Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

London's BT Tower Broadcasted Windows 7 Error Message Over the Weekend (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the technical-difficulties dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Register: Generally a system crash is a private affair, but the BT Tower, one of London's tallest landmarks, spent much of the weekend displaying a Windows error message in a very public fashion. The building, originally known as the Post Office Tower, is famed for both its revolving top floor and, more recently, for the banks of LEDs at its summit that act as a very prominent billboard. Sadly for BT over the weekend it was showing what looks very like a Windows 7 error screen. "Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER)."

85 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Queue by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1, Funny

    The wave of script-kiddies who found out the tower runs Windows from this event and start displaying "we are legion lel" messages.

    1. Re:Queue by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      Next week, porn!

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    2. Re:Queue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not quite porn, but it did happen in Atlanta several years back.

    3. Re:Queue by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Goatse-like image on a billboard.... Yikes.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  2. Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by kriston · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is preposterous.

    --

    Kriston

    1. Re: Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by nullchar · · Score: 2

      Do humans monitor anything? I thought with everyone touting meh neural networks as "AI", that humans are out of the picture.

    2. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Jeremi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is preposterous.

      Why bother? They're already monitored by dozens or hundreds of humans 24/7, most of which have cell phones and many of which will happily upload a photo of any malfunction to one or more of the major social-networking sites. All they really need to do is monitor social media for the appropriate keywords, and take action when they see posts appear.

      (On a more serious note: shouldn't a massively expensive electronic display like this have some sort of fail-safe mechanism that would do something reasonable in the event of a system crash? Even the lowly intersection stop-light has a watchdog that will automatically put it into blinking-red-stop-sign-emulator-mode when it detects a malfunction)

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    3. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by dwywit · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A heartbeat service from another computer would have sufficed to send a message to someone.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    4. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      When traffic lights fail, car accidents can happen.

      When this board fails, people post gibberish on social media. No one is going to die or be maimed. I don't mind discussion - people should be interested in the world around them - but lets not lose our minds.

    5. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Jeremi · · Score: 3, Insightful

      When this board fails, people post gibberish on social media. No one is going to die or be maimed. I don't mind discussion - people should be interested in the world around them - but lets not lose our minds.

      Yes, that's probably the answer -- that nobody really cares enough to implement a watchdog mechanism.

      Still, if I was one of the developers writing the sign software, I'd be embarrassed enough that I'd spend the extra time to make sure this failure mode never happens again (at least not on devices running my software).

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    6. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by That+YouTube+Guy · · Score: 1

      When traffic lights fail, car accidents can happen.

      That's my favorite spectator sport at a busy four-way intersection. Most drivers don't know what to do when the traffic lights fail and forget the rules for a four-way stop. Never seen an accident but plenty of near accidents and road rage.

    7. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Dunbal · · Score: 1

      No one is going to die or be maimed.

      Unless of course they're posting the social media gibberish while driving...

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    8. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by bobby · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is preposterous.

      It could be that someone who could have done something about it had noticed but let it stay that way. Maybe general cynicism, dislike of Yankee OSes, thought it was funny, maybe they wanted to switch to Linux but the boss forbade it.

    9. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by jpaine619 · · Score: 1

      That you would think a human needs to monitor a display 24/7 is idiotic.

    10. Re: Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      When a Windows error message goes up on a roadside billboard, accidents happen from people rubbernecking to gawk at it.

    11. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by bickerdyke · · Score: 2

      I bet those Billboards have a watchdog, too.

      Implemented as application to Autostart along with win. What could possibly go wrong using a pure desktop OS for every other scenario...

      --
      bickerdyke
    12. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's probably not a software failure. More likely the PC running the software has been left on in the corner, gathering dust for years and years until it overheated and died. RAM failed, HDD crashed, cosmic ray flipped a bit in the CPU somewhere.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    13. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      It's just a sign. It's not a safety critical piece of equipment, and very little is lost when it is down for a bit. In fact, the free publicity may be a net positive.

    14. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Lots of electronic billboard monitor jobs going these days are there?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    15. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by stealth_finger · · Score: 2, Interesting

      When traffic lights fail, car accidents can happen.

      When this board fails, people post gibberish on social media. No one is going to die or be maimed. I don't mind discussion - people should be interested in the world around them - but lets not lose our minds.

      Apart from the guy that gets rear ended by the person distracted by the giant gaping rear end?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    16. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      We don't get four way stops in the UK but when traffic lights fail people cope very well. The behaviour is less rigid but comparable in nature to how US four way stops work.

    17. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      At a minimum, why not a scheduled task that reboots the display driving computer once a day so that at least you're not waiting for a memory error or some other long-run glitch hosing the system.

      Even better is the software that generates the display would have a parallel watchdog process and they exchange "I'm OK" messages, and the watchdog communicates with the signage. If the "OK" messages stop, the signage just turns off, displays black, or some failsafe image stored internally.

      Chances are, though, that some 27 year old Powerpoint guru is in charge of the content and the signage just accepts whatever HDMI or VGA signal it gets because the sign company couldn't keep up with every possible electronic image/data format people wanted to throw at it, so just give it a video input a computer will output and call it good.

    18. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by fgouget · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It could be that someone who could have done something about it had noticed but let it stay that way. Maybe general cynicism, dislike of Yankee OSes, thought it was funny, maybe they wanted to switch to Linux but the boss forbade it.

      Or they're not going to be paid overtime or even get a thanks if they come over the week-end.

    19. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by BlackOverflow · · Score: 1

      Someone can easily monitor them 24/7, but they don't necessarily have to care or be given the tools to fix something if a problem arises.

    20. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      No business case for it. It fails so rarely, and the consequences are a few mocking tweets. Why spend any effort or money on it?

      The reminds me of the post yesterday asking why everyone hasn't switched to Linux yet. Businesses don't care if it's "better" or "more reliable", they care about the cost and disruption when changing.

      Besides this was probably a hardware fault, and Linux would not have helped. EEC RAM may have.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    21. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Why? Other than a bit of embarrassment, what major negative impact has result from this incident which would necessitate continuous monitoring?

    22. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Still, if I was one of the developers writing the sign software

      What developers? Their software didn't even get to run. As you can see from the error message itself all this sign does is take a video input and display it.

      As a developer, do you routinely spend lots of time on features no one asked for, no one is paying you for, and isn't part of the larger engineering design?

    23. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      This probably existed, and it quite probably was the very realistic assessment: Screw it, not worth the callout, it's a sign and therefore can wait until monday.

    24. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by kenh · · Score: 1, Informative

      NO, it's a BIOS message, asking you to pick an Operating System:

      Sadly for BT over the weekend it was showing what looks very like a Windows 7 error screen. "Choose operating system to start or press TAB to select a tool: (Use arrow keys to highlight your choice and then press ENTER)."

      Operating systems don't normally ask you to pick an operating system - you've picked one already...

      --
      Ken
    25. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by kenh · · Score: 2

      So your plan to reduce problems with the billboard computer is to reboot it, introducing infinitely more opportunities for a problem during startup?

      Let sleeping dogs lie - as public as that tower is, do you really think the people responsible were unaware of the problem for any real length of time? I've seen similar errors in other public places, and the issues persist typically because the computer that needs to be rebooted is secured somewhere hard for an average worker to get to, requiring a key or tool in possession of someone with more important responsibilities than reboot the signage computer.

      --
      Ken
    26. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by apoc.famine · · Score: 2

      It probably did. It's just that that person left two years ago, and they didn't have a functioning transition plan so the contact email was never updated.

      I think this has been the case at every place I've ever worked. When you don't document systems and you don't design a regular review process of those systems and documentation, things get lost. Very few places do a good job documenting business processes.

      --
      Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
    27. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 1

      The idea that massive public electronic displays like these aren't monitored by a human 24/7 is expensive.

      Fixed that for you.

    28. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by geekymachoman · · Score: 1

      Why bother ? Add ton of complexity just because something unimportant like this can fail once every 10 years ?

      Better set up monitoring of some sort that if the computer don't display what's it supposed to display send you SMS or automatically reboots the machine... but even that, why bother ?

    29. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by bobby · · Score: 1

      Or they're not going to be paid overtime or even get a thanks if they come over the week-end.

      That's certainly another possibility, but I didn't want to include the story of my life.

    30. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by bobby · · Score: 1

      You're probably right. I haven't seen that MB firmware message and I was thinking it was a 3rd-party boot menu like grub or lilo.

    31. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by bobby · · Score: 1

      Yeah, or hard disk failure, or rogue sw or malware clobbered boot sector or something.

    32. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      The picture literally says "Windows Boot" at the top. The BIOS's job is long done.

    33. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      Over here in Sweden we have small traffic signs directly under the stop sign that tells which lanes that needs to yield in case the light stops to work, somehow I thought that this was the same throughout the entire EU but I guess that this is now how it works in the UK then?

    34. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      If there are traffic lights then there isn't also a stop sign. Lanes are painted on the road. You give way to people that have the right of way ahead of you, and that's rarely a cause for confusion.

    35. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      I've had several clients with bog-standard PCs being fed into various forms of video distribution systems and it actually did improve the reliability of all of them to be rebooted at least weekly.

      You would think that running PowerPoint or some dumb JPG viewer in an infinite loop would go for months, and maybe sometimes it does, but there's a ton of opportunities for memory leaks and general desktop PC/OS/Windows unreliability if left unbooted for a long time.

    36. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by sjames · · Score: 1

      I thought about it a bit, and a simple periodic OK signal generated by the software would prevent messages like these, but to what benefit? It's not like it's accidentally displaying porn or foul language.

    37. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by Jeremi · · Score: 1

      What developers? Their software didn't even get to run. As you can see from the error message itself all this sign does is take a video input and display it.

      I'm assuming (maybe I'm wrong) that their system consists of both hardware and software, sold together as a package. If so, then they would have the ability to handle even hardware failures gracefully, if they chose to include that in their design (e.g. by using a separate switching mechanism to display a suitable static image from a backup image source whenever the primary computer hasn't been heard from within the last so-many milliseconds).

      As a developer, do you routinely spend lots of time on features no one asked for, no one is paying you for, and isn't part of the larger engineering design?

      Not routinely, but occasionally -- and at times those features have later turned out to be central to the product's success. Just because nobody else successfully anticipated a need doesn't mean the need doesn't exist.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    38. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by dwywit · · Score: 1

      A RaspberryPi with two jobs is not a ton of complexity.

      Ping host.
      Success?
                  yes? got to 10
                  no? SMS to admin

      It's not "unimportant" if a company is paying $BIGNUM to have their message displayed on a significant landmark.

      And from the message that was displayed - IT HAD ALREADY REBOOTED - unsuccessfully.

      --
      They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
    39. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Over here in Sweden we have small traffic signs directly under the stop sign that tells which lanes that needs to yield in case the light stops to work, somehow I thought that this was the same throughout the entire EU but I guess that this is now how it works in the UK then?

      The rule in the UK is that you give way to traffic on your right at roundabouts etc if it was there first.

      If everyone arrives at exactly the same time at a set of broken traffic lights or roundabout, you get a Mexican stand off and common sense has to prevail, i.e. if you're on a moped, let the big fucking lorry go first.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    40. Re: Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      When a Windows error message goes up on a roadside billboard, accidents happen from people rubbernecking to gawk at it.

      I think you are overestimating the fascination of normal human beings with computer error messages.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    41. Re:Why aren't public displays monitored 24/7? by strikethree · · Score: 1

      On the bright side, this is also a flaming endorsement for Microsoft products. You can always count on Microsoft products! (to fail)

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  3. Befitting by quax · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sign of the Brexit times.

  4. LOL ... wow ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That is just simply awesome.

    One more epic Microsoft suck for the ages.

    I can't tell you how many store signs, kiosks, and god knows what that I've seen displaying a Microsoft Blue Screen of Death.

    Abort? Retry? Fail?

    Windows; the operating system which made "did you reboot it" the first troubleshooting question of idiots who don't understand uptime.

    1. Re:LOL ... wow ... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Windows; the operating system which made "did you reboot it" the first troubleshooting question of idiots who don't understand uptime.

      If the system has crashed keeping it up is kinda pointless.

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  5. Just stupid by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a simple fact that if you want a rock solid system that you shouldn't be bothering with any version of Windows. I know they don't have to use any exotic hardware either because those giant displays have FPGA based translators that take a simple video input (I used to chat with a guy who made them). A simple SBC running some Linux or BSD variant would have been the sane choice.

    Someone put in the minimum amount of effort into this display and it shows.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Just stupid by aix+tom · · Score: 2

      That's what RAIDs are for. ;-)

      But we had something similar that, when our NAS crashed a few years ago. After it was fixed, 90% of the Windows VMs were broken and didn't boot anymore, and had to be restored from backup.

      100% of the Linux VMs just hat a "whoops, something looks wonky, I better replay my file system journal" boot message buried somewhere in the logs before starting up normally.

    2. Re:Just stupid by ruddk · · Score: 1

      Or at least a secondary graphics card / port for the output so you don’t have to use the desktop.

      --
      L'Idiot
    3. Re:Just stupid by Sique · · Score: 1
      Your first error was to assume that this NAS was just some cheap home appliance.

      The host systems I know have large NAS attached to them where all the data resides. Thus for instance, a second host can take over if the first one fails.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    4. Re:Just stupid by 91degrees · · Score: 1

      If I'm ever involved in this sort of thing, I will insist that the sign is configured as a secondary display.

      Aside from looking better when things go wrong (since dialogs usually appear on the primary screen), it also gives you a local display that can be used for a settings window or something. Given the cost of these things, one more monitor is not going to break the bank.

    5. Re:Just stupid by houghi · · Score: 2

      Yeah, because Linux NEVER has any error messages to show people.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re:Just stupid by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      Windows and Linux behave differently by default in the presence of underlying disk errors...
      Different hypervisors also behave differently in the event of their network storage devices suffering problems.
      Different network storage protocols also behave differently.

      For instance if a drive fails or starts returning a large number of errors, Linux will remount it readonly in order to prevent further corruption while windows will continue trying to perform writes. This can be pretty damaging in the case of NAS storage, where the hypervisor is accessing the NAS but the VM sees it as a locally attached disk. If there is a temporary problem (eg network interruption like a switch being restarted) and the NAS comes back, then the errors will stop and windows will continue running - however some writes may have become lost during the period of outage, linux will have remounted the filesystem readonly so any running services will probably have failed.

      There are many other variables to consider, for instance NFS will block causing the system to hang until the server comes back (but it shouldn't lose any data)...

      Some systems also cut corners (eg marking writes as complete before the data has been fully committed to disk) in the name of performance, but this can cause corruption in the event of power failures etc.

      Far too many factors to consider as to why corruption may have occurred.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    7. Re:Just stupid by Cederic · · Score: 1

      I know people that'd pay for that.

    8. Re:Just stupid by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      It's a simple fact that if you want a rock solid system that you shouldn't be bothering with any version of Windows.

      Given the sign is showing evidence of system corruption following a restart I have to ask what magical fairy software you recommend people use for a 100% unimportant sign that only displays blinking lights?

      I think people will be fine with not getting their "Good Morning London" message displayed in the sky today.

    9. Re:Just stupid by kenh · · Score: 1

      It's Windows fault the BIOS couldn't find a bootable OS...

      --
      Ken
    10. Re:Just stupid by kenh · · Score: 1

      Somewhere, in the bowels of that tower is a PC attached to a monitor or a KVM, and someone is likely responsible for monitoring that display - be it building maint., security, what have you. That person either failed to note, or failed to resolve the issue in a timely manner.

      --
      Ken
    11. Re:Just stupid by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      Er what? You could say that BSD has more problems with hardware compatibility but Linux is in some cases more compatible with commodity hardware. As for software coding, Linux has a wider range of languages. I think what you mean to say is that in Windows is easier to write MS languages like VB, C#, etc.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    12. Re:Just stupid by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

      How is it a simple fact? I get months of uptime on all of my windows workstations (desktop + laptop). This alone downgrades your so called "fact" to "opinion", or perhaps "facts" that only exist inside your own mind.

      Someone put in the minimum amount of effort into this display and it shows

      Looks like someone took your advice ..

      https://imgur.com/a/Nbq0Yzz

      Oh, I know, its anything but a Linux issue... :)

    13. Re:Just stupid by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

      Heh, thats pretty much the first thing that came to my mind too. But I chuckle everytime I see a blue screen on a giant public facing screen. Regardless of whose fault it is, its like "... and someone got paid for THAT piece of quality engineering"

    14. Re:Just stupid by 0ld_d0g · · Score: 1

      I work on embedded systems and system level software for a living and I prefer the C++ tooling on Windows over Linux. Specifically I feel that my productivity using Visual Studio + Visual Assist is greater than when I'm developing/debugging on Linux. Its fine to like or prefer a particular OS for any reason or no reason at all, but its important to also recognize that people _choose_ Windows for rational and pragmatic reasons and not simply because they're forced or are stupid or just don't know any better.

    15. Re:Just stupid by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Cheap at all costs. No matter how expensive. Yes, that stupidity pervades the industry.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    16. Re:Just stupid by aix+tom · · Score: 1

      If you read carefully, I didn't *BLAME* Windows. I just said, Linux handled the error condition better.

      If you want to know the details: It was basically the "only" major downtime my company had in the last ~20 years. It happened during a weekend, while we where in the process of moving some stuff around in the server room.

      The NAS was super-redundant setup, four 19' racks full of spinning discs, plugged into the new UPS. The servers were a super-redundant setup, a Bladecenter (with no storage of it's own) in two 19' racks, plugged into the old UPS.

      Now "Someone", let's call him "Colleague A" re-wired the super-redundant connections between them on Friday. And did plug the super-redundant fibrechannel switches into a socked that wasn't protected by a UPS, since it "only had to last for a few days". Then we had a power outage on Saturday. The NAS kept working perfectly, the Bladecenter kept working perfectly, the just couldn't talk to each other, so all the pagers went of.

      Me (The Linux admin) and the Windows admins arrived a few minutes later, when power had already been restored. It took me 15 Minutes to check that my stuff was working fine, and I went back home. The windows admins spent the rest of the weekend at work, trying to get stuff working again.

      I don't really care who's "fault" it was, I just made an observation that some things cause less headaches for an admin than others.

    17. Re:Just stupid by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      And I never said that no one is less productive on Windows. What I said was that commodity hardware compatibility isn’t as much as issue for Linux as some people seem to make it out to be. I also said that other than Windows specific languages, Linux has many options. If people want to use Windows go ahead. But saying that Linux is less compatible or harder to code in isn’t necessarily true.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  6. amiga no better the preview guide channel crashed by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    amiga no better the preview guide channel crashed all the time

  7. LOLs by JBMcB · · Score: 1

    I remember the community bulletin board channel on my local cable provider ran on an Amiga. Every few months you could see what a Workbench desktop looked like by flipping to that channel over the weekend after the system had crashed and rebooted. It's output wasn't even that great. Looked like a VIC-20 outputting big blocky text-mode text and graphics.

    --
    My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  8. Error message? Where? by vinceval · · Score: 2

    Last time I checked, that is the Windows Boot Manager, not an error message.

    1. Re:Error message? Where? by Sique · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked, this is an error message from Windows Boot Manager, if the predefined boot image fails.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
  9. BSOD in 2008 Olympics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, during the opening ceremonies, a BSOD was projected in large characters, on a wall of the Bird's Nest. But in contrast to the message in London, I doubt the BSOD in Beijing stayed up very long.

  10. not an error by gravewax · · Score: 1

    That is NOT a windows error message. IT is the boot manager selection. could be caused by anything from an OS crash to hardware crash or simply someone restarting the machine after patching.

    1. Re:not an error by gweihir · · Score: 1

      So they could not even manage to automate booting? What cheapest imaginable morons did build this thing?

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  11. The joys of standardization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Most of these fancy LED billboards are really just VGA displays (well, part of one anyway). They just leave some crap running on a bog standard PC, and have the billboard driver software pointed at a certain part of the desktop, simaler to video screen capture software.

  12. Re:not an error screen at all. by Sique · · Score: 1

    It still is an error message. Just because it comes from a different program, it still can be an error message. In this case it is: "Help, my predefined boot image failed. Please give me another one!"

    --
    .sig: Sique *sigh*
  13. link with other /. article by sad_ · · Score: 2

    you can link this with that other /. post about why people don't switch to linux.
    decades upon decades have we seen posts on the internet of failing public displays with BSOD's, windows popups, reboot loops, safe boot menu etc.
    still for some reason people keep using windows...

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:link with other /. article by feufeu · · Score: 1

      At least, a certain proportion of people are familiar enough with Windows to recognize that kind of message as a computer glitch. Just image what might happen if the masses were greeted by a "KERNEL PANIC" message the size of a full size container :)

    2. Re:link with other /. article by gweihir · · Score: 1

      People are stupid. They prefer what they think they know vastly over things that are superior. There are countless examples available.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    3. Re:link with other /. article by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Simple, because unlike you most people don't subscribe to observer bias. Or do you think all those windows devices would show Linux errors? I certainly have seen Linux devices show error screens on a variety of public screens. The most recent of which was the in-flight entertainment system on our Lufthansa flight crashing.

      If you think Linux is somehow immune to boot partition corruption (what happened here judging by the sign) then I have a very expensive bespoke system to sell you.

  14. Re:amiga no better the preview guide channel crash by LaughingRadish · · Score: 1

    I've heard claims that you could see the Fremont Street Experience do that way back when.

  15. Re:Display a window, not the entire screen by kenh · · Score: 1

    Adding a second screen would only prevent the message from appearing, instead leaving a blank screen, which would be a more alarming issue than seeing a computer boot loader (not windows) error message.

    Would a blank bank of lights be "better" in any meaningful way?

    --
    Ken
  16. Priorities by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    I'm in awe that people are so concerned over a freaking BILLBOARD.

    I'm sorry but if BT's technicians have to choose between helping people with actual problems, and fixing a billboard (because heaven forbid we NOT be blasted with ads 24/7), the billboard belongs on the bottom of the queue.

    Just because it's prominently visible doesn't mean it's important.

  17. It is hard to show incompetence more publicly by gweihir · · Score: 1

    Seriously, Windows is in no shape form or way suitable to be used in embedded systems or server systems. It is somewhat suitable as a game-launcher.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
  18. this isn't bios by eaglesrule · · Score: 2

    It's the windows boot manager, that's part of the volume boot record. The OS is already started.