Ford, Microsoft team up on tech

[OhioChick]

Collaboration to foster wireless links between autos and devices such as cell phones and iPods.
Saturday, December 30, 2006


DEARBORN -- Ford Motor Co. is expected to announce an alliance with Microsoft Corp. next month that will bring wireless Windows connectivity into the automobile, a move that could give the automaker a major competitive advantage as it struggles to turn around its North American business.

The new technology will be called Sync, according to a report in Friday's Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the deal.

Those sources said it will use Bluetooth technology to allow wireless connections between Ford automobiles and devices like the Apple iPod or cellular telephones. Drivers would then be able to use the system for hands-free calling, as well as for music and a variety of other applications.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061230/AUTO01/612300351/1148

[flyingfysh]

1. a new cause of accidents in our future?

I can see it now: "Officer, I couldn't help crashing. My car got the Blue Screen of Death!"

[sweetheart]

2. windows on the ford pinto

blue screen of death
ain't no 76 pinto
excel your office meth
feelin microskinned'o

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. I wonder if shrub ever had this pop up on his computer.... if it didn't,

it should have...

[htuttle]

3. Just wait until the script kiddies hack into your car...

...while you're driving it.

[Solon]

14. That would give a whole new meaning to carjacking. n/t

[Tesha]

4. Oh boy! A Taurus whose transmission explodes because of a computer virus!

What an improvement over the old, run of the mill, boring Taurus
transmission failures!

Tesha

[SpiralHawk]

6. Apple, Toyota team up on tech

Gonna blow MS bloatware and Ford right outa the water.

Betcha it would.

[Solon]

7. So are cars going to crash 2-3 times a day on their own now? n/t

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

8. ...and watch those premiums go up

n/t

[Solon]

9. Ford: Format or Reboot Daily.

I could do this all day. :)

[high density]

10. Yeah I'm going to buy a Ford because it's got Bluetooth in it

That's the first thing I look for when buying a new vehicle.

:eyes:

[VegasWolf]

11. I'll be damned if I let Windows drive my car on the Interstate. System error, restart now? y or n.

[Solon]

13. How about just starting up the car, and it takes 10 minutes.

Ugh, the agony.

[blues90]

12. such a deal , such progress

All this does is allow sitting in traffic jambs more tolerable and acceptable . All just to keep gas and oil in a steady stream and does nothing to promote reducing pollution .

Ford should promote a rapid transite system and get away from this automobile filled landscape .

This high tech crap is nothing but a sales pitch like these car commercials that fly by so fast you can't even see the product .

Screw all the auto manufactureres and the oil companies , they can all go to hell .

Cell phones and music enhancement , such a deal .

[Solon]

15. Pertinent Quotes...

How would a car function if it were designed like a computer? Occasionally, executing a maneuver would cause your car to stop and fail and you would have to re-install the engine, and the airbag system would say, "Are you sure?" before going off. (Katie Hafner)

If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. ("Robert X. Cringely", Computerworld)

[burrowowl]

16. Horse and buggy

to bugs and viruses.

[Richard D]

17. Crashed Computer Traps Thai Politician

Crashed Computer Traps Thai Politician
Updated 14 May 2003

Thailand's Finance Minister Suchart Jaovisidha had to be rescued today from inside his expensive BMW limousine after the onboard computer crashed, leaving the vehicle immobilized. Once the computer failed, neither the door locks, power windows nor air conditioning systems would function, leaving the Minister and his driver trapped inside the rapidly heating vehicle.

Despite the pair's best efforts, it took a full ten minutes before they were able to summon the attention of a nearby guard who freed the two men by smashing one of the vehicle's windows with a sledgehammer.A report published in the Bangkok Post indicates that the vehicle was Mr Jaovisidha's own BMW 520 which was being used while his state-supplied Mercedes, was being repaired.

BMW's more up-market 7-series range uses a computer system called i-drive which has Microsoft's WindowsCE at its core. Did Mr Jaovisidha narrowly miss being killed by the blue windscreen of death?

[Porcupine]

18. Making the "Blue screen of death" literally true?

The executives of these corporations make how much to come up with these idiot ideas. Does anybody but me remember the US navy ship that had to be towed to port because they tried to run the engines on Windows software?

Hire me; I will run your company to the ground for 1/10th the cost of your current idiots. I might even try to save the company in the meantime.

http://www.slothmud.org/~hayward/mic_humor/nt_navy.html

Here it is:

GCN July 13, 1998

Software glitches leave Navy Smart Ship dead in the water

By Gregory Slabodkin GCN Staff

The Navy's 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.
<snip>

Hauled in

The Yorktown has been towed into port several times because of the systems failures, he said.

"Because of politics, some things are being forced on us that without political pressure we might not do, like Windows NT," Redman said. "If it were up to me I probably would not have used Windows NT in this particular application. If we used Unix, we would have a system that has less of a tendency to go down."

Although Unix is more reliable, Redman said, NT may become more reliable with time.

The Navy is moving the service's command and control applications from Unix to NT as part of IT-21. Under IT-21, the Navy also plans to modernize ships in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets with asynchronous transfer mode LANs. Large ATM networks running NT have already been installed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Essex.

But DiGiorgio said the LANs might experience a chain reaction of computer failures like those experienced on the Yorktown. That domino effect is inherent to the system design of shipboard LANs, he said.

"There is very little segregation of error when software shares bad data," DiGiorgio said. "Instead of one computer knocking off on the Yorktown, they all did, one after the other. What if this happened in actual combat?"

Although the Yorktown did not have backup systems, Redman said that future Smart Ships will have systems redundancy to ensure that ships can continue to operate.....