Computer Glitch Halts Seattle New Year's Fireworks

supersat writes "At the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve, Seattle's fireworks show ground to a halt. The source of the problem is reported to be a corrupted file that wasn't checked until the last minute. After two reboots, the fireworks had to be detonated manually. And yes ... one blog commenter, claiming to have worked on prior shows, said that the shows run on Windows."

Runs on Windows?

[Oligonicella (659917)]

Well, unless it was an operating system problem and not bad data or bad programming, what's the point in mentioning that other than childish bashing?

Re:Runs on Windows?

[by Anonymous Coward]

You must be new here.

Re:

[heinousjay (683506)]

Perhaps an analogy:

If you're a straight guy looking to masturbate, what's the difference between two chicks getting it on, and two dudes?

Re:Runs on Windows?

[AgentPaper (968688)]

I am not for discriminating against homos, pans, assexuals or whatever...

Pardon me, but your Freudian slip is showing...

Re:

[bersl2 (689221)]

The childish bashing is still funny, as long as it doesn't get too serious.

Re:Runs on Windows?

[digitalhermit (113459)]

nah. just good natured bashing..

Like when your co-worker drops his coffee on his lap.. you don't hate the co-worker, but you have lots of fun at his expense. "Coffee's hot, I bet."

Re:

[dasOp (781405)]

To be honest, I'd much rather read stories in the line of

"The magnificent fireworks display in <insert city here> was actually controlled and detonated from a laptop running <insert favorite distro here> with a soon-to-be foss-application written in <insert programming language of choice here>. <online mag of choice> had a talk with the man responsible, <insert name here>."

Anders

Re:Runs on Windows?

[Harold Halloway (1047486)]

...because Seattle is the home of Microsoft. There's a certain irony in this story.

Re:

[supersat (639745)]

Well, frankly, that was the first thing EVERYONE wondered, even among the mildly computer-literate, especially since Seattle is Microsoft's backyard. It's easy (and fun) to make fun of Microsoft's legendary reliability, even if they don't deserve it.

Now, a comment on a blog is hardly trustworthy, so the second thing pointing this out does is put the claim out there for actual reporters to verify, if they choose to do so. It might even stir up some comments by Microsoft or the company hired to do the show.

Mo

Re:

[Marcos Eliziario (969923)]

Never mind that an operating system which crashes is a common source of file corruption. But ok! Yeah, you're right! it's the fault of programmers! They corrupted their own little f*cking files. After all, who here among us has ever seen Windows crashing while it was flushing the fucking write-back cache?

Lessons in reliability?

[jhines (82154)]

A single, or more than one, file gets corrupted and the show doesn't go on.

Yes the underlying reasons for this happening are of interest to us, since many of us are charged with implementing or running systems, while not as showy, have to run to pay the bills.

Yes, the operating system in use is an issue, since it has part of the job of keeping files from being corrupted. It has the job of catching errors.

It was a flashy semi-failure in our collective business, we would be the stupid ones not to learn all we

Culture

[Crag (18776)]

Your point is valid: the failure was probably not directly attributable to the operating system. It may be that the automation was developed in Java/Eclipse and would have broken identically on any platform.

However, the point of many Microsoft 'haters' on /. has been that Microsoft tools are explicitly designed to interfere with the freedom of its users and especially developers. This is not an especially contentions point in the debate because the Microsoft side of the argument is that this is their valu

Credibility does matter

[mangu (126918)]

if this blogger said it ran on Linux, /. would have demanded more proof

Of course, because everybody knows Linux has always been much more reliable than anything that comes from Microsoft.

Re:

[phoenixwade (997892)]

So /. just takes the word from some blogger that "claims" to have worked on the show?

How much you want to bet if this blogger said it ran on Linux, /. would have demanded more proof or conveniently forgotten about that blog?

More Proof?

How about this:

The New tears Seattle show was produced and directed by Pyro Spectaculars. who list the Seattle shows as well as the Olympics, and a number of other very well known fireworks shows as events they've managed. They do not, however, list the software they use on their website.

On the Infinity Visions [infinityvisions.com] website we find news items listing the same shows as being managed by the software they market, including the 2005 Seattle show. The software is windows only (it is vist

Re:

[mikelieman (35628)]

Seconded. If you're a PRO, and your Show Control is important, then you have duplicates in place for everything which would stop the show.

I wonder if you can have the manual-firing and show control up at the same time, so that, although it runs automatically, there's someone still hitting the contacts to fire them by hand. Once they see the show-control computer is running right, they can stop doing it manually, but still follow the cues in-case it goes down again...

Re:

[farker haiku (883529)]

It says "BSOD" in several places in the article. Unless you are writing bad drivers, (which I'd admit may have been an issue, seeing as they are interacting with hardware, the fireworks squibbs) software or data problems should not be able to cause an OS crash unless your OS sucks. (though the squibb board was likely USB controlled)

I'm just curious... what drugs are you on? I just searched both articles and neither said anything about a BSOD except for a comment half way through one of the article. I mean

Re:

[Killjoy_NL (719667)]

Home server is ;)

Re:

[DAldredge (2353)]

Care to list all the ext2/ext3 file corruption bugs that have existed in Linux over the past 5 years?

Re:

[LizardKing (5245)]

Would you care to list them? Apart from errors caused by people using old ext3 journals after they'd accidentally mounted a partition as ext2 and modified it, I'm aware of no recent reports of file corruption bugs. There was an invalid inode size problem about a year ago that could cause a system hang, but as I understood it ext2 and ext3 couldn't create that invalid size itself.

Re:

[Marcos Eliziario (969923)]

Don't we agree that if it DOES corrupt files, there's no reason we must believe it won't corrupt system files, like the registry?
Actually, it would be rather nasty if we found out that the "Periodical Windows File Corruption Routines" spared system files.

Re:

[someone300 (891284)]

Google this:
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

That seems to happen quite randomly, not sure of the cause, but it's happened to me on three (of five) systems, after a clean shutdown and all that. One of those times it happened on holiday, when I didn't have time to fix it, and another time it happened just as I was about to leave to a LAN party. :D Lucky eh?

Re:

[Ash-Fox (726320)]

Windows is not known to 'spontaneously corrupt' OS files any more than Linux is.

Recently it is [computerworld.com].

Re:

[Ash-Fox (726320)]

Windows is not known to 'spontaneously corrupt' OS files any more than Linux is.

Recently it is [computerworld.com].

Doesn't run on Windows®

[lililalancia (752496)]

Shouldn't that be "the show doesn't 'run' on Windows" ?

It's obvious what happened

[Sadsfae (242195)]

Someone wasn't there click "Allow" when the dialog popped up asking "Are you sure you want to proceed with the fireworks extravaganza?"

Re:It's obvious what happened

[ThePromenader (878501)]

I bet it was that &%^$&%^ talking paper clip that screwed things up. Or perhaps the "search dog" chose an untimely moment to go for a piss...

Re:It's obvious what happened

[kie (30381)]

it looks like you're trying to light a firework,
do you want help with that?

Obviously...

[WiglyWorm (1139035)]

Those fireworks were not vista Certified.

Sounds Vaguely Familiar

[sk999 (846068)]

From the article: "The source of the problem is reported to be a corrupted file ..."

Gee, who can guess which version of Windows they were running?

Microsoft's Windows Home Server corrupts files [computerworld.com]?

Last MS caused disaster...

[Hymer (856453)]

Is this 2007th's last Microsoft caused disaster...
...or 2008th first ?
The best part is that it happened in Microsofts backyard.
--
Just trying to get my first "Funny" tag in 2008 ;-)

You need more data before you jump to conclusions

[director_mr (1144369)]

Unless you know what the file was stored on, what interactions with the computer caused the halting of the program and on what basis they decided to continue manually, you are jumping to conclusions. One guy even claimed there was BSOD mentioned in the article (nowhere was it mentioned I can see). After years of supporting computers and servers, I can confidently tell you there is no way of knowing what caused the glitches from the article. A corrupted file on which several pieces of hardware are going to coordinate something as complicated as a fireworks display is probably not caused by the operating system, as the operating system has no reason to modify the file at all, and will only be reading it. More likely is a malfunctioning hard drive, possibly bad media that was used to transfer the file from one location to another, Or possibly a bad connection between the file storing device and the computer running the program. If you look up corrupted file you will see that every operating system known to man has to deal with that. There is no operating system that can magically correct the corrupted file and cause a fireworks display to run correctly. That is just silly talk.

How about the reputation of the fireworks people?

[gnutoo (1154137)]

Pyro Spectaculars [wikipedia.org]. They have been in business for 30 years, have done multiple Olympic game shows and do other high profile shows every year. You can compare that to M$'s reputation for screwing everything up.

Re:You need more data before you jump to conclusio

[Marcos Eliziario (969923)]

After years of supporting computers and servers, I can confidently tell you there is no way of knowing what caused the glitches from the article.

If you said, "after years dealing with kernel code" I would buy your argument.

Re:You need more data before you jump to conclusio

[aethera (248722)]

From what little we have to go on in the article, it looks like there was a problem with syncing to time code. It's been a few years since I last did time as a tech at a major theme park, but our fireworks shows looked a little like this: There was a dedicated computer running the pyro controls, one running sound playback, one controlling the lasers, one controlling lights and fog, and one controlling some miscellany such as a 70mm film projector and the large water pumps that produced a screen the movie was rear-projected onto. All of these computers could be a little buggy given that this was in the days of windows 98 and getting device drivers to play nice was always a problem. But this stuff was worked out long before showtime. The biggest problem that could show up at the last minute would be the SMPTE time code that keeps it all synced up. One intermittent cabling problem somewhere in the system could cause a computer to get bad or no time code signal at all, causing at least that one element to not playback correctly. The best way to solve this problem was to notice it ASAP, usually in the few seconds of preroll before the show starts so that you can manually sync everything at a predetermined point. But there really is no ability to pause just one element or speed up others. Once you're off time code, you're going to have to go manual, and at least with pyro with all of the different fuse delays involved, manual just isn't going to be quite right. The only other last minute problem I could think of would be a corrupted file, or more than likely a revision that wasn't saved correctly or an outdated file being loaded automatically by the show control software and no one verifying that it was the proper version. These holiday shows are a one off, of course, so there is no dress rehearsel. You can run all the simulations you want, but you only get to fire off the pyro once.

Re:

[Obsidian Butterfly (1133957)]

Everything you just said would've cost more money. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a priority.

Re:

[Ash-Fox (726320)]

Everything you just said would've cost more money. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a priority.

I'm pretty sure getting contracts next year is a priority never mind actually doing what they were employed to do. This is a big priority for that reason.

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I'm pretty sure that wasn't a priority.

I'm pretty sure it is now.

Re:

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

There are many ways to keep the risk of corruption low. Hell, if you know the CRC of the original, valid table and have a live backup of the file available in case the primary is damaged, you can avoid problems like this. A better approach is to CRC individual records in the file: if one is found to be corrupt as the firing sequence is proceeding, restore it from a backup file and continue. If that doesn't work, skip the corrupt record and continue with show.

Running a fireworks show is not a high availab

The Blue Screen of... OOOhhh! AHhhhh!!

[jpellino (202698)]

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Hello 2008...just like 2007

[davmoo (63521)]

And yes ... one blog commenter, claiming to have worked on prior shows, said that the shows run on Windows

And yes ... this has not one goddamned thing to do with the reported problem.

I see Slashdot is going to resort to low brow sensationalism just as much in 2008 as they did in 2007.

New Years Resolution

[Plutonite (999141)]

Ballmer can help you launch chairs, not fireworks. Use FOSS for a happy new year.

Why Windows?

[kilodelta (843627)]

I've seen so many instances of BSOD's on things like gas pumps, ATM's, etc. Windows sucks. Am I using it, yes I am. I'm well familiar with its eccentricities. Would I use it for mission critical projects, hell no.

At least they didn't use the Window's "time" stuff

[Craptastic Weasel (770572)]

Yeah, it could have been worse, imagine if they used the algorithm from the program that determines how long a file will take to to transfer...

10... 9... 80.. 6430... 6... -3..

happy new years :)

Re:Real Story

[jacquesm (154384)]

fuck those assholes.

Dear Taco,

I realize retirement is good but could you please come out of hiding, fix the code that shows the url a link points to in case it redirects...

And if not then please release the IPS of these clowns, I promise I won't leave any traces.

Happy new year

Re:

[RobertLTux (260313)]

in support of your campaign i have put *.myminicity.com\* into my adblock filterset

Re:

[phoenixwade (997892)]

dunno why you got modded "troll", i thought it was funny.

the mods are smoking shitty crack i guess...

Because the losers who have minishitty sites get mod points every now and then too.... It balances out after a while, though......

Re:

[Quarters (18322)]

Yeah, a whole 7 hrs and 33 minutes after the event. Well, more like 7 hrs and 27 minutes since there was a six minute pause during the show. Wow, Slashdot posters/moderators are the worst for having to, you know, sleep!

Re:

[mangu (126918)]

Why is Windows relevant to this story at all?

Because of their past history [computerworld.com]. It's a common legal practice to take into account former violations [wikipedia.org] when accusing someone.

Re:

[caluml (551744)]

That's not the case in every country though - I don't believe that to be the case in the UK. A case is judged on the evidence presented at the time, relevant to the specific alleged offence.

Re:

[Oktober Sunset (838224)]

the ghost of Jebus was obviously pissed off that we celebrated the wrong year as his 2000th birthday, and so decided to haunt our computers on the wrong year as revenge. Expect him to be haunting computers all through the year as an expression of his anger.