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

[thermian]

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

Re:well

[baldass_newbie]

They paid 40 billion for that ceremony.

But was it a pirated copy of Windows?

Oh, stop it!

[morgan_greywolf]

BSOD's are no longer a problem! They haven't been since Windows XP! BSOD's were only a problem in the Win 9x days! Windows today is wayyyy stable! My Windows box hasn't crashed ever!

*tongue firmly planted in cheek*

Re:Oh, stop it!

[gEvil (beta)]

*tongue firmly planted in cheek*

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

That was on Stadium...

[should_be_linear]

... 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

[PJCRP]

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

Re:well

[mweather]

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

Re:well

[The End Of Days]

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.

omg! Proof!

[urcreepyneighbor]

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

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

Where the haha tag?

[UnknowingFool]

Nelson (points finger at Bill Gates): haha

Seriously where's the haha tag?

Re:well

[TechnoBunny]

'In fairness to Microsoft'

What are you, some kind of shill?

Re:Videos

[JCSoRocks]

From china? Good luck! They've long since taken any digital recording device that was present and "corrected" the images it captured before returning it to its owner (if they were lucky).

Re:Bill was there?

[snoyberg]

Please... no single human could code that much bloat.

Re:Eh, so what?

[hey!]

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

Re:Eh, so what?

[Capt James McCarthy]

"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:Bill was there?

[JCSoRocks]

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!"

Re:Might as well get used to it

[Swizec]

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.

big deal

[speedtux]

The copy of Windows probably wasn't licensed anyway. You can't expect unlicensed, unsupported Microsoft software not to crash :-)

Re:Eh, so what?

[db32]

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.

Re:well

[Joe the Lesser]

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

Re:well

[ArsonSmith]

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:omg! Proof!

[Joe the Lesser]

You are about to bend a spoon.

Cancel or Allow?

Re:well

[Joe the Lesser]

Perhaps it was shanghaid.

Priceless!

[zappepcs]

Olympic Ceremony - $40 Million
Tickets to Olympics - $??????
Windows Computer - $1000
Windows XP OS - $400

Being able to tap the president on the shoulder, then point up at the BSOD screen and say "I did that" - Fucking Priceless

Re:well

[value_added]

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.

BSOD was CGI!

[Coolhand2120]

After a closer examination of the evidence it has come forth that the BSOD was actually CGI superimposed on the roof to make the U.S. audience viewing at home feel more familiar with Chinese technology. At selected venues around the world the BSOD was replaced with a kernel panic screen and even a Mac classic bomb.

Re:Might as well get used to it

[JosKarith]

Well then don't take the red pill...

Re:well

[omeomi]

there is an option to turn off rebooting on blue screen. It comes in handy if you actually want to see the error ...

And you feel that this is one of those instances?

Re:Eh, so what?

[nedlohs]

Not if you are in QA/testing...

Re:well

[kesuki]

next thing you'll be telling me BSD never gets hacked unless it's playing a prank on it's admin.

Re:well

[Barsteward]

Are you sure its not "People's Republic in China" i.e. PRiC :o)

Re:well

[Anonymous Coward]

I once ran Linux off of a microwave, a watch battery and a oscilloscope. They call me... McTux

Re:omg! Proof!

[dubbreak]

There is no spoon...
Abort,Retry,Fail

Re:well

[dotancohen]

next thing you'll be telling me BSD never gets hacked unless it's playing a prank on it's admin.

BSD never gets hacked unless it's playing a prank on it's admin.

Re:In fairness to software engineering

[tehcyder]

No, people who are reasonable and levelheaded always trot out that one.

So, unlikely to have been seen on slashdot before then?

Re:Doesnt look like a BSOD...

[bigstrat2003]

I pay Apple alot of money to ensure no BSODs.

No, you pay them a lot of money for "ooh shiney".

Re:Oh, stop it!

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

My Windows box hasn't crashed ever!

Ah! Keeping it in mint condition, I see.

Re:What's their motivation....

[mhall119]

Good point, Windows should identify the offending driver, read it's manufacturer info, then shame the creator on the BSoD.

"A fatal exception has occurred because CheapHardware's Crappy802.11g device driver was written by mildly retarded gibbons."

Re:In fairness to software engineering

[kwabbles]

There's a basic design flaw in how normal computers operate that requires this sort of behavior from kernels, which leads to bad drivers affecting them. If you can name one system ready for general purpose for which this isn't true I would love to hear about it.

GNU Hurd

Re:Eh, so what?

[dotancohen]

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

You are not invited into my house anymore.

Re:well

[mattwarden]

Macs only crash when you use the grammatically incorrect version of i

computing resources ... :)

[rs232]

"the number and power of the computing resources involved was probably pushing the limit"

You mean just to project a video onto the roof. I've got an old 500MB, PC that can play DVDs without problem. It runs on Yoper [yoper.com], you should try it, runs encrypted DVDs straight out of the box, no config issues.

Re:well

[level_headed_midwest]

It was one of the two legit copies in the country?

obvious justification: brand identity

[Narcocide]

...after all, if it had just done its job flawlessly there'd be no way for the crowd to know it was a microsoft product.

Re:well

[igny]

I am pretty sure Chinese call their country Translation Server Error

Re:Faked

[OldManAndTheC++]

• Man: Wow! That was the best sex I ever had! Was it good for you too?
• Woman: Oh, yeah.
• Man: For real? You weren't faking?
• Woman: No, not exactly.
• Man: Huh?
• Woman: Well, I was simulating...
• Man: Whew! That's a relief!

Re:In fairness to software engineering

[Monsuco]

I have almost never (either with my own machines or at work) seen a BSOD that wasn't caused by faulty hardware.

Then you must not be using Vista.

Re:well

[ORBAT]

Regardless, I can see some heads rolling as result from this failure.

China being China they might take that a tad too literally.

Re:In fairness to software engineering

[Hal_Porter]

I've actually had my Macbook Pro freeze more times in the last year than my Windows machine. In fact, it even hung once when I closed the lid and tried to fry itself with the backlight.

You know you've got an unpleasant personality when computers try to kill themselves rather than work with you.