The Daily WTF

Subject: PC hangs on boot
Priority: High
Details:

When the customer boots the PC on site, it launches to the Windows desktop and hangs. Reboots don’t fix it.

There were a few more details in the support ticket that Michael J received, but that covered the core of the problem. There were a few other problems, though. First, this was circa 2001, so doing any sort of remote tech support was already a challenge. Second: the “site” in question was an oil survey vessel currently off the coast of West Papua.

The PC in question was provided by Michael’s company, and it ran software which operated equipment vital to the ship’s mission (but not its operation). The software placed the PC into a kiosk mode, hiding the Windows OS interface. Without the PC, the crew were idling in the middle of the ocean with not much to do.

To read the full article click on the 'post' link at the top.