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We've finally hit Peak Bork: Microsoft man reveals home-grown welcome back BSOD at Redmond HQ

(2021/04/23)


Updated Bork!Bork!Bork! Microsoft is famed for eating its own dogfood and this week chowed down on a bowl of fresh bork as its consulting boss encountered what we can only assume is the company's latest attempt to deal with Meeting Culture.

Ben Rudolph, chief of staff for Microsoft Consulting [1]tweeted the screen of baleful blue that greeted him outside a room in [2]Building 115 on the Microsoft's Redmond Main Campus.

[3]

The screen would normally cheerfully inform passersby of meetings due to happen or the gatherings already occurring within.

[4]

Click to enlarge

The Register understands that should a room stand vacant, the screen may also be jabbed by a user to book it, meaning they would not have to resort to the horror that is the Outlook client.

In this case, alas, all is not well. And we can't help but notice that this particular BSOD is a little unusual. Rather than the emoticon-based festivities found on modern Windows 10 BSODs, it looks a little… older.

[5]

The text is also a little at odds with what we're used to; the instruction to check that hardware and software has been properly installed is repeated just in case, you know, you were in any doubt with regard to what has upset things so.

The 0x000000C5 looks to us like a driver might have tripped and fallen down some virtual stairs.

Maybe, while Microsoft's buildings were devoid of staff, an enterprising engineer figured an update was called for. The resulting bork probably meant the person has gone into hiding. (Perhaps they did a runner into Microsoft's Windows Quality Assurance department – [6]nobody ever goes there these days.)

[7]

Or, as we first suggested, perhaps this is indeed another case of Microsoft leading by example in the [8]crusade against interminable meetings – a fresh message for those Redmondian calendars stuffed with back to back jawfests: the meeting room is unavailable due to being full of bork.

We contacted Microsoft to ask what had befallen the unfortunate display but the company's communications team has yet to respond - doubtless cowering from the bork stalking the hallways.

Updated at 16.43 on 23 April 2021 to add:

Ben Rudolph has sent a statement:

"Microsoft uses a cloud-connected scheduling tool to book meeting rooms. It’s quite handy; you can book any room, at any office, anywhere in the world, straight from Outlook. The day’s diary is displayed on little panels outside the room. This one, as you can see, had a little hiccup. I rebooted the panel and it sprang back to life, and I’m excited to share that Team Room 2075 is once again ready to host meetings….whenever we go back to the office!" ®

Get our [9]Tech Resources



[1] https://twitter.com/BenThePCGuy/status/1384922334168035328

[2] https://campusbuilding.com/b/microsoft-building-115/

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YILvHVy1cSnZ9McmzMol1gAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/04/23/bork_tweet.jpg

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YILvHVy1cSnZ9McmzMol1gAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/11/printer_problems_windows_10/

[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YILvHVy1cSnZ9McmzMol1gAAAMw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/20/microsoft_office365_meetings/

[9] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/

TonyJ

"...We contacted Microsoft to ask what had befallen the unfortunate display but the company's communications team has yet to respond - doubtless cowering from the bork stalking the hallways..."

Or rhe FBI haven't forwarded the email yet...

heyrick

They're probably in therapy, recovering from severe sarcasm overload.

Anonymous South African Coward

I was also about to say it looks like a WIn7 BSOD.

Unless I'm mistaken...

EVP

The only thing that would have made today’s bork more delicious is that they used a pirated copy.

Give them some credit...

Plest

They're prepared to admit they use their own software, it's obviously unpatched ( or at least untested ) and occasionally crashes into a steaming turd pile!

Re: Give them some credit...

karlkarl

Why not unpatched?

They try to force those things down everyone elses throats. Especially the pointless updates!

Re: Pointless?

DJV

You mean you don't want to find out what this week's revised icons look like?

Re: Pointless?

WolfFan

OneDrive seems to have got new icons on both macOS and Windows. I have no idea when this happened, I just noticed this morning. Remote Desktop on both macOS and iPadOS has received multiple updates in the last month or two; the iPad version has had at least three updates in the last 10 days, including one which failed to install twice. Worked the third time. The other two were fixes for the one which had problems installing. (I sometimes have to remote in using the iPad. Remote Desktop works. Kinda.) The Patch Tuesday updates for Office on both macOS and iPadOS handed out slightly different icons for some documents, don’t know about on Windows, haven’t checked. The guys at MS seem to have a lot of time on their hands. One would think that they’d actually fix the damn OS, but no…

I did this 'cause Linux gives me a woody. It doesn't generate revenue.
-- Dave '-ddt->` Taylor, announcing DOOM for Linux