Windows 3.1 still used at the Paris Airport?

[bing101]

http://consumerist.com/2015/11/13/lack-of-windows-3-1-technicians-causes-traffic-backup-at-french-airport/


http://www.itpro.co.uk/security/25597/planes-grounded-at-paris-orly-airport-thanks-to-windows-31-error


http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/11/failed-windows-3-1-system-blamed-for-taking-out-paris-airport/


http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/windows-3-1-crash-puts-french-airport-out-of-commission/


Wow This is shocking to begin with according to these articles. and we have to wait for 2017 for France to modernize the computer systems.

This use of ancient systems is apparently not unusual. Vice quotes Alexandre Fiacre, the secretary general of France's UNSA-IESSA air traffic controller union, as saying that "The tools used by Aéroports de Paris controllers run on four different operating systems, that are all between 10 and 20 years old," with Windows 3.1 being joined by Windows XP and unspecified UNIX systems. Fiacre says that the systems are poorly maintained as well. Moreover, the age of these systems means that it's hard to find staff who can work with them, with Fiacre explaining, "We are starting to lose the expertise [to deal] with that type of operating system. In Paris, we have only three specialists who can deal with DECOR-related issues." And this problem is getting worse as "One of them is retiring next year, and we haven't found anyone to replace him."[/font]
[/size]

[/font]

[AlexandriaVA]

People used minitel until a few years ago over there

[bing101]

I thought this was a joke with bad timing at first but other articles and additional details shot my hoax argument down.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Which Paris airport? Orly or Charles de Gaulle? Or Beauvais? Or even Vatry (located 126 miles away from Paris)?

[SteveG1988]

Which Paris airport? Orly or Charles de Gaulle? Or Beauvais? Or even Vatry (located 126 miles away from Paris)?

orly

[Buffaboy]

This isn't as bad as the 60s era computers still used to operate our nuclear arsenal

[Pete from Boston]

This isn't as bad as the 60s era computers still used to operate our nuclear arsenal

My first thought reading this was, "This sounds like the United States."  I don't have specific examples, but anecdotal stories about ancient government computer systems too big to upgrade without a huge procedure seem to not be uncommon here.

[Buffaboy]

This isn't as bad as the 60s era computers still used to operate our nuclear arsenal

My first thought reading this was, "This sounds like the United States."  I don't have specific examples, but anecdotal stories about ancient government computer systems too big to upgrade without a huge procedure seem to not be uncommon here.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't find it hard to believe that infrastructure for power, highway control, and rail control is controlled by old technology like this. Amazingly, we still use radar in the aviation industry.

[SteveG1988]

This isn't as bad as the 60s era computers still used to operate our nuclear arsenal

My first thought reading this was, "This sounds like the United States."  I don't have specific examples, but anecdotal stories about ancient government computer systems too big to upgrade without a huge procedure seem to not be uncommon here.

Unfortunately, I wouldn't find it hard to believe that infrastructure for power, highway control, and rail control is controlled by old technology like this. Amazingly, we still use radar in the aviation industry.

The Space Shuttle ran on the IBM AP-101, designed in the early 70s for the F15 fighter. Upgraded to a smaller version of the same computer in the early 90s. It is also used in the B52 and the B-1 Bomber. A lot of times it is the certification of the equipment that is the problem. For example the Fog system at Orly is probably running 24/7, and is not networked to anything else, meaning the system is pretty much hack proof. IBM OS/2 was the OS of choice for ATMs until the late 2000s when ibm completely dropped support for it. A lot of aircraft autopilots in the early 2000s used hardened 486 and 386 processors due to them being flight certified.

[realjd]

For a safety critical system like this, there's no compelling reason to upgrade the OS until the system as a whole is replaced. This isn't uncommon. You'll see it with systems like ATMs also.

[vdeane]

Any computer that's networked and has insecure interfaces is a potential hacking target, and pretty much every computer that's made has interfaces that let far more stuff through than they should (largely because most of the tech industry is willfully blind to the problem).  This is because the tech industry is placing more emphasis on dealing with security issues once they're already in the system than in preventing them from getting to the system in the first place.

We've seen this with voting machines.  The pundits are asking "what if they get hacked", when the question they should really be asking is "why are they on the internet in the first place" (seriously, just have the poll workers pull up the results from each machine and add them together with a calculator, then phone in the results).  Same thing with critical infrastructure such as power plants.

This is only going to get worse when the "internet of things" (read: expansion of advertising/paid subscription opportunities) becomes more pervasive.

[GCrites]

^ Yeah, now a lot of places' wifi hijacks your browser with ads. I was in a Taco Bell and the Home Depot across the lot hijacked my browser.

[vdeane]

^ Yeah, now a lot of places' wifi hijacks your browser with ads. I was in a Taco Bell and the Home Depot across the lot hijacked my browser.

Just wait until your toaster gives you an ad for Wonderbread when you use it.