*Think they'll sue Microsoft? Wait, nobody ever successfully does that, no matter what the software does.
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Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:42:28 -0700
From: Gene Wirchenko
Subject: Tech worker: 'Blue screen of death' on oil rig's computer
Gregg Keizer, *Computerworld*, 26 Jul 2010
A computer that monitored drilling operations on the Deepwater Horizon had
been freezing with a [BSOD] prior to the explosion that sank the oil rig
last April, the chief electrician aboard testified Friday at a federal
hearing.
In his testimony Friday, Michael Williams, the chief electronics technician
aboard the Transocean-owned Deepwater Horizon, said that the rig's safety
alarm had been habitually switched to a bypass mode to avoid waking up the
crew with middle-of-the-night warnings.
Williams said that a computer control system in the drill shack would still
record high gas levels or a fire, but it would not trigger warning sirens,
He also said that five weeks before the April 20 explosion, he had been
called to check a computer system that monitored and controlled drilling.
The machine had been locking up for months. You'd have no data coming
through." With the computer frozen, the driller would not have access to
crucial data about what was going on in the well.
The April disaster left 11 dead and resulted in the largest oil spill in
U.S. history.
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