Now we now why the entertainment systems are so flaky!

[jojax14]

According to this article:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7707016.stm (sorry can't post as a link as I am too new, but I am sure you can work it out)

...the entertainment systems on long-haul Virgin and Qantas are still running on Windows 3.1!

W I N D O W S 3 . 1 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

That certainly explains a lot!

jj

 

[albatross710]

Windows 3.1 is of course far more stable than 3.0.

My understanding on technology platforms is the lead time of development and testing for compatibility will all of the aircraft systems. Once they get a core platform that is working & approved the cost of changing is significant.

I do recall seeing an article about the early space shuttle which was running on the equivalent of a Commodore 64.

 

[medhead]

It could be worse, they could be running on vista

 

[moa999]

I have never seen a BSOD on QF AVOD systems,

although have seen lots of BSODs on digital advertising, timeboards etc of systems running XP

 

[SeaWolf]

Funny you should mention Windows 3.X
Just yesterday...
BBC NEWS | Technology | The end of an era - Windows 3.x

An application has expectedly quit.
Windows 3.x has come to the closing moments of its long life.
On 1 November Microsoft stopped issuing licences for the software that made its debut in May 1990 in the US.

 

[ejb]

I have never seen a BSOD on QF AVOD systems,

although have seen lots of BSODs on digital advertising, timeboards etc of systems running XP

The opening ceremony of the Chinese Olympic Games suffered a BSOD.

ejb

 

[Evan]

Hey, it is not windows 3.1, it is Windows CE (Much newer) however it does boot and pull the image for the OS via Z-Modem protocol. (Note: i am refering to the rockwell colins AVOD system)
There is a more detailed discussion here or FT but i could not find it.

I am not an expert of this subject at all but i have seen it boot with my own eyes so unless it was some trial with updated software on the A330's then it was for sure WinCE.

E

 

[Platy]

It could be worse, they could be running on vista

Yeah, but, if it used VISTA at last we could watch a nice image of a clock...

 

[serfty]

The reboot on the 388 takes about 90 seconds and you just see a grey screen!

 

[Platy]

The reboot on the 388 takes about 90 seconds and you just see a grey screen!

Serfty, does the system installed in the 388 appear to be stable?

 

[Evan]

The reboot on the 388 takes about 90 seconds and you just see a grey screen!

A lot faster than the A330 and B747's, but the A388 is the new panasonic one systems ?
E

 

[serfty]

Serfty, does the system installed in the 388 appear to be stable?

Yes, however, it did get it's knickers in a knot after about 14 hours when transferring back to the main menu.

The screen froze; then went grey for < ~1½ minutes before coming back with the initial screen ("Press Enter to start ...").

FWIW, it's a much easier system to use with the touch screens in WHY.

 

[NM]

Hey, it is not windows 3.1, it is Windows CE (Much newer) however it does boot and pull the image for the OS via Z-Modem protocol. (Note: i am refering to the rockwell colins AVOD system)

You can see the ZModem and Windows CE load when the system is rebooted.

 

[Evan]

You can see the ZModem and Windows CE load when the system is rebooted.

Great isn't it goto love those old tech solutions
E

 

[medhead]

Great isn't it goto love those old tech solutions
E

Old tech

The guys I work with are always on about punch cards and the business case they had to write to get a 10 MB hard drive that weight about 10 kg, with platters the size of a dinner plate. :shock:

 

[2muchplastic]

Great isn't it goto love those old tech solutions
E

I guess for most of the aircraft, you really do want tried and trusted. ("How about this folks, we've made the first aircraft out of an experimental mix of recycled Mills and Boon novels and surplus toenail clippings. Anyone want to try? Anyone?)
But the IFE is one area you want cutting edge. I've been on planes where their idea of IFE was a 65 year old flight attendant who resembled a Russian shotputter stood at the front of the cabin and flicked through a picture book.
Windows CE is basically a younger shotputter.

 

[NM]

There are some very good reasons Windows CE was replaced by Windows Mobile (5 then 6 and now 6.1).

 

[Evan]

Old tech

The guys I work with are always on about punch cards and the business case they had to write to get a 10 MB hard drive that weight about 10 kg, with platters the size of a dinner plate. :shock:

Yep, seem my fair share of them also ! old honeywell driver platters that you load into the "washing machines", never used anything like that but seen it... I do remember 8" floppy disks though. 120kb from memory.

I have some fond memorys of compiling 0.95 and 0.96 Linux kernels still in the a.out binary format and when they upgraded the 64k aarnet connection to 128kb

E

 

[serfty]

The 8" were 250K/500K standard,

The 5¼" were 180K/360K capacity &

The 3½" were 720K/1.44Mb.

More recently, 1.2Mb, 720K and 2.88Mb formats were available.

I think USB ram drives have put paid to this media.

 

[codash1099]

Interesting comment from a CSM on one recent QF flight. He requested that we don't push the "enter" button too many times as this tend to lock up the system.

I can imagine PAX fed up with slow responses pushing buttons repeatedly. I occasionally do it on my home computer. Doesn't really help but helps with my frustration.