Unisys Smoking Hot Demo at Linux World Boston 178
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 It was a real fire -- or at least a considerable smolder, complete with firemen, evacuation orders (soon rescinded), and other hoopla.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? (Score:5, Funny)
Someone fall asleep at work again?
Link? (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Link? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Link? (Score:2)
Unfortunately, that is also where my mod points were probably...
Re:Link? (Score:2)
Unisys switched to intel? (Score:1, Funny)
Where's the link? (Score:2)
Somewhere? Or did we already burn down the server with the media, too?
not yet (Score:2)
Re:Where's the link? (Score:2)
A Link would be nice (Score:2)
Re:A Link would be nice (Score:2)
The photos were originally in .GIF format, and the poster didn't fear the Slashdot effect so much as he feared the wrath of Unisys' patent lawyers modding him (+1, Flamebait)?
Sounds like they were using... (Score:3, Funny)
Let's just hope... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let's just hope... (Score:2)
It's compounded by the fact that the DNS name no longer exists, and no one even bothered to squat it.
ROFL (Score:5, Informative)
Luckily Google News came to the rescue
http://os.newsforge.com/os/06/04/04/169215.shtml?
Link to video:
http://www.newsforge.com/blob.pl?id=02083954d3d50
Re:ROFL (Score:2)
Re:ROFL (Score:2)
Re:ROFL (Score:2)
Re:ROFL (Score:2)
Re:ROFL (Score:2)
Re:ROFL (Score:2, Funny)
Casue of Fire (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Cause of Fire (Score:2)
New Unisys motto. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New Unisys motto. (Score:2)
Guess I wont make my joke that the Blue Screen of Death is actually just Microsofts clever built in fire prevention scheme... I would get moded into oblivion today...
Abracadabra ... URL Poof! (Score:2)
RobLimo the magician has managed to make the self-stated obligatory URL disappear!
NO NEED TO WATCH VIDEO (Score:5, Informative)
Re:NO NEED TO WATCH VIDEO (Score:2)
somebody let out the magic smoke (Score:2)
Inside the case there didn't appear to be a lot of damage(a deck of cards was untouched).
I would love to know what happpened but hey it's on the spot news.
Re:somebody let out the magic smoke (Score:2)
whew, they could have lost the whole batch COBOL and JCL job. well, unless they also had punched tape or 9-track to back up the cards.
In soviet russia... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In soviet russia... (Score:2)
ok so I've seen about 55 thousand social spams reminding me about the
unique sequence of numbers that will line up in the time and date
early this morning. I'm sure you have too. But then I saw this post
and it totally changed things for me:
People! Time is of the essence! There is something much more important
about to happen, and it's up to YOU to help create vital awa
Great Video Clip! (Score:2)
Who would have thought that Unisys would go out with a bang, smoke, and wimper?
Hey, wasn't that Unisys, the evil patent holder of GIF...
Keep it up, Unisys.
Re:Great Video Clip! (Score:2, Funny)
Anybody knows if they are going to patent server fire?
LZW compression, not GIF. (Score:2)
Name for next system (Score:5, Funny)
Go Slashdot! (Score:2, Funny)
Or is this a new trick to get me to subscribe for your "journalism"?
Re:Go Slashdot! (Score:2)
One word for the new Unisys servers... (Score:2, Redundant)
"we have the way out" indeed! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"we have the way out" indeed! (Score:2)
Unisys got tricked by Microsoft. Microsoft liked the Unisys machine as an advertisement for the capabilities of Windows. It was good press for Microsoft to be able to talk about "mainframe" Windows, but that's not the Microsoft folks wanted to sell. They wanted to sell clusters of commodity hardware. So Unisys had the unenviable job of trying to sell mainframe Windows to customers that invariably wanted to talk about the deal to Microsoft. Microsoft would then do its best to steer the customers towards
Look but don't touch (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Look but don't touch (Score:2)
In case of slashdotting: (Score:5, Funny)
\|/ <-----Smoke
+--+
| | <-----Server
| |
+--+
Re:In case of slashdotting: (Score:2)
No, seriously, it does.
Odd... (Score:5, Funny)
NOT a server cabinet (Score:5, Insightful)
-dave
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
I'll bite.
What about the waterfall over the Christie Digital booth at NSCA 2005?
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:4, Interesting)
MOD PARENT UP (Score:5, Informative)
Some more thoughts... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2, Informative)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
Re:NOT a server cabinet (Score:2)
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.
[grin] I knew things hadn't changed that much since my days at the SkyDome.
The best part of a blown dimmer pack is the hum as the 60kW or whatever of lighting power is dissipated in one relatively small triac...
Smoking Not Allowed... (Score:5, Funny)
Happened to me in a demo... (Score:4, Informative)
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...
Re:Happened to me in a demo... (Score:2)
Here are a couple [geocities.com] of nice sites [angelfire.com] about it for the curious...
Disappearing, reappearing link... (Score:2)
the hindenburg (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:the hindenburg (Score:2)
Re:the hindenburg (Score:2)
O the uname -a tee! (Score:2)
Re:the hindenburg (Score:2)
The guy filming the Hindenburg had originally meant to take still photos but accidentally shot moving pictures instead - just like this guy!
At least, that's how I read it.
Re:the hindenburg (Score:2)
He said "Now I know what that guy felt like at the burning of the Hindenberg back in the 30s."
He had the same experience: the camera began recording "by accident," and it turned out to be fortuitous.
You're the one that raised the etching on human consciousness. Is there such a thing? And just because the aftershocks of the similar situations may turn out not to be similar, is a reason to ask for a break
Video? (Score:2)
I am all for it (Score:2)
It is a form of evolution I suppose. There are two kinds of people. Those that go and see what makes that growling sound in the back of the cave and those that spend the night in a tree and have kids.
ObBOFHref (Score:5, Funny)
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"....
Re:ObBOFHref (Score:2)
Itanics or Xeons? (Score:2)
I keep telling people to switch to Opterons, if only because they run cooler, but noooooo...
Unisys loses again (Score:2)
Wait, evacuation? (Score:3, Funny)
It's all OK, this is Unisys, They Have the Way Out! [google.com]
Don't worry.. (Score:4, Funny)
A little late though
Who made the dimmer board? (Score:2)
Or was it the new Microsoft Xbox360 Digital Porportional Dimmer Board? The one you have to fabricate your own cooling system or the whole thing goes up in smoke?
Does This Make Them Worse Than Microsoft? (Score:2)
Sev 1 defect (Score:2)
And In Other News... (Score:2)
"It was quite terrifying," said international war criminal Boris Yupyuv. "People were glowing, skin was melting, and some turd in a tuxedo kept shouting 'I'm shaking but not stirred!'"
The faux-pa was attributed to an intern to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who apparently mistook the red button marked "Kill Everything" for a dispenser of his favorite b
Re:And In Other News... (Score:2)
"False paternal parent?"
Good. They deserve it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good. They deserve it. (Score:4, Informative)
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?
Re:Good. They deserve it. (Score:2)
Yes, the folks at Unisys were dicks about it (they weren't initially, but they were later on), and for that alone they deserve most of the flack they get, but they didn't create the problem in the first place -- they were simply enforcing a patent that t
Nah, I'm with this guy. (Score:2)
A better statement would be something like "That's too bad. I won't be buying anything from them, of course, until they make some restitution on the GIF crap they pulled." It would be nice to put that on any email you send to them. Any public comment site. Any survey, letter to editor, review, etc.
Hmmm....suspicious (Score:2)
Then again, it might have been just a couple of those long-haired Berkenstock wearin' communist open-source hippies [slashdot.org] burning a bud or two before the show...
BURN ALL GIFS DAY! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:BURN ALL GIFS DAY! (Score:2)
Oh, and thanks for poking fun at Unisys - those bastards poked fun at me for working at CDC (years ago) - yes, that's Control Data Corporation, not the Center for Disease Control.
Linux plans ahead (Score:4, Funny)
This is why Slashdot is New for Nerds (Score:2)
Clarification from Unisys (Score:2, Informative)
Anyone have a gif of this? (Score:2)
the best part of all this (Score:2)
Priceless.
So then I guess it can't run Linux? (Score:2, Funny)
Not a Unisys server! (Score:2, Informative)
Hot demo (Score:2)
Can't trust 'em (Score:2)
Stangely enough http://www.wehavethewayout.com/ [wehavethewayout.com] has disappeared
Some waybacks
http://web.archive.org/web/20040815070955/www.weha vethewayout.com/us/index.asp [archive.org]
The difference between the June 2004 version
http://web.archive.org/web/20040619041226/http://w ww.wehavethewayout.com/us/resourcecenter.asp [archive.org]
And the May 2003 version
http://web.archive.org/web/20030501180724/http://w ww.wehavethewayout.com/us/resourcecenter.asp [archive.org]
of the report is interestingly different
Re:Oh, how times change. (Score:2)
Re:Lol (Score:2)
Oh, yeah... 4 hours. We had to "get a new plane" after they found out a screw was missing from the Delta DC-10's tail. (Not *that*
Re:is_computer_on_fire() (Score:2)
Can't do it:
lpt on fire
$