Bonum Certa Men Certa

Relying on Windows Sometimes Results in Death, Microsoft's Fog Computing Breaks Down Again

Misty morning



Summary: Another look at the Windows-BP disaster, the Windows-Spanair disaster, and evidence of negligence from Microsoft; Microsoft's hosted software is collapsing again (unavailable)

YESTERDAY we wrote about BP and Spanair. They both showed that Windows does kill people sometimes. "More stupid stuff from the crippled OS and Microsoft mail servers has come to the surface in the Deepwater Horizon disaster," writes one reader of ours regarding this new article which says: "Winslow said he tried several times to use remotely operated vehicles -- unmanned submarines -- to execute a "hot stab," in which the underwater robots plug hydraulics on the blowout preventer on the sea floor to try to force it to close off the top of the well. Winslow said he was sent directions and schematics, but his e-mail couldn't handle the size of the computer files and he wasn't able to look at several of them."



“More stupid stuff from the crippled OS and Microsoft mail servers has come to the surface in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
      --Anonymous
"Don't you wish everyone had a secure and sane corporate library/file sharing infrastructure built on OpenSSH and Konqueror," asked this reader. "Failing that, could they at least run decent any of the mail clients and reasonable mail servers available with every free software distribution? People, please, please stop spending buckets of money on IIS, Exchange, Outlook, Sharepoint and other completely inadequate software."

IDG has this new post titled "Murder by malware: Can computer viruses kill?" [via]

It gave me chills when the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that computer viruses may have contributed to the Spanair plane crash which killed 154 people in Madrid two years ago. The 12,000 page accident summary report explains that the Spanair central computer was trojan-infected and therefore failed to trigger an alarm which would have grounded the plane.

Then F-Secure's Mikko Hypponen posted about real-world infrastructure that has been affected by computer problems. The 2003 computer worm Slammer slowed the entire Internet, crashed automatic teller machines and emergency phone systems, slowed air traffic control systems, and took down computer monitoring of a nuclear power plant. He emphasized that malware induced problems in real-life systems were byproducts of worms.

Hypponen also mentioned the worms Blaster and Welchi which messed up banking systems, and some airline systems were fouled up enough to cancel flights. It also attacked automatic teller machines, the U.S. State Department's Visa system, as well as CSX train signaling systems which halted some commuter trains.


The DLL hijacking issue mentioned in that same post about Spanair is confirmed by Microsoft now, but Microsoft won't fix the problem. This is another example of wilful negligence [1, 2, 3].

“There is no excuse for negligence, as opposed to incompetence for example.”Microsoft's software is not reliable partly due to Microsoft making it so. There is no excuse for negligence, as opposed to incompetence for example. In the previous post we explained how Microsoft is 'openwashing' Fog Computing and based on this new report from Reuters, Microsoft also gives Fog Computing a bad name. "Microsoft BPOS cloud suite hit by access problems," says the headline and BPOS is of course based on Windows and the rest of Microsoft's stack, which is neither mature nor properly tested by many developers.

Access to various Microsoft hosted software products for businesses in North America was affected due to a performance issue with its data center in the region on Monday.

The problem lasted more than two hours, between 8:30 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, and impacted "some customers in North America" who experienced "intermittent access to our data center," Microsoft said in a statement.

"The outage was caused by a network issue that is now fully resolved, and service has returned to normal. During the duration of the issue, customers were updated regularly via our normal communication channels. We sincerely apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this incident may have caused them," reads the statement.


Some downtimes of this kind last a whole day. Microsoft blames a "network issue", but Reuters speaks about a "performance issue". It's possible that someone is lying. Either way, customers lacked access to software they paid for and relied on.

Recent Techrights' Posts

1989: Free Software as "Open" Software (OSI Didn't Coin "Open Source", It Also Predates Linux)
"One man's fight for Free software"
Linux Journal Might Have Become the Latest Slopfarm Targeting "Linux", the Trends Are Concerning for Dying News Sites
They tarnish the Web with junk and then die
On "Learning to Code"
quality may suffer, plus things get bloated
Quick Points Regarding This Week's Court Hearing
it paves the way for us to squash all the SLAPPs from Microsofters
 
Microsoft's Competition Tactics: Sabotage GNU/Linux Installs, Block Chrome
Edge is dying
The Microsoft OOXML Modus Operandi: Throw 1,000 Pages of Other People's Work for a Judge to Read Ahead of a One-Hour Meeting
No time to discuss this - that's the point
Formalities Officers (FOs) at the EPO Are in Trouble, Reveals Internal Report
We already know, based on an HR pattern we saw at IBM and elsewhere, that reallocating roles can be prerequisite for dismissal and those who do so expect many to resign anyway
The Web is Slop and FUD, Let's Go to Gemini Protocol
Lupa sees self-signed capsules at 92.4%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 20, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 20, 2025
Links 21/06/2025: Phone Bans for Concerts, Tensions in Taiwan Strait
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/06/2025: Spoilers, Public Yggdrasil Node, Changes to AuraGem Search
Links for the day
"Six years of Gemini!"
From gemini://geminiprotocol.net
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Summer Updates and Hardware Failures
Links for the day
Links 20/06/2025: Google Shareholder Sues Google and Google Sued for Defamatory Slop ('Hey Hi') Word Salads ('Summaries')
Links for the day
Common Mistake: Believing Social Control Media Will Document Your Writings/Thoughts and Search Engines Like Google Will Help You Find These
Many news sites wrongly assumed that posting directly to Twitter would be acceptable
The Manchester Bees and This Hot Summer
We have had a fantastic week so far this week
Gemini Protocol Enters Its Seventh Year, Growth Has Accelerated!
Maybe in June 20 2026 there will be over 3,500 active capsules?
Mastodon and the Fediverse Have an Issue: Liability for Content (Even in Other Instances) and Costs
self-hosting is the only logical path forward
Why Microsoft and Its 'Hey Hi' (Slop) Frenzy Fail While Sinking in Deep, Growing Debt
Right now, like Twitter around the time it was sold to MElon, "open" "hey hi" is a big pile of debt with a lot to pay for that debt (interest payments)
Europe is Leaving Microsoft, the Press Coverage Isn't Sufficiently Helpful
The news is generally positive, but the press coverage leaves so much to be desired
Slopwatch: Linuxsecurity, BetaNews, and Linux Journal
slippery slope
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 19, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/06/2025: Gemini Protocol Turns 6!
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2025: Ghostwriting Scam and Fentanylware (TikTok) Buying Time
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows is a Niche Operating System in Africa
African nations aren't a large contributor to Microsoft's income, but if many African nations move away from Windows, then the monopoly is at risk
Gemini Links 19/06/2025: Unix Primitivism, Zine Club, and Gemini Protocol Turns 6 at Midnight
Links for the day
Links 19/06/2025: WhatsApp Identified as Assassination 'Crosshairs', Patreon Now Rips Off People Even More
Links for the day
"Told You So": Another Very Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs Now Confirmed in Mainstream Media
So we were right to believe the rumours, based on the credibility of prior such rumours
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 18, 2025