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Windows Crashes During Olympic Ceremony

08:00 - Tuesday 12 August 2008 by Steve Seguin - source: Tom's Hardware

Microsoft Windows never lets us down when it comes to BSOD amusement and at the 2008 Summer Olympic Opening Ceremonies it strikes again

With 70 million viewers watching, a record for non-U.S. Olympic Summer Games viewership, how many people do you think noticed the massive Blue Screen of Death during the Opening Ceremonies ? It wasn’t easy to see it at first, all high up there, lost in the distraction of fireworks, light shows, and the thousands of performers, but it was there, taunting the world... taunting us all.

The infamous blue screen with white text was live for more than two hours, unseen by many, at least until the main torch lighting ceremony was at its climax. How could you not have seen it then ? Li Ning, the man who finally just lit the main torch, began his descent down from the air and passed right in front of the Blue Terror. Check your DVRs – apparently it’s there if you missed it, if only for a second before some say a technician switched feeds.

There is a good chance you won’t be seeing this flaw of the Opening Ceremonies if it ever comes out to DVD though. It’s not like it won’t be the only part of the Opening Ceremonies to get photoshopped either, as some of the fireworks seen on TV are rumored to be have been digitally added. Lets be fair though, it was a spectacular show and whenever you are dealing with Windows, there seems to be a chance that the BSOD will hit. A good question though is, why was nothing done about it once it appeared ? It was there for at least two hours, unchecked and unfixed. On a positive note, at least it wasn’t one of the performers who crashed.

The next question may be, was it a legit copy of Windows ? Well, rumor has it, it was legit. Seems like it was all running off of 120 legit Axon Media Servers loaded with Windows XP Embedded. What caused the crash is yet to be discovered, but sometimes Windows just doesn’t like you. There is still some speculation that it’s all fake and the photos are photoshopped by Mac Fanboys, but you decide.