shuttles running windows...

[katster]

*blink* *blink* *fall over laughing*

Reading through alt.callahans tonight, found this gem:

>I -heard- that the NASA network was infected with the Sapphire worm, which
>could have been transmitted to the shuttle via satellite communications,
>and caused problems there to throw off the reentry calculations. That's
>just hearsay at this point, however.

Somehow I doubt the Shuttle computers run MS-DOS derivatives.


And I just fell over laughing picturing a shuttle running Windows. "Error detected. Please close all applications and relaunch."

Comments

[buran.livejournal.com]

It doesn't. :p It doesn't even run anything remotely related to windows.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/07/national/nationalspecial/07COMP.html

[tropism.livejournal.com]

I -think- that the shuttle's computers have enough power to run DOS or Win3.x, but last I knew, even Win95 would require too much in the way of computing power. ;)

This -is- a truly stupid post, though. AFAIK the computers -on the shuttle- do all of the calculations and such. NASA doesn't ever control the shuttle directly from the ground, though I believe it probably can upload new courses and stuff. The shuttle -has- to be independant, especially during re-entry, since it can lose contact with NASA for relatively long periods -- a minute or more.

But, augh. Stupid.

Context

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Actually, the poster was commenting on the stupidity of someone else, hence the emphasised ;
-heard-

and yes, the shuttle doesn't run anything remotly like anything else. In fact, it doesn't even have an OS as such. [so spoke the guy who wrote the code for it, I assume he'd know what he was talking about.]

Just as well, it would add a whole new level of meaning to 'blue screen of death' otherwise !