

Microsoft server crash leaves 800 planes in the air without air traffic control - kirubakaran
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?newsid=2275

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seshadripv
The artcile is dated 21 September 2004. Does it make sense to revisit
something 4 years old?

(I am new to hacker news, not sure if posting older articles are okay)

~~~
jmzachary
No, it doesn't make sense. But it's a cheap way to get karma points.

~~~
kirubakaran
Not if the issue is still relevant :-)

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cstejerean
"The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent
a data overload"

Sounds like improperly designed software and it's not the first time I've seen
people try to sell solutions that require a periodic reboot to cover up for
poorly written code. Why in the world does a system in charge of air traffic
control need to be rebooted every 2 months?

~~~
gojomo
[49.7 days in milliseconds]

49.7 days = 4 294 080 000 milliseconds

[2^32]

2^32 = 4 294 967 296

It's not 'data overload' but overflow of an unsigned 32-bit int time field
they're worried about.

~~~
allenbrunson
it almost certainly has to do with the win32 function GetTickCount(), which
rolls over every 49.7 days

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GetTickCount>

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prakash
Why would one want to use windows for something as critical as ATC? As if
there weren't enough problems out there with antiquated planes, etc. Yikes!

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kirubakaran
During new year celebrations in Seattle, they had to reboot Windows right in
the middle of the fireworks! That took too long , so they had to set off the
pyro manually.

[http://kirubakaran.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-year-gift-
from-o...](http://kirubakaran.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-year-gift-from-our-
rich-uncle-mike.html)

That was no way of the same magnitude as the ATC crash, but still the failure
was so real and viivd as I was there in person.

~~~
gduffy
The blog you link to,
<http://blogs.king5.com/archives/2008/01/computer_glitch.html>, says that the
error was due to a corrupted file (assuming this means for the firework
control software).

~~~
kirubakaran
First, when questioned by the TV crews, the pyro guys refused to say what OS
they were running. They did say that they had to reboot the computer. Then
later (may be after suits with duffel bags arrived) they said that it was just
due to a corrupted file. It was a screw up big enough to be worthy of a cover
up (since it touched the common man).

It sounds like a nut-job conspiracy theory but I have difficulty giving MS the
benefit of the doubt.

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swombat
"The shutdown is intended to keep the system from becoming overloaded with
data and potentially giving controllers wrong information about flights,
according to a software analyst cited by the LA Times."

What the hell? Data overload?? Maybe someone should tell them about garbage
collection?...

Daniel

