mab@druhi.ATT.COM (Alan Bland) (10/06/88)
This appeared on comp.risks and might be of interest to Amiga owners. Perhaps Australian Airlines would be interested in replacing their A1000 with an A500 or A2000? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 30 Sep 88 12:08:23 est From: Dave Horsfall <dave@stcns3.stc.oz.au> Subject: The Perils of PCs in Public From the "Rumour Central" column in PC Week, Sep 15: ``... On Thursday August 25, I was attempting to make a connection at Adelaide airport when a blackout occurred. Emergency lighting only, no PA system, no Arrivals and Departure screens, no seat allocation computer, and so on. When normality was finally restored, what should appear on the Australian Airlines monitor but a cute little picture of a hand holding a 3.5in disk with the familiar label 'Amiga KickStart'! Nobody did KickStart the thing for the next half-hour before I boarded the plane. For all I know, the passengers are still seeing this ghostly hand instead of Arrivals and Departures. It seems that Australian Airlines' mainframe is not up to the job of displaying a list of Arrivals and Departures details in pretty colours.'' Although the intent of the article was about how PCs are being used in places where one expects to find a mainframe, I couldn't help but be amused by the RISKs present - no backup supply for the display computer, no auto-boot sequence, the possible harm to public relations when no-one realised the Amiga needed to be booted, etc. Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel-STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.OZ.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.OZ.AU!dave PCs haven't changed computing history - merely repeated it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Alan Bland AT&T Bell Laboratories - Denver att!druhi!mab
iphwk%MTSUNIX1.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Bill Kinnersley) (10/09/88)
[In "Risk of A1000 in public (cross-posted from comp.risks)", Alan Bland said:] : : ``... On Thursday August 25, I was attempting to make a connection at : Adelaide airport when a blackout occurred. Emergency lighting only, : no PA system, no Arrivals and Departure screens, no seat allocation : computer, and so on. When normality was finally restored, what should : appear on the Australian Airlines monitor but a cute little picture of : a hand holding a 3.5in disk with the familiar label 'Amiga KickStart'! : Better that things like this should happen only in the Departure Lounge and not the Cockpit!
phil@titan.rice.edu (William LeFebvre) (10/09/88)
In article <3639@druhi.ATT.COM> mab@druhi.ATT.COM (Alan Bland) writes: >... >...I couldn't help but be >amused by the RISKs present - no backup supply for the display computer, >no auto-boot sequence, the possible harm to public relations when no-one >realised the Amiga needed to be booted, etc. ...or when no one present could find the kickstart disk! (Now where did we put that #$%!@* thing....last time we used it was 4 months ago.....where did it get off to......) William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University <phil@Rice.edu>
ncreed@ndsuvax.UUCP (Walter Reed) (10/11/88)
In article <1979@kalliope.rice.edu> phil@Rice.edu (William LeFebvre) writes: ]In article <3639@druhi.ATT.COM> mab@druhi.ATT.COM (Alan Bland) writes: ]>...I couldn't help but be ]>amused by the RISKs present - no backup supply for the display computer, ]>no auto-boot sequence, the possible harm to public relations when no-one ]>realised the Amiga needed to be booted, etc. ]....or when no one present could find the kickstart disk! ](Now where did we put that #$%!@* thing....last time we used it ]was 4 months ago.....where did it get off to......) Naaa.. What REALLY happened (:-) is that they had to call in the head computer guru, and he had to call C= to find out what to do... (-: (-: -- ------ Walter Reed ------ + uunet!ndsuvax!ncreed or ncreed@ndsuvax.BITNET "There's no point in being + or ncreed@plains.NoDak.edu grown up if you can't be + childish sometimes!" Dr. Who + USnAIL: 925 9th Ave W. West Fargo, ND 58078