Sensible Erection | Entire San Diego fireworks show goes off at once

Friday, 6 July 2012

Entire San Diego fireworks show goes off at once

quote [ The Big Bay Boom extravaganza over the San Diego Bay was set off all at once Wednesday night, sending a spectacular barrage of color into the sky for about 15 seconds... Garden State Fireworks says barges stocked with the explosives received a signal to "set the timing" of the show, but it inadvertently launched the whole show at once, according to Yahoo! News. ]

Computer screwup (software). Estimated cost $400,000. Video in the main article.

[sci&tech] [by maryyugo@8:06pmGMT] [+10 Funny]

Comments

blacksun said @ 8:29pm GMT on 6th Jul
I bet if they were networked with ip addresses, it was hacked.

mrklipp said @ 9:00pm GMT on 6th Jul
If anyone was stupid enough to hook the controls for explosives to the internet, they deserve what they get.

maryyugo said @ 9:44pm GMT on 6th Jul
Their explanation in newscasts did not include a connection to the internet. They are quite safety conscious so it is doubtful that this system has any external connections at all except for an encoded radio link between the three barges involved in the show.

It sounded like their programmer got a high level command or subroutine wrong or misplaced and the program instructed the system to clear itself of all existing fireworks before starting the planned show. Their last routine is an all out firing of everything left. Maybe that got misplaced at the start of the show. Just guesses of course.

ahPook said @ 12:12am GMT on 7th Jul
"It sounded like their programmer got a high level command or subroutine wrong"

or maybe their programmer got high, period.

eIfish said @ 3:03pm GMT on 8th Jul
Conspiracy theory, but its timing is almost coincident with Linux' leap-second-sleep()-doesn't bug. If the program assumed sleep sleeped for the time it asked for and didn't check*, then that bug would make it blow its load in a fraction of a second.

* in which case it's very shitty programming**: the argument you pass to sleep() is just a suggestion; you're expected to check (if you care) when you wake up to see what time it is.

** it's very shitty programming anyway: if you're talking about a controller for an irrepeatable, $150k event, there should be some sanity checking, and some things it'll never let you do. Had it been delayed an hour while the techies bricked it, it wouldn't have been worldwide news.

happiest_sadist said @ 10:42am GMT on 7th Jul
Use of IP addresses != connected to the internet.
I agree that it would be stupid to connect those controls to the internet- but maybe they were connected to a local "secure" wireless LAN?
Still pretty stupid, perhaps- but it's not so easy to lay wire to barges.

sua_sponte said @ 8:47pm GMT on 6th Jul [Score:5 Funny]
Hey, it happens to every guy once in a while.

thepublicone said @ 8:57pm GMT on 6th Jul [Score:1 Interesting]
BEST. FIREWORKS. EVER.

conception said @ 10:09pm GMT on 6th Jul
Pretty much. Sad I missed it this year.

Supreme_Coconut said @ 12:59am GMT on 7th Jul

spazm said @ 1:58am GMT on 8th Jul
Almost funny!

Kat said @ 10:13pm GMT on 6th Jul
It could be worse You could set the entire thing off with a shotgun.

incpenners said @ 11:29pm GMT on 6th Jul [Score:2 WTF]
Or, set light to about half a state with a shotgun. At a bachelor party.

Kat said @ 11:52pm GMT on 6th Jul
That actually almost happened to a friend of mine in Washington a few years back.

foobar said @ 6:44am GMT on 7th Jul
Not just one state.

Naruki said @ 12:41am GMT on 7th Jul [Score:2]
Or, perhaps, a rifle.

Kat said @ 2:25am GMT on 7th Jul
Touche. Original article from a few days ago cited a shotgun.

spazm said @ 10:13pm GMT on 6th Jul
That was pretty pretty!

mwoody said @ 10:18pm GMT on 6th Jul [Score:2]
For those NoScripters like me who hate having to enable 15 sites to view a video: direct link.

landsky said @ 12:48am GMT on 7th Jul [Score:2]

vintuk said @ 1:51am GMT on 7th Jul [Score:3 Funny]
not as bad as these fireworks

landsky said @ 1:55am GMT on 7th Jul [Score:1 WTF]

blibblob said @ 5:21pm GMT on 7th Jul
WTF? Seriously? They seriously don't just get to write that off as not racist? A bunch of "educated" spelling bee organizers just fucking picked that out of a hat and went with it?

selfimportant said @ 12:08am GMT on 8th Jul
Nah, that vid was really just a Key & Peele sketch

damnit said @ 8:00am GMT on 9th Jul
Niggafaggot.

damnit said @ 6:34am GMT on 7th Jul
All three barges did the same thing... awesome.

Taleweaver said @ 7:45am GMT on 8th Jul
Leeloo explains the fireworks:

tickaz said @ 9:35am GMT on 8th Jul
This is exactly what I would do when finally having sex after my involuntary celibacy.