Capture the Hog: BSOD Strikes The Bay
Blue Screen of Death (photo by Sean Galbraith)
For the last few days, the four giant display "screens" at The Bay downtown have been crashed. Could this be the world's largest BSOD?
UPDATE (Nov10, 11am):
This photo, taken last night, suggests that someone finally got to the source and fixed it. Thanks for dropping your photo in our pool, Jen44!
Comments (47)
I actually once did catch the giant LG tower glitching out ... it was frozen with a pop-up window saying "Script error -- do you want to continue running scripts on this page?" It was delightful.
ben probably wants to be able to read the error code so he can cold call the Bay and offer to fix their bad disk sector :P
ha!
Unfortunately, the original isn't readable anymore than this is. The "signs" aren't really signs. They are hanging string of lights that, from a far, can produce images. But they are too widely spaced to read text.
I saw a similar thing on one of the screens in Times Square once.
I love when those screens crash.
I love it more when it's not noticed by the person in charge of the screen for a while.
This reminds me of an error message I saw on an electronic billboard in New York York last October.
Photo: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/112/274138819_dada8a6440_b.jpg
If this doesn't let that part of the world know that Macs are TRULY where it's at, then, I fear, not much more will.
uzuff - The TO in BlogTO is for Toronto.
I saw this the other night but didn't have my camera with me.
I remember watch something like that in the screen of Paris Hotel in Las Vegas. Actually I have one photo, but I don't had time to put its somewhere... LOL xD
Thanks Sean,
I was hoping to be able to read it. It's nice to have anyway (I put it in my backgrounds rotation).
HappyPanda 
on November 12, 2007 3:16 AM
I can't help but wonder what would happen if a UNIX based system ran that thing and displayed a "kernel panic". Would people start running around screaming like morons on their way to the shelters?
This is why (I tell my students) you will NEVER see Microsoft Windows used in the space program, nuclear power plants, or in life-support systems in hospitals. In other words--no place where life and limb is at stake.
HappyPanda, In perhaps 20 years of working with Unix (and more recently, Linux) systems, on many different hardware platforms, I've seen a "kernel panic" exactly once, and the pot of coffee spilled on the top of that particular machine that day probably had something to do with it. If it's "mission-critical," folks tend to pick Unix on big boxes and Linux on desktop boxes. MS Windows has 95% of the desktop/consumer market, but 98% of the servers on the Internet are running Unix/Linux. Any questions?
I have been working with systems for 36 years and have seen every system crash more than once. In 80% of the cases it is related to user / operator error / lack of attention, like coffee on server, This week alone I have had 3 Unix systems bite the farm. Please check the 98% of Servers number, you must remember the internet is world wide, The Linux / Unix / Window numbers depend entirely how the question is asked, and where you are asking.
"Umm, I've got news for you. Most ATM machines run on NT."
Um, news for you....no they don't. Try OS/2 or any flavour of Linux/Unix...not NT.
Hello,
In the UK, certain bank machines (ATM) do run Windows NT or 2000. This worries me as I often to see my local ATM (near the office) with a "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Error" popup on the screen.
As a Linux user, I tend not to use that machine very often (only in emergencies), as I often wonder if the runtime error could occur after your bank balance is updated but before the cash is dispensed.
Bloody Windows!
There were unused icons on the desktop in Times Square last July: http://a733.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/74/l_d2f98438971626672da2b768843a0adc.jpg
Sean's photo was recently featured in an article on the most infamous error messages of all time: http://technologizer.com/2008/09/18/errormessage/
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