Cherry, Cherry, Blue Screen Of Death 193
Falrick writes "Microsoft, the company that has its fingers in inumerable pies, decided to follow suit by also placing their toes in them with this anouncement yesterday that they will also be moving into the embedded chip market. While the article doesn't say that Microsoft will actually be producing chips, they are apparantly licensing special versions of WindowsCE for use on a variety of chips including those made by Intel, ARM and MIPS. On the upside, though, for those of you who would like to get back those licensing fees, or Microsoft Tax, that you paid on that shiny new system a few years ago, MS may also be partenering with Bally Gaming & Systems to put WindowsNT into their casino slot machines. Now, what's the payoff on three blue-screens in a row again?"
Windows on Slot Machines? (Score:1)
"Yeah, for most people the odds are 13 to 1. For me, they're 1 to 1".
Let Me Guess.. You fat bug eyed pale skinned Linux (Score:1)
Re:blackjack (Score:1)
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Offtopic, but... (Score:1)
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Uhhh.... No. (Score:1)
And have my refrigerator blue screen on me?!?! No thanks!!!
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:1)
Re:Interesting. (Score:1)
Look around you. Do your remote controls look all the same? Do all the locks on doors look the same? Do monitors have the same interface for changing "aspect ration" and stuff? Even on the Internet the web pages don't look the same. If people should have the same GUI all around, just make a standard. But look around, and see which devices have the same UI. Telephones? Maybe. I guess you can't write an email with my cellular phone.
People shouldn't think the windows UI is the best and standard, and all the others are crap. People should know that, as in real life, computers also have different interfaces, and you should adapt yourself like when you buy a new TV, CD player, car, etc.
Re:Any announcement + M$ == Bashing (Score:1)
because microsoft has conditioned the average person into accepting said poor quality?
because that mindless acceptance now bleeds into other areas?
nah, it must be because microsoft have 9 letters in their name.
Imagine what it'll do to cheaters... (Score:1)
Windows NT - suck factor for embedded systems high (Score:1)
I can't even type that without laughing. I've been watching my employer slowly bleed to death
For weeks now the switch has been up ... down ... partially disabled ... unreachable ... unuseable. It just goes on and on and on.
Despite the little 'five nines' posters in M$ colors that are up all over Los Angeles I don't think they're there yet - we should be making a 'three sixes' banner using the same colors and hanging them up around major urban areas - let the truth be known!
Re:Slot machines, a tax on people bad at math (Score:1)
Of course, the people who have won millions from the lottery or slot machines are currently laughing their heads off at your ramen noodle-eating ass. :)
Cheers,
Re:Why do it? (Score:1)
What is your experience with embedded systems? Your post sure sounds like you don't have any at all, but since you're giving out advice, surely you must have some. Please settle this seeming contradiction.
Cheers,
Re:Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:1)
Nope, because DOS is a 16-bit OS. Windows CE is a completely new (well, five-ish years old new) 32-bit operating system, written from the ground-up for embedded systems. No DOS, no legacy Windows code, no nothing. In fact, the only similarity it even shares with Windows is that it supports a subset of the Win32 API, as well as a few other Windows APIs (MAPI, TAPI, a few others).
Why Bally? (Score:1)
-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...
And with MCSE's. . . . (Score:1)
Let's see. . .
Re:Aren't they rigged? (Score:1)
What I don't understand is, how my wife can be several times better than I at this.
BSOD FUD (Score:1)
(Caveat: This doesn't make me a Linux hater, it just means that FUD about windows NTs stability (in the desktop market) is usually over exagerrated. I still wouldn't want to use NT as a server due to bad experiences with NT 3.51 back when I was a SysAdmin - Three dinky NT 3.51 boxes took more time to babysit than 8 10-way SparcServer 2000's each with 800GB of disk. SHUDDER )
Of course, in the last 18 months, I have never had my Linux box crash. (RedHat 6.something, kernel 2.2.something).
Of course, I DO have to reboot the bloody NT box every time I install a freaking piece of software, and that really begins to irritate after the umpty-hundredth time.
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:1)
Re:Patent the blue screen (Score:1)
Well, unlike amazon, I think they deserve this patent.
Re:...but not entirely unwarranted (Score:1)
is that so..
then i must have been triping when i killed my brothers unkillable win2k box w/ my leet, game playing...
that is, i have killed win2k just by trying to play games. now im not a win2k expert, dont touch the stuff but to play the latest games, but my linux box dont EVER die like that. win2k maybe more stable but progams can still take down the whole OS.
nmarshall
The law is that which it boldly asserted and plausibly maintained..
The payoff? (Score:1)
The payoffs at slot machines is determined by the odds that something (say, three cherries in a row) might happen. The more likely something will happen, the less the payoff will be. So what would the payoff for three blue-screens of death be?
You might get your quarter back.
Diary Entry: April 1, 2050 (Score:1)
I nearly scalded myself in the shower. The cold water kept coming and going. The kitchen was even worse. I could smell rotting food even before I entered the room. I opened the fridge (after fighting with the Fridged-X system over my password) to find most of the contents spoiled, including the items just delivered yesterday. It appears the thermostat had reset itself to actually heat the food!
I tried to make a can of hash, but the stove refused to function, saying something about an unhandled interrupt exception. I had to go out to the garage and reset the breaker to reboot the damn thing.
I finally got out of the house and wouldn't you know it, my car wouldn't start. I ended up walking to work and getting there late. The elevators weren't working, and of course I work on the 30th floor. The stairwells were crammed with people franticly trying to get to their offices.
So here I am sitting at my desk, picking my butt. I'm unable to work because the systems are down (of course). Preliminary reports indicate that an April Fools Day virus has exploited a previously unknown weakness in network-connected Windows-based systems (i.e. pretty much everything).
Fortunately for you, dear diary, my Transmeta WebPad is zipping along just fine, it's Linux OS completely unaffected. And my FreeBSD-based MP9 player works too. Will people ever learn?
- Milo Hyson
Re:Merger (Score:1)
I don't think MS is going to merge, but I do think this is an attmpt to hit Linux. I am sure Microsoft has been paying attemtion to the scalability of Linux. Especially the Linux watch that IBM created.
If they can create a chip with Windows CE on it, the can further push there windows OS. I want to see them try this. Microsoft code is bloate and bad. I wouldn't buy a product with a windoze chip in it.
Anyone know how many companies are working on a Linux chip?
Re:I love this argument... (Score:1)
I've just found that often times people are quick to constantly crash their Windows system in exactly the same way, performing the exact same steps, and then, rather than perhaps spending some time to diagnose the problem they write Windows off as unstable and LIVE with the crashes. True, the system shouldn't go down becaues of one application. I couldn't agree more. But a good users adapts and learns.
And I also agree that sometimes you have almost no choice at all but to run a very specific application, but this is true regardless of the platform. Some platforms are just more fault tolerant than others (and Windows happens to be pretty intolerant.)
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Re:I love this argument... (Score:1)
You've obvoiusly missed that point.
OEM systems are notorious for shipping with nasty configurations, buggy software, and outdated drivers for the included hardware. Of course Windows is going to crash on such a system operated by an idiot.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Re:Patent the blue screen (Score:1)
They should included an automated micropayment system that charges users on a pay-per-use basis.
Blue Screen of
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Re:I love this argument... (Score:1)
When Windows crashes, it normally IS some errant program's fault.
If your sever crashes due to some software you've got running maybe...
A>. You shouldn't be using that software.
B>. You should learn how to set it up.
or, more likely...
C>. You shouldn't be the admin of a server in the first place.
...
It's not hard to avoid running shit softare that brings down a Windows box. What's often harder is figuring out WHICH one is the one causing the instability. Having a bunch of Windows options installed that aren't used doesn't help, either.
There are SO MANY things that can be done to make a Windows machine pretty stable, but when I walk up to a Windows machine and see Active Desktop Enabled, Icons all over the Desktop, File Extensions hidden, and the screen running at 640x480x256 on a 19" monitor, I pretty quickly guess that none of them have been done.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Re:Why do it? (Score:1)
For the standard hardware and support I have gotten three nines out of my current HP Equipment, and much the same for my NT Stuff, oh and for Linux running on older hardware as well. Most places don't need 5 nines (not when they see the pricetag).
No as to embedded devices, Microsoft's downfall will be that they will charge for every single install. Linux will be free for every single install. And don't get me started on how you need staff that knows NT, or WINCE or whatever. Embedded programmers are smart people they will pick up, and by necessity tweak their systems to the hilt. The cost factor will hurt Microsoft in this area.
Also, from what I've heard, embedded NT has a huge footprint for an embedded OS. This will hurt MS as well. Cost is a big issue with embedded systems, if you can get by on 8MB of flash memory for the OS instead of 16MB you can save millions of dollars over the life of an embedded product.
Re:About the same as (Score:1)
2 DNS Servers
1 Database (Development) Server
1 Web server
And I'm not even a corprate office, I'm at a remote site. That's 20% of my servers running Linux.
You can't handle the truth. (Score:1)
Re:Suing over broken slot machines? (Score:1)
Nope, sorry. Most (if not all) slot machines have a disclaimer that in the case of an error, all spins are void. Even without MS getting into the fold, slot machines occasionally fail (walk around a casino sometime while they're fixing one - absolutly fascinating). I'd be pissed if I was going to win and there was some error, but there's nothing you can do about it.
The Good Reverend
Re:Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:1)
Windows generally means WIN32 API.
Many embedded devices running CE don't have a GUI. It might suprise you to know that there are quite a few embedded control systems that run CE without a UI.
Re:Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:1)
It did not have APIs for audio, networking, telephony etc etc.
Windows 9x is not 'just' DOS + GUI. Windows NT certainly isn't and Windows CE is most definitely not.
Chipmakers will be able to modify WinCE source (Score:1)
I thought the most interesting part of the article (and the part I mentioned when I submitted the story) was that Microsoft would let the chipmakers modify the WinCE source to use with their chips.
According to the story, selected developers have been able to see source before (naturally) but have never had permission to modify and redistribute their own versions of it.
Re:I love this argument... (Score:1)
A>. You shouldn't be using that software.
Not always an option.
B>. You should learn how to set it up.
I thought ease of setup/use was the whole reason for running Windows.
or, more likely... C>. You shouldn't be the admin of a server in the first place.
It's not hard to avoid running shit softare that brings down a Windows box.
Well, sometimes it actually is. If the software you need is not available anywhere else, do you really have a choice? When it crashes, wouldn't it be nice if the rest of your system didn't go down the toilet?
The point I made originally is that when your application crashes and if it brings down your Windows system, your users will blame YOU (not application developer X) for their system being down, and it will be YOUR fault for not choosing a more robust OS (assuming you made the choice). There are OS's out there with very good fault tolerance built in. I'm sure someone on /. can point you in the right direction :)
I'm not trying to flame Windows. It does some things very well, and it certainly has its place in IT. I use it at work and occasionally at home. However, when it comes to serious reliability and fault tolerance, in my experience Windows NT just isn't up there. I have not used Windows 2000, so I can't really comment on it.
I love this argument... (Score:1)
Re:Aren't they rigged? (Score:1)
All one-armed bandits in Germany, which can be found in practically every pub and fast-food establishment, are covered in swathes of legal small print wedged in between the pretty flashing lights. In amongst these, it is stated quite explicitly that the wheels are weighted, even giving a probability for each wheel coming up with a cherry or whatever.
I'll never forget the shock I got once when I was gazing idly at a Photoplay (touch-screen quiz/skill game, not for money) and saw it reboot itself, connect to the internet and upload something before rebooting again and going back to the game program. And yes, it booted through DOS.
Then there was the one I saw in the middle of a shopping centre with nothing but a black screen and little Windows dialog box in the middle saying: "This program has performed an illegal operation..." I wouldn't be surprised if MS software doesn't already run a fair few fruit machines, as well as the majority of pub video game machines. Worth checking out.
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:1)
From NTK [ntk.net]: you kids and your new-fangled [ntk.net] Amigas!
Re:Gambling (Score:1)
It makes sense, although it doesn't make any sense (Score:2)
So it makes sense to have a library of things you can sorta depend upon to develop slot applications faster.
But what doesn't make sense is MS getting into the embedded market like this. I realize that they're hedging their bets, to turn a phrase. But they're also trying to dominate SO MANY markets in order to maintain world domination that they cannot possibly succeed at all of them, and being so spread out is like fighting a war on many fronts.
Can they win the server, the desktop, the set-top, the embedded, the game console, AND the PDA all at the same time, while dealing with how many million lines of code AND juggling partnership against partnership? What happens when the PDA partnerships and the embedded partnerships collide? What happens when wireless gaming comes to the set-top of game console market? What happens when a security problem shows up that manifests itself in three or four of these lines and some of that code isn't able to be patched?
Meanwhile, Linux has been adapted for use in a bunch of embedded applications, without the benefit of having to develop a "partnership". Hey, if I were in the business, I would say that such "partnerships" were a hindrance, not an advantage to doing business. This is especially true with Microsoft "partnerships", where you're just as likely to be on the wrong end of a reaming, if you read your MS history (or just pay attention).
You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
Re:Why do it? (Score:2)
Win2k embedded is unlikely to be $500/unit, but more like a 1/10th that cost.
You don't seem to know what WinCE is either.
There are also other options in the embedded market such as Coherent, OS/9, etc.
But the ultimate sign of ignorance was when you claim that Windows is just a gaming machine.
Do you even know what Windows NT or 2000 is?
Re:Why do it? (Score:2)
That's my Advanced Server. My machine on the other hand is a Gateway P6-200, which makes it a known quantity.
Your problem sounds like hardware. I've had machines lock up before for a variety of reasons. Bad power supplies, bad fans, bad drives, etc.
In fact I just had such a problem with the CDROM on my home computer. Long story, but even though the computer would freeze periodically, Win2k never crashed on me.
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
BSOD in Vegas (Score:2)
Re:Interesting. (Score:2)
By the way, Wince already runs on many different processors, and the embedded variant is not exactly new. By all accounts, though, embedded manufacturers are not leaping to use Wince - Linux and traditional RTOSs are providing some tough competition.
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
--
Re:Always wait for the first service pack (Score:2)
Now, there's and amusing notion - when you put a quarter into one of these machines, are you really "gambling a quarter" or are you paying $0.25 for a one-use license to run "RandomMoney.exe" on one particular slot machine?...
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"They have strategic air commands, nuclear submarines, and John Wayne. We have this"
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
Re:God, all that I ask... (Score:2)
NT SP5 and the released (non-beta) versions of
Win2k, stop spreading FUD.
Re:Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:2)
I think "Windows," which basically means "GUI," is the antithesis of the requirements of embedded software.
Of course, if you knew anything about Windows CE, you'd not have said this. Windows CE was designed from the ground up to be used in embedded systems. Sure, the first real application of Windows CE was clamshell handhelds. But that doesn't change the fact that CE was designed for embedded systems from the start. The OS is completely modular, allowing the developer to only use the portions of the platform neccessary to the system. Don't need keyboard input, video output, touchscreen/mouse input, networking, etc? Don't build those modules into your platform.
Re:Aren't they rigged? (Score:2)
1) The machines really were random and your "system" just happened to work.
2) The machines were rigged by some cruise line that didn't have to report to a gaming commission.
In larger gambling establishments, (Vegas, Atlantic City, and even riverboats) you have gaming commisions making sure the machines are on the up and up. Ignoring gaming commisions, large casinos run legit games for two reasons. First, they can make a whole lot of money running legit games. Second, if a place like Ceasers Palace was ever caught cheating or even accused loudly enough, they would go out of business. There are a thousand places to gamble on basically the same games. If people even suspect that one is rigged, they'll go elsewhere.
-B
Re:Aren't they rigged? -- up; an (Score:2)
Last month, I won $600 bucks playing slots while waiting for my friend to get out of the bathroom. It's not my preferred form of gambling, but I know a woman who has consistently won thousands only playing slots.
-B
Re:Merger (Score:2)
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Slot Machines Running NT? (Score:2)
Re:Intel, ARM? (Score:2)
Nope ARM was design by ARM, a british company that was an offshoot of the ill faited Acorn Computers.
Many companies now license ARM, being that it was soo cool. It was also the hart and soul of the RiscPC. Ahhhhh.
Windows NT on slot machines (Score:2)
5 billion dollars (Score:2)
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
Re:Intel, ARM? (Score:2)
Intel, ARM? (Score:2)
It still pisses me off that Intel bought a perfectly good DEC, and has since buried many of their better technologies away from public use. </flame>
blackjack (Score:2)
So, I wrote a quick program to run through all the possibilities of hit%. I had 0, 50%, and 100% hits at all the points where choices needed to be made (12-20, since you'd always hit on 11, and never on 21).
Ran the program, and it turns out that you get stuck by the way casinos handle player busts. If you bust, the dealer gets your cash, irrespective of whether he busts or not. The dealer's algorithm busts about 33% of the time.
The "winningest" solution was: the instant you get to a number where you have to make a choice, you're best off staying (yes, even on 12). That way, you win something like 8% of the time, and you get all the dealer's busts, for a grand total in the 44% win range. If you tried to maximize your score beyond that, you busted too often, which are automatic losses.
Given that result, I stopped researching it. There are some significant holes here (no doubling down or splitting of hands, no card counting, purely random deck, no attention paid to the dealer's up card, the 0-50-100 split of options leaves a lot to be desired), but I think it's close enough for a first pass.
mckwant.
Re:Intel, ARM? (Score:2)
Finding new ways to make a buck (Score:2)
-Moondog
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
It's no where near as much fun to look at now.
Aren't they rigged? (Score:2)
So, I'd walk in, put a couple quarters into machines that weren't being played, and then walk out. This resulted in a few dollars net win through the week.
Re:Aren't they rigged? -- up; an (Score:2)
casinos with windows? (Score:2)
AHHHHHHHHHH! (Score:2)
It would be nice of MS to offer new products, but we all know how it's gonna happen. They are going to buy a few nice pacages and ruin them by making sure they don't work with anything other than MS junk. MS creates nothing. They will make sure that you can not use your new toys to create your own media or "Pirate" anything without paying for it each time. Microsoft would love to embrace Holywood.
MS is not up to the task. They've not been able to make a their simple X86 stuff work in 20 years of trying. What makes you think they can do any better with 15 or so processors? Their greed headed prcactices insure that they will never be able to do this. Toasters do not need a GUI, but VCR's and TV's and other devices would benifit from some kind of common programable interface. MS's greedy inability to share a common stable interface makes them incapable of providing anything like this. They can't even keep a text spec stable.
MS reply in .doc format follows:
+-----yyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyFILE NUM, AUTHOR=;yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyy%$#yyyyyyyyyy yyyy#yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy3>yyyyy yyyyyyyy#yyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyy.yyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyy yyy/.yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyy give us all of your maoney yyyy yyy yyy yyyyy yyyyyy yyy yyyyy yyyyy yyyyyyyy yyy y#yyyyyy yyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyy yyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyy**yyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyy yyy#@yyyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyy&yy yyyyyyyyyyy
Of course they are! (Score:2)
Here in Louisiana the video poker machines get extra use as voting booths! Talk about rigged, whew! Florida borrowed some, but sent them back because Edwin Edwards kept winning.
It will be great if these things run NT. This way more people will be able to get in on the action. CRACK! and all the nicles fall out. Wooo - hooo! I'm rich, I'm rich!
Re:Interesting. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
Just another to add to the list -- BSODs on the PATHInfo monitors for the NY-NJ PATH trains. Just last week.
confrontational. yes. (Score:2)
Now, what's the payoff on three blue-screens in a row again?
Wow, even the stories are trolls now!
M$ is moving into embedded chip market (Score:2)
Embedded chips are moving out...
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
*BSOD* There has been an error at segemnt 0x0FFFF...If this error keeps occouring, please contact the vendor....
2 Hours later..
Sony: *Sony Tech Support, How mey we help you?*
NFL: Um... yeah, we have 70,000 rabid fans charging the feild...
Source? (Score:2)
Re:Windows NT hits Vegas & Antwerp (Score:2)
You're laughing, but in the old european metropole that is close to where I live, they have these little digital information kiosks & boots where you can get touristic information about the city centre. When I tried them out once, I immediately wondered why the print button was on the screen, as ofcourse there wasn't a printer to be seen anywhere.. but the joke was complete when I suddenly noticed the NT kernel bluescreen bright and shiney all across the city.. I've since lost count of how many times I've seen ntoskrnl.exe claim all it's credit..
Anyway, it's a good chance for tourists and foreigners to get to meet the hospitality of the locals, but that's a completely different story..
Suing over broken slot machines? (Score:2)
What happens if you put in a quarter, pull the slot lever, and the slot machine breaks?
Can you somehow sue, under the assumption that that particular pull of the slot machine lever could of possible hit the grand prize?
If this is so, I'm going to hit vegas as soon as the NT slots come out...
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Merger (Score:2)
Also remember people: www.msnaoltimewarner.com is still available (*shivvers*).
Re:Nice troll Fervent! (Score:2)
Re:Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:2)
Of course, if you knew anything about Windows CE, you'd not have said this. Windows CE was designed from the ground up to be used in embedded systems.
Mea culpa. The only thing I've seen with Windows CE was the UI for a little hand-held, and the interface looked identical to Windows proper.
I concede that Microsoft probably has a clue about what it's doing (they didn't get to where they are without a clue), and no doubt they'll actually do a reasonable job, much as Slashdotters like to slam M$.
But I do stand by my opinion on GUIs. In kiosks and ATMs (which I hadn't thought about when I was considering the embedded market) GUIs make a lot of sense, but in things like household appliances, I don't think they do.
Disclaimer: I don't have a clue. I just have opinions. :-)
--
Re:Why do it? (Score:2)
I know of nobody that would like to purchase a system that runs well only under limited I/O. Get that drift?
As for NT - here's what it is: A sore attempt by M$ to enter the server market in an area already dominated. Now I'll admit it is good for workgroups, but I can't find anything else...
The problem with capped Karma is it only goes down...
Re:I'm off to vegas... (Score:2)
Re:Suing over broken slot machines? (Score:2)
If you're lucky, you might get your quarter back.
Windows NT hits Vegas (Score:2)
GOD BLESS DALE...... He lived to race and died racing!!!
Aaron, a wannabe #3!!!
Even more BSOD places (Score:2)
But, if it's a slot machine, shouldn't it have Red Screens of Death, to go with the three cherries in a row motif?
I can see it now - "How to Hack Slot Machines for Fun and Profit"
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:2)
I would agree, but... (Score:2)
They have an ongoing threat with computer manufacturers and chip makers: Help us do what we want or we will push support of your competition. That's not news, it was directly stated by M$ in their gov't trial.
Having the same GUI all around assumes that one GUI can please everyone. That's never possible. What would be best are GUIs that anyone could walk up to without ever seeing before and understand it intuitively. I'm talking a GUI with no windows at all. Alternatives have been invented, but none implemented on any platform that I've seen. It's a difficult task, but I feel an exteremly simplified GUI should exist on small, single-purpose machines.
Patent the blue screen (Score:2)
I just feel like blending some of the sad corporate news together into even more amusing tales.
Making ad hominem attacks doesn't change reality. (Score:3)
NT in an embedded context is one such thing.
TransCore's got this nifty little application that manages access control and billing for parking and airport ground transportation management. System was redesigned from the ground up to run on nearly any server platform, nearly any embedded platform.
As long as ACE/TAO supports it and the components have a TCP/IP connection to the other devices it'll largely compile and run. I know- I designed the beast.
There's two piece parts to the embedded portions system, a transaction processing engine and a transaction generation/lane hardware control engine. The transaction engine can reside on any server that has local or network ODBC/CLI access. The lane control portion has to control several digital I/O points and one RFID device that detects TransCore's vehicular transponder tag.
The NT units at one of the current installations at the DFW International Airport are capricious beasts and periodically need restarting (about once every two or so weeks...). Resource leaks. Not with the app as best as we can tell- Purify told us that we had a clean bill of health, but an internal function in NT was leaking like a sieve. The Linux version is on an embedded machine out at the lanes there at DFW. It hasn't needed a reboot yet. Using Embedded NT would have added about $250-500 per lane to the cost of the embedded hardware version of the system. With Linux, I saved $2500 per lane over the older, centralized design. With Embedded NT, it would have been more like $500-1000 per lane cost savings combined with needing to spend much, much more time writing the device drivers for the embedded I/O on the single board computer we used.
Adapting to any situation's good- insisting on using truly unsuitable tools to do a job ends up being a cobbled up work at best and a botch job in most cases.
Re:You'd be amazed where that BSOD shows up. :) (Score:3)
Earlier this year I was at the local stadium [corelcentre.com] watching my team [ottawasenators.com] play.
They had installed a new wrap-around digital scoreboard in the lower bowl. A few minutes into the game, the scoreboard flashed and you could see the corner of the window "Dr. Watson for Windows NT". :-)
At least the O/S stayed up, I guess.
Re:Merger (Score:3)
Roger. What makes you think there is a merger coming? What evidence or even speculation can you give? Do you really think Microsoft will merge with one of the leading chip makers while under the watchful eye of the DOJ? I don't think so.
I guess what I'm trying to say is your statement is bullshit and can't be backed up. Prove me wrong.
Massive influx of script-kiddies to Las Vegas? (Score:3)
Jimmy hacks into a slot machine when the eyes fall off of him, only to win the jackpot on every machine in the building. The management didn't catch on, because of Microsoft's continuing insistance that "those vulnerabilities are completely theoretical".
Revelation 0:0 - The beginning of the end.
Re:Time for a Road Trip (Score:3)
While it should be fairly obvious that the interface on these machines will be probably be locked down enough to make actually "fiddling" with them worthless, I have to wonder about the possibility of them using a less-than-secure random number algorithm. If, for example, the actual program was a quick-and-dirty hack using VB, it seems it might be possible for someone to find a pattern in the results.
I will admit, however, that this is idle speculation and may be totally off in left field. But it's at least more plausible than being able to load up and run various NT cracking utilites (which I suppose was intended as humor).
Why do it? (Score:3)
The sad fact is that if you're on a low budget, you should use a free *nix of some sort (I prefer Linux of course, but BSD is also good - it's a what-you-grew-up-on thing). If you've got a high budget (and being in the field to use those, you must), then there is no reason to spend that cash on an overly expensive OS (face it: I don't want to spend $500+ for JUST the OS on each server - and not get most of the 'net tools I need).
If you've got an app that needs embedding, then what do you do? Go with an OS meant for embedded devices (NOT WinCE - that's meant for giving a nice front and back end to the person that doesn't care how the machine works, but at the expensive of precious resources. You're neither!). Most of the time Linux will suffice (bsd?). It's free and easily portable.
Fact is you just want to make sure that the public sees an always-going machine that does what it should, and the operators can do their job easily. M$ just doesn't support this - It's only real use is in the home as a gaming machine. Linux (bsd, etc.), while admitably, does take some heavy work to get setup just right (unless you want to go with the default which works for most people), but once it is up and running the way you want it, it stays!
The problem with capped Karma is it only goes down...
Slot machines, a tax on people bad at math (Score:3)
And now MS is getting into the act, hmm, they're getting involved with gambling, they're becoming more like the Mafia every day now. They've already got a handle on the racketeering, I guess other vices are next. I can't wait for compatible for Windows heroin and whores in Seattle.
I'll forgot the obvious joke about SA's using NT already gambling with their work.
Interesting. (Score:3)
Having MSWindows on embedded devices would be very useful. GUI's may seem simple to the /. crowd, but for the majority they are really not as intuitive as they are cracked up to be. It can only be good if people have the option to have the same GUI all around, everywhere. It reduces training costs at companies and the time people have to expend to learn what is, in the end, a simple tool.
Here's hoping that MS port their embedded CE to as many processors as possible.
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
Embedded GUI Generally Bad, IMHO (Score:5)
I think "Windows," which basically means "GUI," is the antithesis of the requirements of embedded software.
Although I do think it would be great if you wanted to turn all your appliances into something that resembles a PC.
If you never use anything but nails, all your tools will begin to look like hammers.
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I saw this on Twilight Zone! (Score:5)
You have entered The Microsoft Embedded Hardware Market.
"Me Ted"