SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 5, Insightful) by kaszz on Wednesday April 08 2015, @04:06AM
Hope this illustrates the problem with computers doing things the users didn't told it to do. However the world is full of morons. Just hope they don't run nuclear plants, airplanes, life support, etc.
FOSSinator: Hey, nice Microsoft software you use there. Ever seen the effect of special self propagating code snippets? ;)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anubi on Wednesday April 08 2015, @05:35AM
Unfortunately, the people who specify these products also have the power to lay people like us off if we don't go along with it.
I did not go along with it, and I am paying the price.
Incidentally, the process "wuauserv" is responsible for the windows updating. Terminate it via performance monitor and the system will become responsive again, or at least until you boot or wake from sleep or something kicks it back on. It normally seems to get started upon startup. In my case, it was a delayed startup which let me get started into what I needed to do, then started this update in the background. I would see my CPU usage go to 100%, memory start draining, and soon the system would have to be powered down to regain control... of course Windows did not like that one bit.
For quite some time, I had no idea what was going on. All I knew is my computer would slow down then lock up for no apparent reason, and then only if the internet was on. It would wait until I turned the internet on, wait a few minutes, then nail me. I feared I had the cryptolocker virus knowing how much cpu time encrypting everything would take. It was quite unsettling to know my computer was running balls-to-the-wall doing something I had no idea what it was doing.
I had several frustrating rounds of this when I needed my computer for a presentation. There was little I could do at that point than look like a hapless fool.
I feel I took quite a credibility hit for that. I was trying to impress them with my mastery of Eagle and LTSpice, and I came out looking damned inept. Every time I tried to get onto the internet to retrieve some files they wanted me to look at, my system would lock up doing Microsoft's bidding, and I honestly thought I had a nasty malware that no one would tell me about. I even thought it was the NSA backdoor being used as ADVAPI.dll kept showing up in the list of running threads.
After a little run-in I had over Microsoft distributing chip-killing drivers for FTDI chips through the update system ( I build Arduino-compatible stuff, and had been using FTDI download cables... I now use the Prolific ones as I fear the software is now out to kill FTDI products and consider actually soldering one onto a board to be risky business ).
Control Panel -> System and Security -> Windows Update
If you turn it off ( you will be warned not to do this ), this will stop this from happening.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 08 2015, @09:27AM
Add microsoft.com to the firewall?
What's kind of funny is that all these updates are supposed to make the system more secure. But it usually don't become that so one might as well skip it..
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday April 08 2015, @01:55PM
Yes, more secure for whom? Certainly not us it seems.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 08 2015, @03:01PM
Only counterfeit FTDI chips are "bricked". Also that update has been rolled-back and no more chips (counterfeit or not) will be bricked.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:43AM
But trust in Microsoft, FTDI and automatic updates were bricked permanently.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:27AM
True.. maybe Microsoft and FTDI wised up and decided nuking their customer's stuff isn't really the brightest way to enforce digital "rights".
But someone *did* go through all the effort to make chip-nuking software and release it.
By now, every script kiddie and hacker has a copy of it, disassembled, and knows how to use it.
The stuff I build is industrialized Arduino-compatibles. I take the issue of resilience *very* seriously. Because *I* am the one my customers are going to be mad at if it stops working, and I am not "businesslike" enough to hide behind hold harmless clauses. If MY stuff does not work, I fix it. Pure and simple.
Since that debacle, I no longer solder USB to serial interface chips on a board. I simply no longer trust them. I will use a tossable download cable instead.
I know I can reload an Arduino-compatible bootloader anytime I want ( Thank you, Bill Westfield, for designing and sharing your OptiLoader! ) via the SPI/ISP port I design on all my stuff, and still trust my I2C and SPI chips.
I work with smaller companies who do not yet have the resources, patience, or legal framework to play or design with the big boys. Mostly, I work with machines that need a very simple digital supervisor to execute a procedure 24/7/365. Sensing something, controlling something. And it has to be extremely reliable. No-one I deal with wants to flip the power switch on and the thing doesn't go.
I found the Arduino framework ideal for implementing such low-level stuff as it used a lot of the same things I had for years done under DOS. I used to write all my stuff in Borland C++ for DOS. The Arduino framework uses the same language. Since the advent of things line X-port TCP/IP and ALFAT USB interfaces, I can talk to the big boys but do not have to have the overhead of being a big boy. I can still sit in the micropower range and do my simple thing, collecting results, and chucking them back to the big boys for analysis and report generation. I just mind the machine. And if the big boy is not around, I can still run the machine, storing anything the big boy might want on USB sticks or flash until the big boy is available.
One of my favorite things about the Arduino is a lot of kids know it, and its easy to show them how to use my thing. My thing is designing the hardware. I will show my customer how the thing works, what chips I used, and sample drivers, but when it comes to implementing exactly what the customer wants it to do, often he is in a far better position to write his own code. Its quite easy. Documentation of Arduino programming is very available. High school kids do it all the time. I will teach them, and let them take it from there. They can make the machine I build for them do exactly what they want it to do. I will write code that does what they want, but its my belief they should be able to season it to taste. Criminey - they bought the machine - it should do whatever they program it to do.
About the last thing either me or my customers want is some script loose that wipes out the interface chips. FTDI wrote one. If I dealt in finicky machines subject to a variety of viruses and backdoors, I would not be dealing with things as simple as Arduinos.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:44PM
Yes, but how many companies are buying their chips direct from FTDI? Quite easy to buy a part through Mouser or whatever thinking it's genuine, and it turns out it isn't and your product gets bricked.
And the update was rolled-back by Microsoft, but you have no idea whether every one of your customers has removed it. There's certainly the possibility that it's still out there and active somewhere.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:45AM
Perhaps a partial solution is to start your own business and interact more directly with the real customers?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 09 2015, @01:26AM
That is what I had to do after that.
I had already resisted authority. I could not count on them for any sort of reference.
Hiring managers do not take kindly to anyone who questions authority.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:10AM
What were your hugest obstacles?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:39AM
My biggest obstacle is very few people know what I do and have seen my work.
The work I did before was not public.
However, I did get in a pissing match with a supervisor. He won.
I intend to change this shortly, as I have been designing a line of products for release as open-source. The main processor boards are already done. I am now working on interface boardsets. I have no intention of trying to manufacture them. I expect Chinese knockoffs every bit as good as mine to appear shortly after I release. I intend to support myself just supporting these things.
I have just about given up hope for ever working for anyone else, as I am in my 60's. Who wants old farts like me around? I have lived in the simplicity of the past and have gotten used to knowing exactly how my stuff works and how to fix it. Farm style if I have to.
I am not much good as a "leader" as I abhor a lot of the stuff that today is seen as a "leadership skill", where I see it as "ass-holery", have had things like that done to me, and I flat refuse to do the same to others. I will teach, but I do not want a thing to do with being someone else's enforcer.
Where I used to work, they actually sent people to classes to teach them how to become assholes. They were not born that way, rather it was what they had to do if they wanted to stay employed. An enforcer is more valuable to many companies than do-ers.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:26AM
I mean obstacles in getting your business going ;)
Fighting people in a position of power inside a company is a rigged playing field.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday April 09 2015, @07:40AM
I would say primarily operating capital.
I have to do everything myself, and there are a lot of things I have very little experience in. Enormous amounts of time get wasted... #1 culprit being forms governments require in order to open shop. I have avoided the issue so far by going under the radar and not involving anyone else in my affairs. The instant I hire someone, I leave myself very vulnerable to not filling out all the paperwork governments at all levels expect.
So, I end up spending a lot of time doing a lot of things that have no bearing on my product, simply because I cannot afford an accountant and tax attorney to interface to my government for me and get permission to operate in exchange for exaction of tax.
Hell, trying to research the tax owed costs me a lot more in time than the tax itself.
Although I would like to sell my stuff to businesses, for now I cannot afford to as much as accept payments from them, as the costs of processing the paperwork to government standards would overwhelm me. I keep hearing about all this "help" governments are supposed to be making available to small business, but the biggest help they could possibly give me is just get out of my life and let me try to get this thing started. Some of my Mexican friends have this down pat... they only work for homeowners, who cannot deduct expenses, for cash.
So, for now, I have been applying my product line to stuff I do for small business that hires me as a contractor. They 1099 me, and I pay the tax on that, and everyone goes away happy. I simply do not have the time to design my product and understand all the tax code. I guess in a country as prosperous as the United States, its not very important that people actually produce anything. If it was, our tax code would encourage, not discourage, productivity. For now, they even see fit to take what little I do get which leaves me just that much less to work with.
I am just happy I foresaw the writing on the wall and prepared for the "seven years of drought". I have a lot to learn on the business aspect of this, and likely will just end up taking social security in a few years. From what I can see, there just isn't all that much call for people who do what I do. A lot of skilled tradesmen have the same story as manufacturing goes overseas. I thought I was doing the right thing studying engineering, but in hindsight, I should have gone into auto mechanics. Only reason I do this is because this is what I was "wired" to do, just as some were wired for art, music, sports, or whatever their passion is.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @12:34PM
Move to another country where regulations are more business friendly?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 10 2015, @01:04AM
That is definitely in the cards.
For right now, I just want to get this running. Where the weather is such that I can develop and test this thing.
I am so convinced this thing will work that I am devoting every resource I have left to it, and flat refuse to have anyone else involved. Especially investors.
Once I have the whole thing known good design, I will then be free to take what resources I have left and reconstruct another one somewhere else. Out of the jurisdiction of the takers.
I saw where in the old company I used to work for, there were like three people who "made it happen". Once the financial and government crowd got involved, the fire went out.
Very few can kindle the fire of innovation. However, any entity funded by cash-rich entities such as the government or investment groups can hire the skills to put the fire out.
Its also my belief that more than half of the people here on this forum have seen that same thing happen... personally.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 10 2015, @01:26AM
Guess the answer is to exclude, manage or deceive those entities?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 10 2015, @03:15AM
Exclude. They are about as helpful as tin whiskers on solder joints.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]