Dreaded Blue Screen of Death strikes Olympics

(Credit: Crave Asia)

The world watched in awe as China put on what some say was the best-ever Olympics opening ceremony ever. The proceedings culminated with the lighting of the Olympic torch by one of China's sporting greats, Li Ning, who was hanging from a wire high above the crowd. Who would have thought that at the same time, one of the stadium's projectors was displaying the famous Microsoft Blue Screen of Death?

Some eagle-eyed spectators caught it on camera, clearly showing the error message usually associated with serious software issues or hardware problems in a computer running Windows. Thankfully, this didn't mar the otherwise excellent show. Most people would have missed it with the explosion of sight and sound around them anyway.

Still, it acts as a reminder to future organizers of high-profile shows like this: writing your software in Linux or OS X could be a good option instead.

(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

[johnsbrn1]

It was most likely a pirated copy of Windows anyway

[bxu]

hi, dudu, how can you conclude it's a piracy? Can you tell me that? If you can't, just cut your crap!

[johnsbrn1]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/60-second-science/post.cfm?id=the-china-syndrome-microsoft-darken-2008-10-22
82% of all software in China is pirated, so statistically speaking it's highly likely that this is a pirated copy of windows, dudu.

[Penguinisto]

Cue hordes of Vista groupies claiming that it wouldn't have died if Vista were installed....

[turoa76]

hordes? lol

[sanenazok]

Like you said it's a hardware problem and these cause Kernel panics in Linux and even the beloved OS X (http://www.diyrecording.com/wp-content/uploads/macosx_kernel_panic.png). Probably using a made in China driver for some low end piece of hardware will cause it. Given that the Olympics cost $40 billion they probably should have bought some brand name stuff...I just hope that nobody disappears over this!

[bxu]

Yeah, I presume your underware would couse some...thing as it's a made in China underware.

[oldspdx]

>> writing your software in Linux or OS X could be a good option instead.

well, of course ANY OS can crash but it is usually a latent bug in the application, memory leaks, etc. Oh wait, is that my iPhone rebooting .....

[Michichael]

Penguin - Vista doesn't have a Blue screen of death in China, it's red. Duh.

[johnqh]

Come on, no matter what OS you are running, if it is a hardware problem or driver problem, it will die...whether you are running Linux, MacOS, or whatever future OS we can come up with. They simply have different colors and different terms for them...on Mac and Linux, they are called KP (kernel panic)

I am no Windows fan, but using this as an oppotunity to attack Windows is just classless.

[kelmon]

Oh, I don't know. You read so often from people these days that Windows never crashes and that the Blue Screen Of Death hasn't been seen for years that it's refreshing to see proof that it does still happen. Call this a reality check for those Windows users who believe that the BSOD is FUD

[jimwhite467]

Of course Linux would never do that. Nobody uses it !!!! The desktop market share is 1% or so :-)

[Travis Ernst]

Microsoft crashed the olympics, 2008. Something else to jot down in the books.

[phnarp]

Nothing the death of a few Tibetan monks won't cure

[gggg sssss]

obviously a piece of crap (TM) Lenovo computer. ROTFLMAO

[gerrrg]

The question is, what were they projecting to the bottom of the canvas? Can someone authenticate that photo?

[ericmatz]

The statement "writing your software in Linux or OS X" makes no sense. Not only is this poor journalism, it's poorly-written. I really need to get CNet out of my feed list.

[JasonCe]

PLEASE READ THIS

Windows kernel displays a blue screen when it detects an inconsistency in the kernel data structures and decides that to continue to execute could do more harm (such as data corruption) than just stopping. Similar functionality exists in all operating systems.

Now an "inconsistency in kernel data structures" is not always the fault of Windows itself, because all your device drivers, anti-virus/malware software etc. also run in kernel mode. You may find it interesting that according to Watson data, %96 of all blue screens are caused by these 3rd party drivers and have nothing to do with Windows.

But please, don't let facts get in the way of your non-sense Microsoft hatred.

[kelmon]

Hands up all those who didn't know this? Anyone?

What caused this is fairly immaterial and, in fairness, you have just as little knowledge of what caused this particular crash as the article's author. This is just an entertainment story that does go some way to dispelling the myth that the BSOD doesn't exist anymore.

[cfj2222]

Just another sad side effect of an OS that has to contend with millions of hardware combinations that need thousands of hardware vendors to write perfect drivers (which cost money) then get them signed by Microsoft (more money) just to get them put on Windows Update ($$$$) 50% of the drivers on my last computer threw up a red flag telling me they weren't signed. That's only because the company selling the hardware wouldn't pay a Microsoft premium. At least with mac, there are finite hardware combinations.

[stuxstu]

Hmmm, more yellow journalism from CNET... Really please rename this company/website MacAndOpenSourceFanBoy.com or just simple go back to school and retake that course on yellow journalism....

All CNET does any more is bash Microsoft and swoon over Apple. Yet at the same time CNET is all happy that Google is now at 70% of the market... That is called a monopoly...

If it wasn't for the open source coverage, I would never even read CNET...

[ewriter21]

And 50% of the people that flew from another country to get to the Olympics saw the increasing famous Linux rebooting screens when the flight attendants couldn't salvage the inflight personal video/news/music/games system any other way.

I like Linux. I don't like Microsoft. I'm realistic about the flaws in all OSes and the hardware faults they all have problems handling.

[SchneiderIS]

the Mac doesn't have those types of errors. Keep in mind that Apple controls all the hardware so a Blue Screen error such as Microsoft's does not occur, in any color. It just works. As a X Microsoft supporter (and heavy duty developer) I can tell yo from personal experience that there really is a difference.

[tomaras]

So what you are saying is you are certain that if a bunch of Macs had been running a bunch of custom high end video projectors with a custom application to project video around the ceiling of a huge stadium there's no possibilty of a problem?

[Travis Ernst]

I'll admit we DO get the "beach ball of death" when programs freeze on Mac, however all you have to do is Force Quit and it's gone. If you are unlucky to have it show up on the OS (finder) once in a blue moon like I did once, there is no way out but restarting. Having THAT occur is VERY rare. It would show up more often on OS9 back in the day depending on your platform.

[kelmon]

The Mac OS will quite happily crash if bad software is allowed to play in the kernel. My experience has shown that Logitech's mouse drivers will cause this, and Parallels Desktop also did this when OS X 10.5 was launched. Typically these problems seem to arise in the days and months immediately after a new release of the Mac OS where compatibility issues are hammered out. It remains a considerable shame that they occur in the first place.

[paulmarriott]

Someone Please tell Microsoft about THIS problem!

[make_or_break]

Never mind bxu's limp response, "pirated" was EXACTLY what I was thinking...considering the country it played in.

However, garbage in, garbage out...the principle is true for pirated software as it is for anything else.

[albertsoler]

I want to be one of those "classless" individuals and trash Windows -- again! Even if it wasn't Microsoft's fault, it is they that loses face once again. Full disclosure: I'm a PC. (even though I happen to be on a linux box at the moment.) But, no one pays me to make excuses for Microsoft, so I won't.

Sure sure; it was very likely an unsigned driver or something. But, it is Microsoft that is responsible for providing accurate information about the OS and setting the guidelines for driver development. Keeping certain aspects of the OS secret for the sake of protecting Intellectual Property can not be dismissed as a major cause of application instability. At least, that has been one of the many rumors.

Now, imagine this, some politicos still think that using Windows based voting machines are a good idea!

I hope the Air Force doesn't use Windows to guard our nation's nuclear arsenal. OMG -- that's too frightening to contemplate! That would give a whole new catastrophic meaning to BSOD.

[jestermorris]

hey john, yes it can happen on any OS. But, the difference is that they are less common on other OS's. I've been using linux for over two years and I've had 2 kernel panics caused by faulty hardware. Usually, from what I've found, Windows is much, MUCH, more prone to just random BSoD's from software problems. Heck, I've switched out processors (same speed, cache, etc.) and I've gotten a BSoD. With Linux I've taken a harddrive out of one machine, and put it in a totally different machine and it's worked just fine.

So, again, often times the BSoD is caused by software as well as hardware, so don't be getting all super defensive.