My colleague, Robert Peake, is on holiday in England. He blogged about his mishap playing with the in-flight entertainment system on an Air New Zealand Boeing 747.

He describes beating the computer at chess a few times and then...
After I selected the default option, the entire operating system crashed hard into a black screen and began rebooting. Not surprisingly, the boot screen proudly proclaimed Windows CE circa 2004, then began loading up files using the ancient Xmodem serial protocol. Finally, it booted itself back into friendly pictures of New Zealand coastline. I spent the rest of the flight hoping Microsoft hadn't won the bid on the flight controls.

Only slightly funnier was, Paul's response:
Attention all passengers... This is Capt. Harris from the Flight Deck. Will the passenger in seat 24B stop messing around with our navigation system. It's now put us on course to Iceland, which is not good... Thank you.

Full post: Robert Peake

Discussion/Comments (4):

Leave the in-flight computer alone; it’s not a Mac

If that thought (Microsoft winning a bid on flight controls) isn't quite scary enough, try this - Windows for Warships.

{ Link }

Posted at 08/13/2007 6:15:22 by Chris Linfoot


Windows for warships

Chris, did you see this quote?

"In May of this year Wilson reiterated his concerns to the board of BAE Systems at the company's AGM, pointing out that Windows is "proprietary technology owned by a foreign corporation", has "many and continuing security flaws", and is not even warranted by Microsoft itself for safety-related use. Why then, he asked, is AMS "shunning established engineering practice" by developing the Type 45's CMS on Windows."

Posted at 08/13/2007 9:30:40 by Eric Mack


Windows for Warships

Indeed I did. I read the whole thing though it is quite old now (Sep 04). So far as I know, the policy has not changed...

Posted at 08/13/2007 10:14:18 by Chris Linfoot


Leave the in-flight computer alone; it’s not a Mac

Redmond, we have a problem...

Posted at 08/14/2007 3:32:03 by Robert



Discussion for this entry is now closed.