2009-02-16 18:49:39.526528+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments
It was announced a few months ago that the British Royal Navy submarines now run Microsoft Windows (More, Obligatory /. snark), now we learn that a British Royal Navy nuclear submarine has collided with a French one. The relatively close timing of these two events seems suspicious.
[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Current Events ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: The Odds? made: 2009-02-17 00:35:38.626391+00 by: jeff
What are the odds of two satellites colliding with each other many miles above the atmosphere of the Earth within a few days of two submarines colliding with each other many feet below the surface of the ocean?
#Comment Re: made: 2009-02-17 09:58:21.855004+00 by: meuon
Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
From an odds perspective, it's pretty high, but I think unrelated. Both subs are NATO and I'll wager both were playing "hunt and seek" style "war games" with each other, casually, if not officially. Apparently their silent running modes and crew training are working pretty well.
If there had been a BSOD incident, we'll soon know because there will be an announcement about the British government funding or at least supporting a version of Linux for their countries government use.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-02-17 11:32:37.193688+00 by: jeff
I'm not paranoid, but I wonder when we'll get to the point where we have satellites playing "war games" with each other?
As an aside, I'd like to see a geometric population density graph which plots man-made traffic as a function of time and altitude (at sea level, below sea level, and above sea level). I'm sure we all know about what that graph would look like.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-02-17 16:13:24.559297+00 by: petronius
The French bateau d'glug-glug probably had its systems running on a Minitel platform.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-02-17 22:50:05.917192+00 by: Dan Lyke
I'm led to believe that U.S./Soviet submarine collisions were actually fairly common, so this particular collision was a complete non-event for the reasons Meuon suggests, except for the "running Windows" coincidence (...or not...).
Petronius, is bateau d'glug-glug the official Académie Française approved term?