I’ll
preface this article by saying that I’m not talking about some sort of
Skynet/Terminator near future, but I’ll also say that computers are such a
staple of our day to day lives that we sometimes forget a simple malfunction
can have dire and far-reaching effects. For most people, all they need to worry
about is whether or not their desktop model will boot up or how long their
server will continue to function with only one processor installed. If you’re
currently worried about the small bugs and ticks with your computer system, I’d
like to provide you a little bit of perspective. No, I won’t feed you a line
about meditation or the wonders of a nature walk in calming the nerves. The
perspective I offer is one of the worst case scenario. Here are three server
crashes which will make your computer problems take on a slightly lighter hue.
The Blackout
It’s August 14th, 2003, and you roll out of bed
in your Ohio
home and groggily walk into the kitchen to grab some coffee. You grab the pot
and groggily turn it over your favorite mug, but aren’t greeted by a delicious
aroma nor splashing sound. There’s no coffee. Your eyes crack open a little bit
wider in annoyance, and you notice that the automatic coffee maker doesn’t have
power. Neither does the stove or microwave. Nothing.
What’s the deal? Well, it turns out that back in 2003 there
was one particularly nasty server glitch which caused power outages across
eight states. That’s right, eight.
How is this possible? Well, one little server which was responsible for power
management processing experienced a glitch which allowed a backup of traffic,
all of which crammed into the system and caused a server failure. Minutes later
the backup server failed with the same problem. Talk about a bad day to be an
IT professional in Ohio’s
power management branch.
The Lockdown
Back in 2007, this delightful little server failure caused
problems for tens of thousands of Windows users. As the result of an oversight,
the Windows team uploaded a code into their servers which caused numerous users
to receive a message that their copy of Windows was not an authentic version.
Accusations of piracy aside, this was a blunder which could be traced back to a
simple line of code uploaded into a server when it ought not to have been.
Automatic backups could have allowed Windows to roll back instantly, but due to
a glitch the servers sent out authentication messages for a full three days.
The Airbus Glitch
What happens when you host two different versions of the
same software on a collaborative project? The Airbus project found out, paying
nearly six billion dollars for a glitch which resulted from two design
companies hosting different versions of CATIA (a design program).
You may be looking at your server with a suspicious eye
right about now, but don’t worry! Most of the time server applications never go
awry. In the three years I’ve owned my 579237-B21 server, I’ve never once cause
power outages across multiple states, nor cots myself six billion dollars. So
whether you’re having a problem with your drives or software, just remember:
it’s not that bad.
