[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Crash-proof computer tactic revealed by UK researchers here

[MKZ1945]

And they will name the computer Entropy?

[DrSpanky]

Quote

And they will name the computer Entropy?

I heard they want to call it skynet.

[PaulConnell]

Will it be able to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?

[someinternetdude]

Save that research money and get a MAC. There is a reason why they say "MACs just work"

[jerkso]

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Save that research money and get a MAC. There is a reason why they say "MACs just work"

194 Million results in google for "MAC Crashing"........... obviously "they" say and google are two different things.

[ChatTn23]

I don’t know if these people created the so called Systematic Computer or not. The systems I understand it, or as explained to me, is programmed with code duplicated several times within the unit. The program runs from multiple sources simultaneously through multiple processors with one processor taking the lead for output, but it is continuously compared to the others as it runs. If any single processor is determined to be in error it is dropped from running code. If it is the lead processor, the next assigned processor takes over for output. The computer has the ability to repair itself by rewriting the bad code from the other sources. I suspect these types of systems are probably used in flight control systems on some military jets, since some like the F117 turns into flying sky junk if the computer should quit.

It appears what is going on here is that they are modifying it for whatever the mission that the computer is programmed to achieve becomes the main objective of the software and it will somehow rewrite itself to meet the mission objective if any type of error interrupts that objective. Sort of sounds like HAL in 2001 flick to me.

[DannyHooverdoqz]

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Will it be able to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?

I thought Siri already answered that for us? LMAO

[WinTard]

someinternetdude, on 16 February 2013 - 06:23 PM, said:

Save that research money and get a MAC. There is a reason why they say "MACs just work"

"They" say a lot of things don't they? I wonder what the reason is though?

While others say other things too?

WinTard, on 16 February 2013 - 09:11 PM, said:

don16140, on 16 February 2013 - 09:18 AM, said:

AFTER USING WINDOWS 10 YEARS, WINDOWS 8 IS THE LAST STRAW. I'VE SWITCHED TO MAC AND LINUX AND WISHED I HAD DONE IT SOONER. CORPORATE GREED TO PINCH EVERY PENNY OF PROFIT FOR CEO'S AND THE LIKE AT THE EXPENSE OF CONSUMERS. WINDOZ 8 IS ONE OS THAT YOU WON'T SHOVE DOWN MY THROAT MICRO$OFT. FOR THOSE WHO LIKE WINDOZ 8, GOOD FOR YOU...FREEDOM OF CHOICE. I'M GLAD I HAVE MY CHOICE WITH MAC AND LINUX, NO CRASHES, NO NEED FOR ANTI VIRUS, MORE SECURE AND LESS TIME TO MAINTAIN MY COMPUTER.

^^^
Here we go again! More FUD & BS from Microsoft haters and bashers.

What's up with the ALL CAPS? Be careful, or you might be viewed as a RETARD, just like me?

Don't you know about the Internet Etiquette after 10 years? Geez! Some are sure slow learners...

No crashes you say? Hm.

It says otherwise right here:

Searching Bing for key sequence consistently crash OSX reveals:


What only 705,000 results?

Searching Google for key sequence consistently crash OSX reveals:


Ah, that's more like it, 45,100,000 results confirming this oddity useful feature of OS X, 10.8.2 + all the latest updates, of course.

Relax! And have a nice day!

Even bird heads can be happy and serene. Why all the angst? Everybody is cuter when happy!


PS: Do try that {hold down the shift key} and File:/// just for fun! Isn't it cool to be able to crash the entire OS X (the latest) with this simple 'magical-oh-wow-revolutionary' key combination?

Yet another Apple first! Aren't you curious? My good buddies in OS X assure me of the authenticity of this magical key sequence, which works on 99.99% in all applications under OS X.

PPS: Please explain the built-in antivirus in OS X?

~~~~~~~~~~
Never insult anyone by accident.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

Ignorance is trainable – Stupidity is terminal.
~ Jerry Fleming

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
~ Charles Darwin

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.
~ Robert A. Heinlein

[mipa]

Skynet can't be far behind.....

[WinTard]

mipa, on 17 February 2013 - 03:16 AM, said:

Skynet can't be far behind.....

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.

~ B. F. Skinner, 1904-1990, American Psychologist and Author

[jscott418]

I run Windows 7 and cannot remember a BSOD? Not sure its such a big problem anymore?

[WiredNerve]

No, but apple maps can show you how to get there...

[GHinkson]

Anything with Google or Apple can crash a system, thats the reason I don't use them on my computer.

[Gergel70]

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Save that research money and get a MAC. There is a reason why they say "MACs just work"

A term created by Apple, no doubt. I work with both Mac's and PC's and seen my fair share of issues with both OS's. So that term is a fallacy.

[berock212]

There solving a problem that doesn't exist much anymore. I haven't seen BSOD in years. I have never saw it on my own computer.

[MKZ1945]

It looks like some of you need to go back and read the article instead of just reading the title and running off on tangents. I had the first comment and maybe I started it, but I did read the article and thought some would get a chuckle if they had read the article and understood the term “entropy”. I at least know that it has nothing to do with Apple or Microsoft, or anything else that most of you are probably familiar with. At least go back and read the very last paragraph and let you imagination run with other applications of such computers. What UCL (and others) are working on is something that will be used for purposes way beyond what most of you use them for. It has nothing at all to do with personal computing devices, and if it did you probably could not afford it. If we could afford it we would have better things to do then spend any amount of time making comments here.

All computers are susceptible to crashes, regardless of Mac, Microsoft based, or even large mainframe units. Even systems described in the post of “ChatTn23” can crash. It just takes larger challenges to the design.

[WinTard]

MKZ1945, on 17 February 2013 - 10:43 AM, said:

It looks like some of you need to go back and read the article instead of just reading the title and running off on tangents. I had the first comment and maybe I started it, but I did read the article and thought some would get a chuckle if they had read the article and understood the term “entropy”. I at least know that it has nothing to do with Apple or Microsoft, or anything else that most of you are probably familiar with. At least go back and read the very last paragraph and let you imagination run with other applications of such computers. What UCL (and others) are working on is something that will be used for purposes way beyond what most of you use them for. It has nothing at all to do with personal computing devices, and if it did you probably could not afford it. If we could afford it we would have better things to do then spend any amount of time making comments here.

All computers are susceptible to crashes, regardless of Mac, Microsoft based, or even large mainframe units. Even systems described in the post of “ChatTn23” can crash. It just takes larger challenges to the design.

You make valid points MKZ1945.

Here's a funny anecdote dating back from around 1988.

My company was being courted by Tandem Computers, with their fault-tolerant architecture. All well and dandy, but I decided to experiment:

Simply logged in and in the debugger created an extremely simple program as follows:

Label: JMP Label

Just to see what would happen?

Well guess what, that took down the entire Tandem. No more login prompt. No way to stop this, but reboot the whole system! Oh yeah, they fixed it, afterwards. Just sayin'...

And it also took Linux quite a bit of time to fix the same problem as well.

But I could do this in Windows 95, no problems at all. No reboot necessary. Merely [^][C] to break out of the tight loop.

Not all pre-emptive task schedulers are created equally, unfortunately.

I am all for more reliable computing, so I wish these researchers all the best. And I have no doubt the Open-Source movement as well as companies like Microsoft will continue to bring real state-of-the-art computing down to the masses.

~~~~~~~~~~~
The more you sweat in Peacetime, the less you bleed during War.
{Chinese Proverb}

Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.
~ Jean Sibelius

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made.
Destiny is made known silently.
~ Agnes De Mille, 1905-1993, American Dancer and Choreographer

[artzy65]

Quote

someinternetdude said
Save that research money and get a MAC. There is a reason why they say "MACs just work" "They" say a lot of things don't they? I wonder what the reason is though? While others say other things too?
WinTard said

don16140 said
AFTER USING WINDOWS 10 YEARS, WINDOWS 8 IS THE LAST STRAW. I'VE SWITCHED TO MAC AND LINUX AND WISHED I HAD DONE IT SOONER. CORPORATE GREED TO PINCH EVERY PENNY OF PROFIT FOR CEO'S AND THE LIKE AT THE EXPENSE OF CONSUMERS. WINDOZ 8 IS ONE OS THAT YOU WON'T SHOVE DOWN MY THROAT MICRO$OFT. FOR THOSE WHO LIKE WINDOZ 8, GOOD FOR YOU...FREEDOM OF CHOICE. I'M GLAD I HAVE MY CHOICE WITH MAC AND LINUX, NO CRASHES, NO NEED FOR ANTI VIRUS, MORE SECURE AND LESS TIME TO MAINTAIN MY COMPUTER.

^^^ Here we go again! More FUD & BS from Microsoft haters and bashers. What's up with the ALL CAPS? Be careful, or you might be viewed as a RETARD, just like me? Don't you know about the Internet Etiquette after 10 years? Geez! Some are sure slow learners... No crashes you say? Hm. It says otherwise right here: Searching Bing for http://www.bing.com/search?q=key sequence consistently crash osx&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IE10TR reveals: What only 705,000 results? Searching Google for https://encrypted.go...client=psy-ab&q=key sequence consistently crashes osx reveals: Ah, that's more like it, 45,100,000 results confirming this oddity useful feature of OS X, 10.8.2 + all the latest updates, of course. Relax! And have a nice day! Even bird heads can be happy and serene. Why all the angst? Everybody is cuter when happy! PS: Do try that {hold down the shift key} and File:/// just for fun! Isn't it cool to be able to crash the entire OS X (the latest) with this simple 'magical-oh-wow-revolutionary' key combination? Yet another Apple first! Aren't you curious? My good buddies in OS X assure me of the authenticity of this magical key sequence, which works on 99.99% in all applications under OS X. PPS: Please explain the built-in antivirus in OS X? ~~~~~~~~~~

You're picking on someone who isn't really tech-savvy. I don't know why you would waste your time like that. The 'uppercase' guy is relying on his own experience; he's pumped because he finds the change to OS X refreshing. One doesn't have to attack non-savvy users.

Aside from that, this is pretty interesting re that keyboarding issue osxdaily.com/2013/02/02/bug-crashes-apps-mac-os-x/

[QUOTE]
"... If for some reason you want to try this out yourself, just type the following short string into any OS X app that has a text entry field:

File:///

The app will instantly crash, and because newer versions of OS X restore windows on re-open, it can lead to some pretty odd crash loops. The potential for crashing problems is made even worse with apps that sync across to other Macs, like Notes and iMessage, and can actually cause those apps to crash on other Macs.

To test this without the threat of an infinite app crash loop, you can do something like the following:

Go to /Applications/ and make a copy of TextEdit.app, renaming the copy to something like “CrashEdit”

Open both TextEdit apps, but in the copied “CrashEdit” version create a new text file and type the magic crash triple slash
After CrashEdit.app has demonstrated the bug by crashing, create a new text document in the original concurrently open TextEdit app to rewrite over the crash-prone save state
Delete the CrashEdit.app

Quitting and reopening TextEdit may still contain the File:// crash entry, but so long as you do not place the cursor next to it and hit return you will be able to close that file and avoid any issues.

Technically, File:// followed quickly by any other character other than space makes the crash occur, but the triple /// is what is mentioned in the OpenRadar report.

The brief video below demonstrates the bug bringing down TextEdit:

There is some potential for nefarious misuse and even theoretical DOS attacks from websites that typed the syntax into a text field, but that shouldn’t be a widespread concern.

The unusual bug is gaining significant attention after it appeared on HackerNews and 9to5mac, and it will likely be patched by Apple quickly. If the patch will arrive separately or as part of OS X 10.8.3 remains to be seen, but 10.8.3 is nearing the end of it’s beta development cycle and could easily include a fix before the public release. "

[Extremist]

GHinkson, on 17 February 2013 - 06:53 AM, said:

Anything with Google or Apple can crash a system, thats the reason I don't use them on my computer.

That's no more true than saying Macs never crash.