Microsoft could be in deep water over oil spill

I remember that the U.S. Navy used to have a warship that was windows powered and every now and again, a computer failure would shut the entire ship down at sea, and it would require towing back to home port, so yes this is believable. There was no backup system in place, because there was the tacit insistence that the system was completely reliable.....
Famous Last words..

Even if they were able to show they were using a Windows OS, there's really no way to prove it was Microsoft's fault without core dumps or the like.

The popular stereotype is that BSOD = bad (and necessarily MS's fault), but getting a BSOD is actually a GOOD thing in a way, because it's an error condition which the OS caught (instead of continuing to run and having unpredictable results, or simply crashing without giving any info to troubleshoot). At best you can google the error message and know exactly what the problem is & fix it; at worst it's just one of the generic messages that tells you nothing more than that something is wrong and the computer needs attention (a warning sign which was apparently ignored).

Also there are many reasons for getting a BSOD, including bad RAM or other hardware, as well as badly coded drivers. Again the BSOD is just the OS telling you that an unrecoverable error happened, and that could be something else entirely that is at fault other than the OS itself. Saying it is MS's fault (without more proof) is like blaming the messenger of bad news.

Yanky 99'er flight 123 from chicargo to London, we're ready to depart.

Oh wait! we've got a BSOD on one of our flight computers, we'll be ready for take off when it comes back up over.

This WOULD NEVER happen so why on an Oil rig did they not report it?

I have been in the I.T. industries for several years and i find the problem starts with the human resource department.

You have non-qualified non-compitent computer iliterate individuals hiring supposedly talented individuals. More often than not most interviews do not comprise of any kind of testing of knowledge. Generally most interviews are verbal only with of course your resume... well you're probably wondering why I am saying all this, it is because they hire people in positions of authority that allow certain changes or certain things to be purchased and purchase the names they know, microsoft is a name is everyone knows.

I worked in many places public, private and military. Going as far back as windows nt i've seen windows being used as a critical system, heck even the space station had cascading crashes caused by windows nt box. This crash is not isolated to the NT box itself, it crashed the several other non-windows space station systems in the process. This is why you can only get service pack 7 for windows nt if you NASA and only NASA.

This is being said Because microsoft's End user license agreement states this cannot be used as a SCADA uses, this does not stop for sales department from selling their system for SCADA uses.

This is the way of the greasy used car salesman. Every industry is infected with this kind of person.

So technically it is not microsoft but this does not stop them from forcing companies into contracts and liabilities and licenses, this is the way of today's world we seem so shocked by it but this is how it works... is only about money i don't know what are complaining.(sarcasm)

The OS should be able to tolerate software flaws, even drivers. I can understand when it crashes on a hardware fault, but flawed drivers are quite common. I'm looking at you, Nvidia.

Viruses causing BSODs? Yeah, right.

Blame the guy who decided to buy Windows PCs because this is the way computers should be.

It's pretty alarming if you think on how many lives are actually counting on the reliability of Windows, MacOS and Linux. Not to mention when they add Java as a second layer of instability. These poor souls are already dead.

A lot of the oil and gas industry uses SCADA to gather data and then OPC to transmit data between monitoring stations etc, if this were the case then they would have no choice but to use Windows as OPC is based on DCOM and Windows only.

Obviously some redundancy wouldn't go a miss, plus they should have fixed it as soon as it started BSoDing

A lot of people are rather flippant here. This man was lucky to get away alive, several of his colleagues got killed. If Windows really was used to operate a mission critical life threatening application than someone needs to get fired. Not Microsoft (and I'm no fan of Microsoft), but the system integrator that put the thing together and the application developer who decided Windows was a suitable platform something so critical. Sadly, I think far too often software and technology houses go for the 'proven' Windows solution for life threatening apps. Scarily, its all too common in the medical world - NMR, X-Ray scanners and the like *shudder*.

Your comments about scada systems are so funny.
Someone said that since it's a control machine it has some specialised hardware installed. Ha ha ha. Someone has really no clue of how SCADA works. It's just a piece of software that connects to PLC devices, camera and MVLV systems, on site servers, etc by means of network connection. It has no sophisticated software. You could call it a terminal or thin client.
Also it is true that 99% of SCADA systems run on win os because no other system gives you a UI design flexibility.
The other thing is that in such sophisticated complex like oil drills you have to have a redundant systems and... guess what redundant human controllers so saying something about loosing ability to control a system because one machine bsod'ed is total BS.
Lastly coming back to bsod itself in those environments it is mainly caused by poorly designed SACADA sutem period!
I used to work for DUBLIN Port Tunnel which is using SCADA designed by Indra and I can tell you the majority of freezes and bdsods was cused becouse application interface was single threaded while all sub processes were multithreaded and when refresh signal comes in from 10000 of devices it tends to completely stall the application. byt even there they had 2 main control stations :)

ALLWAYS USE BACKUP SYSTEMS FOR ALL CRITICAL APPLICATIONS

As with all these things if you were not actually using the system its almost impossible to tell what software hardware or OS was used.
You'd hope they logged the fault with someone with the error messages in full.
XP Embedded is used heavily on newer industrial machines as well as other embedded versions of older OS's (I remember seeing a story recently of Windows 3.1 embdedded only just going out of support so could be Windows 9x), although I am not saying any were used in this instance!!!

This is the most useless article published in years on The Inquirer - and there have been some.

So are some comments of the sort 'they should have used Linux instead'. Or whatever else. We have Windows, Mac OS an Linux running in our environment - yes, running, all of them. The most problems we got were Mac OS based, as HFS+ apparently isn't as fail-proof as NTFS or EXT3. Everything else is either hardware based or user fault - including admins doing the wrong thing.

Mr. Latif, go back scribbling for The Sun.

The BSoD was probably really caused by an Adobe Flash plug-in, or nVidia drivers, on the PC.

B.S.O.D. Last Few Seconds, sometimes minute, so Mustah Been Alienware, from SkyShip. However, if readers Tower becomes Microsoft Aircraft Target in Learn to Fly Commerical airliners Series, Might Check Wind & closest of Nearest Internationale' RunWays. Same for OilWorker, REPRIEVE: Oilrigs can now copy copyrighted material FREELY, Decision came today, ahso, school, churchs, prisons & theINQ.org. Blue is Color of Secret Service.
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From Mind of Dakotian Prophet:Returen theFLAME 2 Earth....

vondrashek MD

The guy was probably looking at Pron on youporn and got a virus causing the computer to blue screen!

trying to blame MicrBlows! Geez!

Add to that, anybody who would use Winblows for anything mission critical needs their head examined, and then fired!

I bet Google paid this guy to spew this bullshit! LOL

99% of all BSODs are caused by hardware issues, usually drivers. If this was an oil well computer, it more than likely had special monitoring hardware. Who made that hardware????

"had been seizing up for weeks"

I think that rather completely proves negligence on the part of the operations crew, to let a piece of vital monitoring hardware go that long without fixing or repairing it. The specific OS is rather irrelevant if nobody is going to repair any issues.

Some of you mention FUD when referring to this article. I will suggest that Microsoft has been the biggest spreader of FUD related to Linux. Maybe oil platforms should be required to use open source software that can be tested by everyone to be secure, and resilent!

I think Bill has established a pattern of being able to buy what he desires, no? If not he'd already be in prison for a 100 life sentences.

As a CE I have had my hand in designing computer networks and maintaining its server and clients. I never had a BSOD happen in any of my machines that I had control over. Whenever it happened it was because the user installed some unauthorized or beta piece of software/drivers.

Watch it, it will turn out the PC was running an outdated, unlicensed version of Windows with some malware or badly written code. That usually does it.

However what is MS fault is letting developers acquire such bad, sloppy habits over the years. It may have helped the platform take off but it created a mess that it is still cleaning off.

Puns totally intended.

anyone?

Emerson Controls' DeltaV process control system uses Windows exclusively (Windows 20XX server, Windows XP operator work stations)...I know because I work at a plant that uses DeltaV.

These operator consoles tend to freeze up after a period of a few weeks, and do not respond properly to operator commands, which is a "bad thing" as the operator cannot open new windows or see if his/her input is making control changes. This can be "fixed" by rebooting them (just like your home system!). They are also vulnerable to all Windows viruses, which is a comforting thought considering the large, dangerous industries using these process control systems. I don't know if the Deepwater Horizon was using Emerson, but some other process control and SCADA systems also use Windows.

However, Microsoft needs not fear any financial liability issues, as the EULA states that they are not liable for any problems caused by the use of their OS, and that their liability is limited to refunding the cost of the OS (which I believe is less than the ~$30 billion that the Deepwater Horizon spill is expected to cost).

Maybe Bill Gates can philanthropize some Windows-controlled automatic duck-scrubbers, and gain some good PR from unfouling oil-soaked fowl(that is, until the duck-scrubbers also BSOD and turn into duck-shredders).

I thought I read several years ago that the BSoD is a trademark of Microsoft. MS either sued or threatened to sue some OS developer that they couldn't use that "particular shade of blue" for their error screens. So, either it was Microsoft's BSoD or some other OS infringing on Microsoft's trademark on that doomed platform.

Given what is at stake, it's ironic. Isn't it?

Let's find out what hardware or drivers caused the bsod and involve those companies. Heck, let's blame electricity for powering them. How about the manufacturer of the desk that the computer was on? Oh my!!!!

Lawrence Latif, stop writing now.

This means nothing, just some numpty looking for a quick payout.

It could be any OS, it could be anything that coursed it, its not going to be critical if its running windows.

And for the record, BP doesnt run that rig, i dont like BP as much as the next person but BP are not alone in this, there are plenty of US oil giants peeking around the door watching what happens so they can make up better BS to get them out of sticky situations.

Being all rightious and shafting BP whilst ignoring everything else will only do us all damage in the long run whilst we all rely on these world wide oil giants

From what I hear BSOD are almost invariably caused by third party drivers, and hardware faults. And that's for systems without malware.

Manufacturers are not responsible for their products suitability as an integrated part of a complex system when they played no part in designing or approving that system. If the manufacturer or designer of that control system picked an operating system that was unsuitable for that use, that is their decision.

If the system was critical, it should have been redundant. If the manufacturer of the control system didn't consider it critical, that was again their mistake.

There is no way to spin this as Microsoft's fault.

that'll stand up in court

If you'd actually care to read the article, the author knows about your points:

"While the BSOD was a common sight on older versions of Windows, it should be noted that not all BSODs are caused by the Vole's operating systems software."

Is BSOD something the IT department in BP haven't thought of? Something that is new to them?

BSOD is a way of life with using MS Windows. The Admins at BP should have an SOP in place in the case that this happens....LOL

A realtime OS is needed to monitor such a critical system and Windows is not a realtime OS. It would be even more questionalble for BP to choose Windows to be the platform to do their critial monitoring. It would be no better than using Windows to monitor a Nuclear or any other kind of powerplant for critical operations and that is not a stab at Windows... it is not designed for those needs. No comercial OS is... So see... I say... yeah... nice try.

Windows is designed to be a general purpose operating system geared towards high levels of hardware and software compatibility and designed to be used in an office or home environment. It is not suited for industrial environments where system failures can cause injury or death. Such an environment requires an OS that is custom configured/designed for the critical hardware and software involved.

BP make a lot of money to make their own operating system and now they want to blame the problem so avoid the responsibility. LMAO!

BSOD? Was Windows 98 being used?

BSOD's haven't been around since maybe early Windows XP.

If the PC crashed like you said they must have been using an Apple.

Er, WAY. It'd be surprising if was *not* Windows when the BSOD term is used.

Which OS was used is rather easily discoverable, guys, and will eventually emerge. I'd think on some other line of defense than simple denial.

Here's an example (not hard to find!):
http://friendsofirony.com/2010/04/25/ironic-photos-to-be-fair-vista-experience/

MS software will eventually crash, everybody knows that.

It is the system designers responsibility to add enough redundancy when using unstable software.

I dont know any other OS that gives *blue* screens of death. On linux its almost always a frozen screen or black, on OS-X afaik; its black/grey overlayed.

That it could be viruses or trojans or 3rd party drivers or whatever may be true; but doesnt detract from the fact it would show using windows for something this critical is not a good idea.

However, I will concur its also entirely plausible it was a hardware issue and regardless of the OS used; there should not have been this kind of single point of failure in mission critical apps.

Advise to the author:
Just stop running after the sensations... go back to the blackboard/whiteboards before ever writing again any article on any technology.

This by far is probably the worst article I have read all year - purely a waste of my time. This article only spreads fear uncertainty and doubt - FUD!. A BSOD is not solely linked to an unexpected error within the operating system but can also be generated due to faulty hardware, trojans, viruses, poorly written 3rd party drivers, 3rd party resident software and to some extent operator error . All these factors should have been highlighted in the article.

You even admitted that the operator didn't even know what OS he was working in!!!! And since this is a tech website... Shouldn't you know that the term BSOD is just another saying for a computer crash - which honestly can happen on a Mac, Linux workstation, etc. Seems everyone has a BSOD - like this article did!

All I can say is WOW... Lay fault where it lays... It was the government to failed to monitor BP and it was BP who failed to put in the proper safe guards... End

I am sure (without even bothering to read it) that all MS software licenses state that the software is not to be used for SCADA.

So there is a BSOD on a critical computer, which the rig operator chooses to ignore and continue operating the rig. And that's Microsoft's fault, is it?

They're pretty harsh environments, it's entirely likely that it was a hardware failure, and also entirely possible that it was non-MS software at fault.

Either way, it's like continuing to drive a car where all the warning lights are on, then blaming the manufacturer when you crash.