RE: More on NT Was: SAP on NT

[Neil Palmer <npalmer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Years from now it will probably surface that Saddam Hussein secretly
purchased a large block of Microsoft shares from Bill Gates back in the
mid 90's !   

(Note to Microsoft legal dept.  It's a JOKE.  Something that's supposed
to be funny !  Unlike something that's unintentionally funny, like NT
Security !).



Neil Palmer                                AS/400~~~~~      
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Cell.: (416) 565-1682  x238    oo      oo   oo  oo   OOOo=o\   
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Carr [SMTP:74711.77@compuserve.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 1998 10:38 PM
> To:   INTERNET:MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      RE: More on NT  Was: SAP on NT
> 
> 
> >   If you want to read about how NT performs in a REAL
> "mission-critical"
> >application, check this out:
> >   Perhaps each copy of NT should come with a free tug boat.
> >   - Lou Forlini
> >     Software Engineer
> >     System Support Products, Inc.
> 
> 
> 
> NT   FYI  -   And we're trusting our Service men & National Security
> to
> what ?  
> Should have had an AS/400.      Read Below.
> 
> John Carr
> 
> --------------------------------------
> http://www.gcn.com/gcn/1998/July13/cov2.htm
> GOVERNMENT NEWS 
> GCN July 13, 1998 
> 
> Software glitches leave Navy Smart Ship dead in the water
> 
> By Gregory Slabodkin
> GCN Staff
> 
> The Navys Smart Ship technology may not be as smart as the service
> contends.
> 
> Although PCs have reduced workloads for sailors aboard the Aegis
> missile
> cruiser USS Yorktown,
> software glitches resulted in system failures and crippled ship
> operations,
> according to Navy officials.
> 
> Navy brass have called the Yorktown Smart Ship pilot a success in
> reducing
> manpower,
> maintenance and costs. The Navy began running shipboard applications
> under
> Microsoft Windows
> NT so that fewer sailors would be needed to control key ship
> functions.
> 
> But the Navy last fall learned a difficult lesson about automation:
> The
> very information technology on
> which the ships depend also makes them vulnerable. The Yorktown last
> September suffered a
> systems failure when bad data was fed into its computers during
> maneuvers
> off the coast of Cape
> Charles, Va.
> 
> The ship had to be towed into the Naval base at Norfolk, Va., because
> a
> database overflow caused
> its propulsion system to fail, according to Anthony DiGiorgio, a
> civilian
> engineer with the Atlantic
> Fleet Technical Support Center in Norfolk.
> 
> "We are putting equipment in the engine room that we cannot maintain
> and,
> when it fails, results in a
> critical failure," DiGiorgio said. It took two days of pierside
> maintenance
> to fix the problem.
> 
> The Yorktown has been towed into port after other systems failures, he
> said.
> 
> <SNIP>>
> The Yorktown lost control of its propulsion system because its
> computers
> were unable to divide by
> the number zero, the memo said. The Yorktowns Standard Monitoring
> Control
> System
> administrator entered zero into the data field for the Remote Data
> Base
> Manager program. That
> caused the database to overflow and crash all LAN consoles and
> miniature
> remote terminal units, the
> memo said.
> 
> The program administrators are trained to bypass a bad data field and
> change the value if such a
> problem occurs again, Atlantic Fleet officials said.
> 
> But "the Yorktowns failure in September 1997 was not as simple as
> reported," DiGiorgio said.
> 
> <snip>
>                              Blame it on the OS
> 
>                              But according to DiGiorgio, who in an
> interview said he has
>                              serviced automated control systems on
> Navy
> ships for the past
>                              26 years, the NT operating system is the
> source of the
>                              Yorktowns computer problems.
> 
>                              NT applications aboard the Yorktown
> provide
> damage control,
>                              run the ships control center on the
> bridge,
> monitor the engines
>                              and navigate the ship when under way.
> 
>                              "Using Windows NT, which is known to have
> some
> failure
>                              modes, on a warship is similar to hoping
> that
> luck will be in our
>                              favor," DiGiorgio said.
> 
>                              Pacific and Atlantic fleets in March 1997
> selected NT 4.0 as
>                              the standard OS for both networks and PCs
> as
> part of the
>                              Navys Information Technology for the 21st
> Century initiative.
>                              Current guidance approved by the Navys
> chief
> information
>                              officer calls for all new applications to
> run
> under NT.
> 
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