[ale] Windows crashes L.A. Airport

[jdr at xcorps.net (Jonathan Rickman)]

> This happened after an [downgrade] from Unix to Windows. I 
> don't think blame should be assigned to the technician who 
> missed the task; rather, it seems a gross oversight for the 
> FAA to guarantee that such a critical system will crash after 
> only one missed maintenance task. Who's really at fault?"  
> [My Linux firewall has been up for about 500 days.  Many 
> suspect that the recent Northeast blackout was caused by a 
> Windows virus.

In all fairness to Microsoft, the cause of the crash was apparently a poorly
written application, rather than Windows itself. That fact was lost in the
MS flame fest that this posting turned into over at /. though the original
poster is correct in his assessment that this should have never been on
Windows to begin with.

Now that blackout thing probably has a measure of truth to it, based on what
several colleagues have discussed with me privately, as well as what I've
seen first hand in that industry.

--
Jonathan "Fair and balanced, but planning to buy stock in Hertz" Rickman