4 ms·

Not trying to be funny here, but I would not be surprised if an automated Windows update borked something. Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heat

by pgt 7y ago

Not trying to be funny here, but I would not be surprised if an automated Windows update borked something. Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heating for 36 hears after a Windows Update triggered a several GB download over the base's modem downlink.

wrkronmiller 7y ago
Can you provide a link to that Antarctic incident? I'm curious how a network outage would affect a system as critical as heating...
eightysixfour 7y ago
The heater required an active internet connection and available bandwidth?
- privong 7y ago
  > The heater required an active internet connection and available bandwidth? My guess is that the heater was being run by the machine that required the update and the update download process meant the machine was not available for usual operation. But I don't really know.
  - eightysixfour 7y ago
    Windows downloads the updates separately from installing them. Good guess though.
    - huhtenberg 7y ago
      ... unless it needs to do a quick follow-up update after applying one of the pre-downloaded ones. And then not three reboots later you get your machine back.
- martin_a 7y ago
  Sounds like a pretty normal device to me in the times of IoT...
- Fordec 7y ago
  It was actually just a gaming PC with a Nvidia GTX480 belonging to a scientist perpetually left turned on
  - pizzapill 7y ago
    Those NVIDIA fanboys. I have a AMD RX 480 which heats my room just as good.
Uplink 7y ago
The closest thing I can find to this story on Google is this: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26019-what-to-do-when-the-power-goes-out-in-antarctica/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26019-what-to-do-when... It doesn't involve Windows as far as I can tell - they don't say what the cause of the problem was.
- donarb 7y ago
  This press release from the British Antarctic Survey says about that incident that a coolant leak caused the generator to overheat and shutdown. https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/update-power-down-at-british-antarctic-survey-halley-research-station/ https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/update-power-down-at-britis...
adminu 7y ago
"hears" is actually a great mixture of hours and years, that leaves you wondering ;) I hope he ment hours, though
shareIdeas 7y ago
Are there windows operating systems in the satalites? The only thing those satalites need to do is, accept signal, do math, and transmit signal. I don't see why you would use Windows for this.
- Sanzig 7y ago
  The satellites themselves are most likely running some sort of proprietary or semi-proprietary RTOS for their C&DH computer (eg: VxWorks, QNX, Integrity, RTEMS...). However, it's more than likely that there's a bunch of Windows machines on the ground segment side of the operation, since a lot of satellite fleet management software is Windows based.
  - shareIdeas 7y ago
    Do you need a windows os to send a signal to the satalites? No. But for some reason the op implied windows was to blame without evidence. I mentioned the implausibly of it. Op is misleading people.
  - CannisterFlux 7y ago
    Nah. The ground control segment software runs a version of the ESA's SCOS 2000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOS_2000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOS_2000 and is on Linux (and maybe Solaris).
wolrah 7y ago
> Not trying to be funny here, but I would not be surprised if an automated Windows update borked something. If someone is running even important tasks that must not be interrupted, much less critical infrastructure like this, on consumer versions of Windows they're absolute idiots and should never be trusted with those sorts of decisions again. If one insists on using Windows for uninterruptible tasks they should be using a server edition. That said I'd always recommend > Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heating for 36 hears after a Windows Update triggered a several GB download over the base's modem downlink. That seems implausible, or at least to have been miscommunicated. The download and install phases are separate, so nothing would have gone down until the download completed. If the heating system required constant communication and went down due to not enough bandwidth being left over that's obviously a very poor design in general, especially in Antarctica. Even if that were somehow the case, it wouldn't take 36 hours for their network team to block/throttle the update traffic to let it work again.
- organsnyder 7y ago
  > If one insists on using Windows for uninterruptible tasks they should be using a server edition. The server edition can also be configured to perform automatic updates.
  - ch4ch4 7y ago
    Right, but unlike consumer versions, Windows Server doesn't make it mandatory.
    - Someone1234 7y ago
      Enterprise editions don't either. Why are people using consumer grade Windows for enterprise tasks?
  - hnarn 7y ago
    The relevant point is whether it's set to do so automatically by default (as the consumer version is). Any operating system can be configured to automatically update, but many of them do not.
Someone1234 7y ago
> Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heating for 36 hears after a Windows Update triggered a several GB download over the base's modem downlink. I've been researching this. There was an outage. It wasn't caused by Windows. What is your source for this claim?
- retSava 7y ago
  Curious and not refuting - what was the cause of the outage?
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    Assuming they're talking about the 2014 outage at Halley Research Station: > Halley lost power on 30 July after the station’s generators overheated and shut down after a large coolant leak from the main arterial pipe in the station’s heating system. https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/research-on-ice-at-british-antarctic-base/7647.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/research-on-ice-at-briti... I cannot find any other Antarctic outages.

by pgt 7y ago

wrkronmiller 7y ago

Can you provide a link to that Antarctic incident? I'm curious how a network outage would affect a system as critical as heating...

eightysixfour 7y ago

The heater required an active internet connection and available bandwidth?

privong 7y ago
> The heater required an active internet connection and available bandwidth? My guess is that the heater was being run by the machine that required the update and the update download process meant the machine was not available for usual operation. But I don't really know.
- eightysixfour 7y ago
  Windows downloads the updates separately from installing them. Good guess though.
  - huhtenberg 7y ago
    ... unless it needs to do a quick follow-up update after applying one of the pre-downloaded ones. And then not three reboots later you get your machine back.
martin_a 7y ago
Sounds like a pretty normal device to me in the times of IoT...
Fordec 7y ago
It was actually just a gaming PC with a Nvidia GTX480 belonging to a scientist perpetually left turned on
- pizzapill 7y ago
  Those NVIDIA fanboys. I have a AMD RX 480 which heats my room just as good.

Uplink 7y ago

The closest thing I can find to this story on Google is this: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26019-what-to-do-when-the-power-goes-out-in-antarctica/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26019-what-to-do-when... It doesn't involve Windows as far as I can tell - they don't say what the cause of the problem was.

donarb 7y ago
This press release from the British Antarctic Survey says about that incident that a coolant leak caused the generator to overheat and shutdown. https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/update-power-down-at-british-antarctic-survey-halley-research-station/ https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/update-power-down-at-britis...

adminu 7y ago

"hears" is actually a great mixture of hours and years, that leaves you wondering ;) I hope he ment hours, though

shareIdeas 7y ago

Are there windows operating systems in the satalites? The only thing those satalites need to do is, accept signal, do math, and transmit signal. I don't see why you would use Windows for this.

Sanzig 7y ago
The satellites themselves are most likely running some sort of proprietary or semi-proprietary RTOS for their C&DH computer (eg: VxWorks, QNX, Integrity, RTEMS...). However, it's more than likely that there's a bunch of Windows machines on the ground segment side of the operation, since a lot of satellite fleet management software is Windows based.
- shareIdeas 7y ago
  Do you need a windows os to send a signal to the satalites? No. But for some reason the op implied windows was to blame without evidence. I mentioned the implausibly of it. Op is misleading people.
- CannisterFlux 7y ago
  Nah. The ground control segment software runs a version of the ESA's SCOS 2000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOS_2000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOS_2000 and is on Linux (and maybe Solaris).

wolrah 7y ago

> Not trying to be funny here, but I would not be surprised if an automated Windows update borked something. If someone is running even important tasks that must not be interrupted, much less critical infrastructure like this, on consumer versions of Windows they're absolute idiots and should never be trusted with those sorts of decisions again. If one insists on using Windows for uninterruptible tasks they should be using a server edition. That said I'd always recommend > Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heating for 36 hears after a Windows Update triggered a several GB download over the base's modem downlink. That seems implausible, or at least to have been miscommunicated. The download and install phases are separate, so nothing would have gone down until the download completed. If the heating system required constant communication and went down due to not enough bandwidth being left over that's obviously a very poor design in general, especially in Antarctica. Even if that were somehow the case, it wouldn't take 36 hours for their network team to block/throttle the update traffic to let it work again.

organsnyder 7y ago
> If one insists on using Windows for uninterruptible tasks they should be using a server edition. The server edition can also be configured to perform automatic updates.
- ch4ch4 7y ago
  Right, but unlike consumer versions, Windows Server doesn't make it mandatory.
  - Someone1234 7y ago
    Enterprise editions don't either. Why are people using consumer grade Windows for enterprise tasks?
- hnarn 7y ago
  The relevant point is whether it's set to do so automatically by default (as the consumer version is). Any operating system can be configured to automatically update, but many of them do not.

Someone1234 7y ago

> Recently heard about an Antarctic base that lost heating for 36 hears after a Windows Update triggered a several GB download over the base's modem downlink. I've been researching this. There was an outage. It wasn't caused by Windows. What is your source for this claim?

retSava 7y ago
Curious and not refuting - what was the cause of the outage?
- Someone1234 7y ago
  Assuming they're talking about the 2014 outage at Halley Research Station: > Halley lost power on 30 July after the station’s generators overheated and shut down after a large coolant leak from the main arterial pipe in the station’s heating system. https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/research-on-ice-at-british-antarctic-base/7647.article https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/research-on-ice-at-briti... I cannot find any other Antarctic outages.