traffic, and know exactly how wide your RAID must be. That's also engineering.

    The two problems above are extremely similar, and there is a very similar process for determining the optimal engineered solution in both cases.

    Most programmers don't use proper engineering methods, and most programmers don't produce reliable designs. That's because they aren't using properly engineering methods, not because proper engineering methods don't apply.

    By the way, you're distinction about physical objects vs. conceptual systems is, in a word, wrong. The reason the Obamacare sites can't take the load has everything to do with the radial velocity of a rotating mass known as a "hard drive". The drive spins at 10,000 RPM. The system tries to read opposite sides of the drive 40,000 times per second. Engineering fail.

    1. Re:non-engineers fail at engineering systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can calculate what the IO load will be on a specific storage unit, based on a specific amount of web traffic, and know exactly how wide your RAID must be. That's also engineering.

      These are fine examples of computer/electrical engineering and network engineering, respectively, but they are not any evidence that software engineering actually exists.

  50. typo "are not normally educated in engineering" by raymorris · · Score: 1

    The first sentence of my post was missing two words. That should read "software people are not normally educated in engineering ".

    Thus, they often fail at engineering systems, even if they are good at coding Hangman.

  51. Re:Ooooh, my phone crashes to a blank blue screen. by runeghost · · Score: 1

    It's ironic because of Apple's long history of mocking Microsoft. C:\ongratulations Apple!

  52. Good read. by basecastula+ · · Score: 1

    Thanks. Good read. I love computer history.

  53. Re:your holding ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H restoring it wron by gmhowell · · Score: 1

    'bricking'? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

    --
    Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
  54. iPhone 5S devices are suddenly turning blue by petteyg359 · · Score: 1

    Really? Is that magical color-changing pony-friend metal they've made the case out of, or is it just the screen presenting a solid blue image?