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Ars Technica reports
A second-tier German professional basketball team has been relegated to an even lower tier as a result of being penalized for starting a recent game late—because the Windows laptop that powered the scoreboard required 17 minutes to perform system updates.
The March 13 match between the Chemnitz Niners and the Paderborn Baskets was set to begin normally, when Paderborn (the host) connected its laptop to the scoreboard in the 90 minutes leading up to the game.
In an interview with the German newspaper, Die Zeit (Google Translate), Patrick Seidel, the general manager of Paderborn Baskets said that at 6:00pm, an hour and a half before the scheduled start time, the laptop was connected "as usual."
"But as both teams warmed up, the computer crashed," he said. "When we booted it again at 7:20pm, it started automatically downloading updates. But we did not initiate anything."
After all the updates were installed, Paderborn was ready to start the game at 7:55pm.
By the end of the match, Paderborn won 69-62. But then Chemnitz formally protested, saying that because Paderborn had delayed the start time of the match by 25 minutes (instead of the 15-minute maximum as allowed under the German basketball rules), they should be penalized. As a result, Paderborn lost another point in the standings (Google Translate), according to a Basketball Budesliga press release, which meant that it would certainly be relegated to the "ProB" league of German pro basketball.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:50AM
Should have used Linux. systemd or not, it's better than winblows.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by c0lo on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:28AM
Not even that! When it comes to mission critical (such as the case of a basketball game that make-or-break your professional team's standing), one should use a real-time OS, so maybe the RTLinux [wikipedia.org] distro.
Anywho, I'm compelled to agree: Windows is indeed a poor (-man's?) choice, good only for ancient (but still operational) British nuclear subs [tomshardware.com]: US upgraded [wordpress.com] its subs and drones [gizmodo.com] to Linux and even Russia uses Linux for retaliatory purposes [wikipedia.org]
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 5, Touché) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:40AM
Even Linux won't protect you from incompetent admins and beancounters. Handling Windows Update settings isn't rocket science, nor is having a backup for critical systems.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @04:26AM
Many folks never change the default settings that their systems come with.
In addition to this event, I've also heard of folks being in the middle of a task, getting up to get a beverage, and coming back to find that their MICROS~1 system has auto-updated and auto-rebooted, thereby losing their previous hour's work.
The set of defaults in this case sounds very aggravating.
Can any Soylentil think of a non-MICROS~1 example that compares?
-- gewg_
(Score: 5, Informative) by vux984 on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:01AM
Many folks never change the default settings that their systems come with.
The defaults for home users make sense for most home users. This was not a home user; and they had special requirements. They should have changed the defaults. Although we don't REALLY know the real truth. Just that they are claiming they did not initiate them.
Lots of people will click install updates; then when they are installed see the prompt that says updates are installed; windows update needs to reboot to finish installing updates, and then they hit "postpone and do it later" for days on end. And then when they finally reboot it are pissed about it taking forever to do updates.
Can any Soylentil think of a non-MICROS~1 example that compares?
Actually yes.
1) Name a cloud service. Pretty much any cloud service. Q.E.D I can cite lots of examples where a cloud outage or internet outage to cloud provider caused major problems.
2) Linux - yup; I've seen servers take literally ages to startup after a crash. Its gotten better in recent years. But 30 minutes or more downtime after a linux box went down wasn't unusual - even if all that was needed was to power it back up. Even scheduled outages, we often gave them 30 minutes+ to boot.
3) OSX? No. Not yet. I've never had OSX actually do this to me yet. Although certain updates have taken HOURS literally on older systems where it just says "optimizing" or something for seemingly forevor; it happened when I need it to finish up so i can do something. But so far its never been so timing critical that its cost me badly. But then Windows updates happening at inopportune times have never bitten me in the ass THAT badly either.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:15PM
2) Linux - yup; I've seen servers take literally ages to startup after a crash.
It's called a file system check. Your problem is purely related to administration problems.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by vux984 on Wednesday April 08 2015, @06:19PM
It's called a file system check. Your problem is purely related to administration problems.
If one has their linux box set perform a 30-minute filesystem check after a crash; and the unit crashes 5 minutes before game time that seems to be equivalent to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @05:33PM
But you can cancel a fsck. Updates, not so much.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Monday April 13 2015, @05:20AM
But you can cancel a fsck.
Unless you can't...
However, in Arch Linux the fsck disk checker does not offer the option to abort a disk check once it has started. In Ubuntu for instance, you are told to press Esc to cancel. You can however abort fsck with Ctrl-C, but by default, fsck will then treat the disk as having failed the disk check, and only mount it read-only.
To get round this, create a file called e2fsck.conf in /etc/, and add the following line:[...]
Admiittedly, as is documented, there are ways around it if you had sufficient foresight. Then again, ditto for windows updates.
(Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:13AM
Mmmm... maybe. Back into early 1980-ies, an unstable Spectrum clone, resetting itself randomly. Had to save every 10 mins or so, when "saving" meant using a standard audio cassette tape with a tape recorder unable to "mute" while recording.
Think wee hours in the morning, in a student dorm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by mojo chan on Wednesday April 08 2015, @10:50AM
Sorry, but there is no excuse. The machine shouldn't even have been connected to the internet to get update. It was a single purpose machine, or should have been.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Wednesday April 08 2015, @12:25PM
If this machine is being used to keep score, then it may need an internet connection so that fans can get real time updates on the game.
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Wednesday April 08 2015, @01:25PM
Just air-gap it with a mobile phone and Twitter or something...
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:33AM
That doesn't sound right. You really don't want to have to depend on a blackberry phone. You definitely won't be able to get an app for that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:32PM
Not even that! When it comes to mission critical (such as the case of a basketball game that make-or-break your professional team's standing), one should use a real-time OS,
Not in the slightest. I get the feeling you don't even understand what a real-time OS is - its a way to embed an application into the operating system so that it gets reliable millisecond level scheduling.
The problem with real-time OSes is that they are not even close to general-purpose. They are appropriate for the embedded controller in the score-board, but not for an application that tracks scoring and has as one of its functions sending the score to the scoreboard computer.
Linux wasn't necessary here either. All they had to do was turn off auto-updates or failing that, just leave it off the network. It was simple operator error, nothing more.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:58PM
I doubt the operator asked it to crash and reboot before the updates started. Some windows updates happen during bootup and shutdown which prevents the computer from being usable. You don't always know when that is going to happen either. You could have installed updates the night before and shut the computer down. The next morning you'll spend 20 min waiting for your desktop because it's stuck in an update and won't present the login screen until it's done. I also see people who want to leave for the day and their laptops say "please don't turn off power" or whatever when trying to shutdown. They could be waiting anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.
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(Score: 2) by vux984 on Tuesday April 14 2015, @06:42PM
This particular day it was windows updates. Next month, the hard drive could fail outright and it won't matter what OS you have installed. They should have had a spare laptop.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday April 14 2015, @07:23PM
The scoreboard could also fail. At some point you have to draw a line in the risk analysis sheet.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by vux984 on Tuesday April 14 2015, @10:58PM
The scoreboard could also fail. At some point you have to draw a line in the risk analysis sheet.
Very true.
But a 'spare laptop' need not even been a dedicated unit. It could have just been one of the coaches personal units with the scoreboard control software preinstalled and ready to go.
(Or maybe not... who knows what the licensing and DRM for the scoreboard software looks like. :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday April 08 2015, @07:30PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:50AM
systemd or not, it's better than winblows
you say that now, but based on how systemd is "expanding its capabilities", there will come a day when you can't tell the difference
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:02AM
We need a -1 Douché moderation...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Kell on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:46AM
Sounds like that's what you get when you combine Touché and Disagree mods.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:24PM
Sorry to hear you need a douche. Try having sex with less partners, or at least stop having sex with animals. Maybe try vinegar, if that doesn't work try the extra strength drano, that should clear up the clogged orifice you speak from.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday April 08 2015, @08:06PM
So we'll have a scoreboard software directly in systemd sometime soon? That would be cool!
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:27AM
Get real...if someone doesn't know how to disable auto-updates on a M$ or Apple (or Chromebook), how the hell are they going to be able to deal with sudo hell in configuring or running any Linux disto?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @07:53AM
You should try using Linux. It's not what you think it is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:19PM
What's sudo hell? Never heard of it, never experienced it, use it all the time. In fact, an inexperienced user can install and use linux without ever having to use a terminal, it's more for customization or troubleshooting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08 2015, @02:42PM
No such thing as sudo hell. Unlike windows with dll hell, update hell, BSOD hell, graphics hell, etc, etc, etc. In the time it takes windows to update, or even defrag, I can do an initial install of Ubuntu or any other flavor of Linux, and have it up and running with my saved ~ directory copied over.