03.11.10
Microsoft and Toyota
Summary: Where Toyota’s problems intersect with Microsoft’s
FOR those who know nothing about the incident that affects Toyota, here is a new article of interest:
Toyoda said that when his company gets a complaint about a mechanical problem, engineers set to work trying to duplicate the problem in their labs to find out what went wrong.
Norton said: “Your answer — we’ll wait to see if this is duplicated — is very troublesome.” Norton asked Toyoda why his company waited until a problem recurred to try to diagnose it, which is exactly what he was not saying.
Members of Congress are generally lawyers and politicians, not engineers. But they are launching investigations and creating policies that have a direct impact on the designers and builders of incredibly complex vehicles — there are 20,000 parts in a modern car — so there are some basics they should understand. Chief among them: The only way to credibly figure out why something fails is to attempt to duplicate the failure under observable conditions. This is the engineering method.
Greenfield from ZDNet has published what he calls “Microsoft’s Toyota Letter” and a reader sent us some information about the Toyota fiasco.
Is Toyota’s software problem a Microsoft problem? I’m finding their fingerprints on a lot of this. A partner of theirs did a lot of software for them and Microsoft invaded the ITRON world of Japan in 2001 and 2003. Microsoft’s invasion of automotive control systems created similar problems for BMW in the late 90′s.
In 2001 Toyota used Keane to develop software for their cars.
They are a Microsoft Gold Partner.
Just look at their home page:
http://www.keane.com/Ewwwww!
Am I on to something here? Was Toyota dumb enough to make Prius and other vehicles dependent on .NET and C#? I’d look into this some more, but it’s time for me to sleep. I’ll bet more digging will find a stinking Microsoft center to Toyota’s recent problems.
This forum discussion points to something called itron a sort of non free unix.
They link to the Free software-hostile Linux Insider:
Which has this gem. Microsoft sought to corrupt ITRON
In late September, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) surprised the industry by joining the T-Engine Forum. Microsoft intends to work with the Forum to establish specifications for an environment in which the T-Kernel and Windows CE can coexist on the T-Engine hardware reference platform.Microsoft will continue to develop its own OS, but the company hopes T-Engine developers will be attracted to Windows CE’s user interfaces. The company will demonstrate prototypes derived from the joint effort at December’s Tokyo TronShow. Microsoft’s decision to join the T-Engine Forum is not without irony. The company was the main beneficiary of U.S. government actions against the TRON project in 1989.
A Microsoft damaged ITRON malfunction would be about as damaging to Microsoft as a Windows malfunction because it shows that non free software from Microsoft does the same sorts of things regardless of OS. Junk is junk no matter what you run it on and GNU/Linux infused with Microsoft will be not do well.
Given these hints of Microsoft involvement in the cock up, it’s funny to see Microsoft pretending to come to the rescue.
Inside the car QNX from Lucent Actel provides wide area networking and other services
http://www.ngconnect.org/ecosystem/connected-car.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QNXThe vehicle uses Bluetooth to suck information from cell phones, so that the car’s built in phone is synced with the one in your pocket. This was the center of some Windows-centric security hype and it may have been a vector for Microsoft corruption but nothing seems to have come of that.
The car is also supposed to be able to talk to iPhone.
Well, iPhones are becoming widespread. And now that Apple’s market valuation soars, former Microsoft employee John Carroll blasts Apple in his ZDNet blog. He also smeared OLPC while hiding his Microsoft roots.
“Microsoft promises to be more like Apple,” says Fudzilla.
The New York Times, which is one of Apple’s favourite newspapers, has been seen giving Microsoft a bit of a hit with a rubber hose. Microsoft is quoted as saying that it has learnt a lot from the way Apple has gone into the mobile market and it will be learning from what it did.
So Microsoft admits copying Apple, just as Steve Jobs admits "stealing" from other companies. █
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Needs Sunlight said,
March 11, 2010 at 9:44 am
What about Microsoft Partners (and thus Microsoft Products) and the Arlington National Cemetery scandal?
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/12/10/arlington