Unisys Smoking Hot Demo at Linux World Boston

This year's LinuxWorld Boston started off with a bang...and a fair amount of smoke. Unisys apparently had a few problems launching their first demo, as our own Robin "Roblimo" Miller reports over at Newsforge (also owned by VA Software). From the article: "Less than an hour after the show floor opened at the 2006 edition of the Boston LinuxWorld Expo today, fire alarms went off and a plume of smoke arose from the server cabinet in the Unisys display. "I knew we had a magician scheduled," said one rattled Unisys employee,"but this isn't what I expected." Indeed, this was an unexpected event. It was a real fire -- or at least a considerable smolder, complete with firemen, evacuation orders (soon rescinded), and other hoopla. Photos and a video clip included."

Included link?

Those are some sweet details and video...
Someone fall asleep at work again?

Re:Link?

They couldn't give the link to the article- it was hosted on the server that burned up.

Sounds like they were using...

a beowulf cluster of "Powerbook 5200s" (see yesterday's news...)

Let's just hope...

... they were able to show everyone the way out [google.com] during the fire.

ROFL

Someone forgot to include a link to TFA.

Luckily Google News came to the rescue

http://os.newsforge.com/os/06/04/04/169215.shtml?t id=2&tid=18&tid=3 [newsforge.com]

Link to video:
http://www.newsforge.com/blob.pl?id=02083954d3d50e 63f9af2eaad7d2090c [newsforge.com]

New Unisys motto.

Get it while it's hot!!

NO NEED TO WATCH VIDEO

Really. Just shows some light smoke coming from behind a wall. And there is a loud beeping in the background which likely comes from a fire detector. Neither flames nor servers visible and although the video is 3MB large it is only 18 seconds long.

In soviet russia...

server fires cause slashdot stories sorry.. someone had to do it

Name for next system

Seems like calling their next iteration of this system the "Phoenix" would be obvious.

Look but don't touch

I guess their boothbabes were just too hot.

In case of slashdotting:

In case of slashdotting, here is a picture:

\|/  <-----Smoke
+--+
|  | <-----Server
|  |
+--+

Odd...

Usually that happens after the /. story.

NOT a server cabinet

That was a cabinet holding, what look to this ex-stagehand, like a rack of dimmers, not servers. My guess is one channel of dimming or perhaps audio (though no one uses socopex for audio do they?) went up in smoke. It happens sometimes. Ask about the waterfall over the Christie Digital booth at NSCA 2005...

-dave

Re:NOT a server cabinet

There wasn't a whole lot to it, except that the broken sprinkler pipe soaked 4 projectors worth a combined $270k US while they were running. The real story was that the guys from Christie turned them off, mopped up, dried them out, and flipped them back on for the rest of the show. Pro gear is cool. It was also interesting when they mistakenly routed the bob scare evac notice to our exhibition hall, instead of the empty one the staff were using for evac drills on the other end of the building. There were some pictures taken as it was happening (the waterfall that is) that were posted, but I can't seem to find them now. If I dig them up I'll post a link for /.to break.

MOD PARENT UP

The lower couple of rack spaces seem to be used up by a distro box - I've seen similar types of multipin connectors used for both audio snakes and lighting. You can also make out some twist-lock power connectors and what look like BNC connectors (possibly wireless mic antenna).

Some more thoughts...

Indeed. Specifically, I see a video switcher (all those BNCs you see are fo rvideo I believe), and what looks like the back of some control equipment from a company I can't remember the name of.

The rack appears to be holding a standard compliment of either 64 or 128 channels of dimming, and also seems to be used as a stand. The soco connectors are all naked, the twist locks are L21-20s or L21-30s (120/208 3 phase 4 pole 5 wire connectors, 20 or 30 amps per phase) and are receptacles, indicating that maybe the distro in the box is being used to provide normal 120V power from a 3 phase patch point, and there just happened to be some dimming in the rack along with it. Not terribly uncommon at large conventions.

Smoking Not Allowed...

If the conference was being held in California, Unisys wouldn't been allowed to smoke their server inside the building and the server couldn't smoke within 15 feet of an entrance outside.

Happened to me in a demo...

...when I was in the Coast Guard. I was demo'ing some shiny new bar coding equipment, plugged in the barcode printer, and smoke rose and sparks flew. That kind of squelched the demo.

The Coast Guard was a big Unisys customer for a while - lots of workstations running the Convergent Technology Operating System (CTOS). I'll bet that even here on Slashdot no one's heard of CTOS...

the hindenburg

George N. Capalbo, VP of backbone networks corp., happened to be nearby with his Leica still camera. which also takes short videos. He hit the "video" button by accident, and got this clip of the rousing billow of grey smoke. "Now I know what that guy felt like at the burning of the Hindenberg back in the 30s," George said.

Yes. Just like the guy who filmed the Hinderberg. 70 years from now, this crappy video of smoke coming out of a little white tower will be as etched on the human consciousness as the Hindenberg tragedy is now. Give me a break.

ObBOFHref

source [ntk.net]

Mr Smiles likes the words "Fast", "Top of the Line" and "Expandable". He runs over to a machine surrounded in glitter and advertising and gestures at it. "This is probably what you want then. The latest thing. There's only two in the country and luckily we have one here today"

"Yes yes, but will it talk to my laptop?"

"THIS baby will talk to ANYTHING. What's the interface, ethernet?"

"No, a SCSI-1 Interface. My machine pretends to be a disk, ID 3. But lots of machines kill my machine's powersupply with inductive transience backflow due to a non-standard SCSI interface...

*DUMMY MODE ONE*

He practically BEGS me to try the new machine out. Which I've been waiting for. I drag out my luggable, which is, admittedly, a bit of a beast.

"Wow! That IS old!! And *ungh!*.. quite heavy too. I guess you're quite attached to it?"

I mumble about legacy data, only use it at home, sentimental value and irreplaceable software while he plugs it in and starts the host machine.

"Okay, let's see what we can see" he says, and presses the power-on switch on my "portable" The 31 hefty nicad batteries that make up almost the entire inside of my "laptop" pour grunt into a tripling inverter which in turn supplies RICH, CHUNKY VOLTS to alternate pins on the "SCSI" bus, whilst emitting a dull "uuurk" sound.

"My Laptop!" I cry, reaching for it, just as smoke starts pouring out the back of the display machine. Mr Smiles dives for the demo machine weeping, while I exit, in "anguish".... ...resetting the circuit breaker in my machine as I go... ..to the next stall...

Wait, evacuation?

"or at least a considerable smolder, complete with firemen, evacuation orders"

It's all OK, this is Unisys, They Have the Way Out! [google.com]

Don't worry..

Don't worry, it was just someone burning some GIFs [burnallgifs.org].

A little late though :-)

Good. They deserve it.

I hope they're embarrassed. I hope they look bad. I hope they lose business. We still remember the shit you pulled with the GIF patent, Unisys.

Re:Good. They deserve it.

Less than three, to be exact. Is your memory that bad that you can't remember something that happened 3 years ago?

Unisys' actions drove up the cost of software by demanding payments from developers who made GIF creation software. In the open source world, because of the patent issue, the GD library could not legally create GIFs until a year later in 2004. GIMP would not open or save GIFs also because of Unisys' actions.

So, our commerical software was more expensive, and our open source software was crippled because of this company. Unisys has given nothing back or made ammends. Yet, you're willing to let by gones be by gones so easily?

Tell me something, are you going to go out and buy a SCO license a couple of months after they get asses handed to them?

BURN ALL GIFS DAY!

remember "burn all gifs day"? guess the server was loaded with gif's and someone remembered...

Linux plans ahead

lp0: on fire!