Hayfever in Haymarket, or has Windows sneezed out a BSOD?
- Reference: 1592469073
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/06/18/bork/
- Source link:
Snapped by Register reader Stephen Grantham, a member of the UK National Health Service's hardworking IT team, the BSOD was spotted balefully glaring down at travellers planning a jaunt on Newcastle's metro system.
While we have yet to use the thing in anger as commuters, the Tyne and Wear Metro features both underground stations (such as the pictured Haymarket) as well as overground light rail. Using existing railway infrastructure, the Tyne and Wear metro slid open its doors in 1980 with Haymarket as one of its first stations. It now stretches as far afield as Newcastle airport, with its Metrocars rattling along nearly 50 miles of track.
Haymarket station was given a lick of paint during a refurbishment programme earlier this century and [1]Princess Anne declared it open once more in 2010. There is no word on whether the Princess Royal was also presented with a BSOD to mark the big day.
As for the screen, it is operated by [2]Kong Outdoor . It is capable of full motion (although clearly not at the moment) and Kong reckons advertisers can expect a very precise 1,304,109 "impacts" a fortnight.
One should probably subtract the quantity of punters wondering exactly what Windows' failure to reset the display driver has to do with them.
"I guess it's one way to get IT support," remarked Stephen, adding: "I suspect it was the heat that did it as it was a sweltering 14 degrees at the time, temperatures we are not used to up here in Geordie land."
For the sake of Stephen and his colleagues staffing the UK's health service, we also rather hope those "impact" figures are currently down due to people opting to swerve the metro where possible.
We contacted Kong Outdoor to find out what had befallen its screen (which seems to have form judging by results from a popular search engine) but we have yet to receive a reply.
Spotted Windows reacting to an error with all the resilience of blancmange, or something embedded doing a whoopsie? Add your contribution to El Reg 's album of awkwardness with an [3]email to the bork desk . ®
Sponsored: [4]Taking the Cloud-Native Approach with Microservices
[1] https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/princess-royal-set-open-haymarket-1409996
[2] https://www.kongoutdoor.com/copy-of-great-north-screens-south-t
[3] https://www.theregister.co.uk/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#5f2d363c373e2d3b712c2f3a3a3b1f2b373a2d3a38362c2b3a2d713c3032
[4] https://go.theregister.com/tl/1956/-8470/taking-the-cloud-native-approach-with-microservices?td=wptl1956
But that is no joke, my friend, it's the truth.
I just don't understand why this is supposed to be hilarious
"Operating system behaves as per design". Not funny, is it?
When a crash occurs in Kernel Mode, the operating system's task is to preserve your data. Unlike a crash in Application Mode, it can't recover and continue.
Therefore, it dumps memory to disk using a cut-down device driver and displays a message. What do you expect?
And since writing device drivers is very difficult, yes, they sometimes crash. And often these are drivers not written by Microsoft.
Linux and VMware aren't immune to Kernel Mode crashes, and neither was the Amiga. So where's the joke? I don't get it.
Re: I just don't understand why this is supposed to be hilarious
The Amiga although ahead of its time was a product of its time and didn't have memory management. Nowadays it should be possible to produce a crash-proof kernel. After all, it's just one device driver, it could be unloaded and loaded again. Your screen might flicker, your sound might stop, a file written to a hard drive might be lost, but the whole system should be able to carry on.
Much like the inside then...
There are a number of digital advertising screens inside the station that haven't worked in years, and just sit blank. I think they only actually worked for about 12-18 months after the station was re-opened.
The network also has new LCD/plasma screen arrivals boards here and at Newcastle Central that often go blank or BSOD too. And the traditional LED ones everywhere else are locally well known for their content being mostly a work of fantasy.
And we'll not even get started on the regions attempt at smart ticketing...
Another win for Microsofts reliable OS
"24/7/265? Wossat mean?" as they say in Seattle.
Well it was doing a fine job of advertising just how great Windows is...