BSOD Makes Appearance at Olympic Opening Ceremonies

Whiteox writes "A BSOD was projected onto the roof of the National Stadium during the grand finale to the four-hour spectacular at the Olympics. Lenovo chairman Yang Yuanqing chose to go with XP instead of Vista because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games. His comment on Vista? 'If it's not stable, it could have some problems,' he said. Evidently Bill Gates attended the opening ceremony, so he must have witnessed it."

well

They paid 40 billion for that ceremony. I can't see this improving their opinion of Microsoft much.

Re:well

They paid 40 billion for that ceremony.

But was it a pirated copy of Windows?

Re:well

It's the Chinese Olympics. What do you think?

Re:well

Perhaps it was shanghaid.

Re:well

It's the Chinese Olympics. What do you think?

Actually, the reality is just as funny:

Microsoft is designated as an official supplier to the 2008 Olympic Games.

When you can't or don't need to "embrace, extend, and extinguish", sponsor!

My own opinion is that not anticipating a blue screen is like attending a Budweiser-sponsored sporting event and expecting to get real beer.

Re:well

I can't see this improving their opinion of Microsoft much.

In fairness to Microsoft, blue screens are normally due to bad hardware drivers. Whatever that thing actually was, it certainly wasn't a normal monitor and I'll bet the drivers are rather specific. And the less people use them, the fewer bugs are found.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:well

That's no excuse. No installation of Linux has ever crashed in the history of the universe. Microsoft should be held to no less a standard.

Re:well

A Linux installation crashes if and only if it doesn't respect it's user.

Re:well

exactly I hate this crap from Microsoft. It should be able to do like Linux and when there's a hardware problem it just reroutes power through the main deflector to fix it.

Re:well

'In fairness to Microsoft'

What are you, some kind of shill?

Re:well

Be realistic for a second please, you think on show as grand as the opening ceremonies only had one glitch? Seriously?

There is no such thing as a show this big without multiple (read a lot) of glitches. They are covered up well, quickly fixed, or not noticed, but they are there. This one was just in the open for everyone to see.

That was on Stadium...

... but for TV audience around the Globe, image was different, they used CG to convert BSOD into neato Compiz Cube animations.

Here's a game

10 points to the first person to can say what went wrong [livefilestore.com] :U

Might as well get used to it

Visible computer glitches pop up in the most unexpected places these days. I went to a 25th anniversay screening of Wargames at a local theater recently. I wasn't even aware that I was in a digital theater until about halfway through the movie their server lost connection to the host and the movie theater screen suddenly turned into a giant Windows desktop. It was a little unnerving (I had thought I was looking at an actual film).

I think it's something we will just get used to seeing in this increasingly digital age. I just hope I'm not driving down the street one day and see a "lost connection to server" message flashing on a stoplight.

Re:Might as well get used to it

I just hope someday I'm not driving down the street and see a "lost connection to server" message flashing instead of The Reality!

That would totally freak me out.

Eh, so what?

All computers crash - I've made Linux, BSD, OSX, and Solaris machines kernel panic. Hell, I've witnessed a newer zSeries mainframe crash.

The fact that it happened at an inopportune moment is unfortunate, but that's life.

Re:Eh, so what?

Actually, a zSeries mainframe crashing at an opportune moment would be more remarkable than it crashing at an inopportune one.

Re:Eh, so what?

"All computers crash - I've made Linux, BSD, OSX, and Solaris machines kernel panic. Hell, I've witnessed a newer zSeries mainframe crash."

And you seem so proud of that. The goal is to make the systems function, not crash.

Re:Eh, so what?

But so few fail in such a spectacular fashion. I have never seen a kernel panic delivered in anything other than terminal font on a black and white screen. The BSOD is called the BSOD because MS, in their infinite wisdom, opened themselves up to such a joke by deciding to deliver critical system messages with a "calming" blue background and white text. And then doing so very very frequently in the early days.

Honestly, they should just make it a black screen with some fireworks and a "Congratulations, You Crashed Windows Again!". You know, make it a more positive experience for the user.

omg! Proof!

We're living in the Matrix! And the Matrix runs Windows!

No wonder my life is a pile of shit. :)

Re:omg! Proof!

You are about to bend a spoon.

Cancel or Allow?

Faked

I wonder if this was faked like the fireworks?

BSOD? Big deal!

The BSOD is just the icing on the cake of this story. The real interesting bit is the fact that Vista lost out again to the superiority of XP,...

Re:Oh, stop it!

*tongue firmly planted in cheek*

You're talking about BillG's asscheek, right? : p

Re:Bill was there?

He probably cackled maniacally and shouted over the top of the fireworks, "I made that screen blue! Bill Gates owns the Olympics! Maybe if you dirty pirates had bought a legitimate copy it would have worked better!"