Linked List: September 30, 2004

Thursday, 30 September 2004

Windows Server Crash Nearly Causes 800-Plane Pile-Up ★

Matthew Broersma, reporting for Techworld:

The failure was ultimately down to a combination of human error and a design glitch in the Windows servers brought in over the past three years to replace the radio system’s original Unix servers, according to the FAA.

The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times. To avoid this automatic shutdown, technicians are required to restart the system manually every 30 days. An improperly trained employee failed to reset the system, leading it to shut down without warning, the official said.

(Via Wilfredo Sánchez.)

Apple v. Apple ★

Business Week Online’s Alex Salkever with a look at the Beatles’ lawsuit against Apple:

This time the outcome is far from a lock for Apple Corps. Make no mistake: There will be a settlement. No one benefits from pushing a case all the way through a full trial and appeals because the costs are prohibitive. But analyst predictions that the case could cost Apple Computer hundreds of millions of dollars in settlement payments, even the use of its own name on music products, are way out of line.

Secure Keyboard Entry ★

Jonathan ‘Wolf’ Rentzsch examines Terminal’s “Secure Keyboard Entry” mode; includes an example app he wrote that sniffs keyboard input system-wide.

BBEdit 8.0.2 ★

A rare BBEdit update containing just one change: a fix for a bug when saving files via the built-in “Open From FTP/SFTP Server” command.