Bristol's bus stops can run Chrome and Internet Explorer, but no, Windows and public transport do not mix well
- Reference: 1606908548
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/12/02/bork/
- Source link:
The latest in our series shows Windows, possibly version 7, running in Classic guise and putting in an appearance on a bus stop in Bristol, southwest England. Spotted by Reg reader Sarah as November drew to a close, it appears that Windows is having a bit of a bad time of things.
It looks like multiple processes are trying to fiddle with the same file, and the OS has reacted with its usual blancmange-like resiliency and flung an error onto the screen, as well as a taskbar that shows Bristol's bus stops can run Chrome as well as Internet Explorer.
[1]
Click to enlarge
To be fair to Windows, the error looks like something that should really have been caught by the application rather than left for the operating system to mop up. The notification itself has been attributed to the icon of Xibo, [2]an open-source digital signage platform that "offers a reliable platform designed to give all users the freedom to focus on the most important aspect of digital signage: your content!"
Or, in this case, flashing up some undergarments in the form of an error obscuring the all-important bus arrival times and destinations.
Our reader professed surprise at both the imminent arrival of a bus, but also "a bit of Windows showing up on something that I'm surprised would need it."
"I've heard Bristol bus stops make XP-esque fault noises before too," she added, "which is enjoyably surreal."
Sadly, Bork remains a visual-only delight for the time being so we can't share the bloops, bleeps or flatulating emitted by Windows as things go wrong. It is, however, comforting to note that the .wav files so omnipresent in the early years of this century might yet live on via the medium of a bus stop. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/12/01/borkbus.jpg
[2] https://xibo.org.uk/about
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
It seems like the woman would need to get rebooted.
It seems like the twits on the roof need to be rebooted. Hard. Repeatedly.
XP to the Rescue?
That tool bar looks very dated... on closer examination it's 7 in classic mode. That was one way to speed up win7 and XP, loved the classic mode.
Re: XP to the Rescue?
"it's 7 in classic mode"
So Bristol's bus shelters are no longer supported?
Re: XP to the Rescue?
Sounds like it, unless they're spending large amounts of money on extended support updates for some unknowable reason.
There's a chance that the signs are running an embedded variant, but as far as I'm aware, all except POSReady 7 are now out of support, too, and it's unlikely POSReady 7 is licensed for this use case anyway.
Support ticket
> It looks like multiple processes are trying to fiddle with the same file
Support ticket: Go and show Fred how to save *and close* the timetable file, *again*, please. Ta.
display controllers
Just this morning I was asking the powers that be (again!) when I can decommission the library notices server running RHEL 6.7. They are supposed to be deploying something based on android tablets but it is taking for ever. Perhaps I'll be featuring on these pages soon!
Re: display controllers
To be honest, yes you should be on something a bit later than RHEL 6.7, but RHEL 6 is good for another year before Extended Support kicks in for a further 3 years. If it’s not internet facing or mission critical, patch it to 6.10 and forget about it for a year.
There's a bus stop shelter near Bristol's Bearpit roundabout which collects water rainwater on its roof. In March two teenage lads delighted in pushing the shelter and causing a couple of gallons of water to fall onto the pavement and splashing the suede boots of a woman sat on the bench. Repeatedly.
I don't know if that's a buffer overflow issue, or a cascade error.