Windows in a shuttle computer is the most disappointingly dumbass thing NASA has done yet. I say yet because if they’ll do something that dumb it clearly needs to have a glass ceiling.
It’s a personal device. Nothing related to the mission.
I guess that’s a little better, except that it’s still in there. Old NASA would have never let it on board in any capacity.
Doesn’t seem to be what this article says
To some readers, even choosing Outlook as a part of a spacecraft’s communications portfolio would seem to be an anomaly. However, it is a standard part of the “Commercial Off-The-Shelf” (COTS) software astronauts use for their day-to-day operations.
To be clear, the spacecraft and primary flight systems will run on specialized radiation-hardened hardware and rigorously maintained software. COTS just complements this with a friendly layer, like Windows and Outlook, so astronauts can check schedules, indulge in personal communications, and so on, in a familiar way.
Sounds like Microsoft products are running on the same hardware as critical systems are
That’s because the article left it out intentionally. It was on a personal surface pro.
If you intentionally misinterpret it like you are trying to lawyer some cracks in the story, then yeah it does.
Seems pretty clear to me from the “…primary flight systems will run on specialized radiation-hardened hardware and rigorously maintained software” that they’re separate systems.
Begging for a blue screen of literal death.
It’s probably not as bad as failing to check you’re operating within the range of component’s proven environmental test limits.
That said, I’d love to see the system test scenarios they use to determine how it performs during an unexpected attack from their own OS provider.
Imagine training your entire life to become an astronaut, and then you finally get to leave earth’s orbit on a historic mission…
But you still have to deal with Microsoft bullshit.*Microslop
It’s an accurate name. The company has explicitly told us that they are a slop-first cloud company.
They are way more than a cloud company: Outlook, both of them, left the could stage yesterday.
I’ll probably attract downvotes for this, but I find ‘Microslop’ as cringeworthy as old staples like Micro$haft or Crapple.
Like, yeah, they’re shitty companies. But calling them childish names just comes across as petty and insecure, kind of like when Trump gives someone a dumb nickname.
Nah, microslop is a great name, especially because they throw tantrums about the name. It’s very descriptive of what they have become.
Well it was nice knowing the crew… If they’re running windows they’re doomed.
One of them is Outlook from MS Office, the other is New Outlook (what used to be Outlook Express). The latter is a royal pain to fully disable, and once you’ve launched it, it takes over everything.
So what’s happening is they’re supposed to be using MS Office Outlook, but New Outlook is in the way. Hence the “neither one works” bit. I know how to solve this, have them give me a call.
They now call it Outlook Classic and it will disappear, only shitty New Outlook will stay. And yes, it’s a royal pain.
I don’t understand why isn’t it talked about more that the new outlook uploads your email account login passwords to microsoft, and accesses your emails through microsoft servers. a gaping violation of privacy and security
nasa is about to remote into the computer
I’ve dealt with slow RDP sessions while fixing servers in the past, but the lag on this connection must really suck.
At least while they’re in orbit you’d be looking at a few hundred ms of latency (due to satellite to ground station bounces). If they need to RDP while at the moon, it’s going to be a couple of seconds latency
“Houston, we have a Windows problem”
“Outlook is looking bleak, I’m seeing double.”
“Cannot open Windows in space.”
“Disk space issues.”
Can I ask why people still use dedicated email software? I’m sure there’s a reason. Maybe just familiarity, but I’ve never once opened my email inbox from anything other than a browser. It seems like a royal PITA.
Thunderbird is pretty neat tho
I don’t disagree, but I don’t use it either.
if you have more than one email account, then one of these applications becomes critical. Also, in all the years thunderbird has been out it’s UI/UX has gone largely unchanged unlike the microsoft and google browser clients that seem to change every few years
I can see the use case for gmail at least. I tried to access web interface from India and it loaded like for 2 solid minutes before showing up completely unresponsive. I could have had it 10 times faster with a dedicated IMAP client.
It’s odd, since they used to have a rather nice HTML web interface specifically for low-peformance devices, but it’s since gone away.
Do they not have the thing you can click to go to that while you’re loading anymore? Wack
