Disney's Computers Are Down

[DanStat]

MAC people make me mad. If everybody was using MACs then the viruses and spyware would be written for MACs. Therefore the Windows users would not be having problems. MACs are by no means no more secure then Windows machines. It is a simple case of numbers. Why write a virus that will only infect 1% of the world's computer population (I don't know what actual market share of Apple)?

Just the other day Apple released 20, count them 20 security updates. :lookaroun If and when Microsoft releases 20 updates it is plastered all over the internet and real world newsrooms. I am not a Microsoft fanboy either. If MACs were more affordable and could do what I need them to do I would use them.<o ="">></o>>

Actually, there was a contest a while back to write a virus for the Mac platform. No one succeeded. Apple's security update (yes, singular) was released to patch 20 items. There was one download. Not 20. Apple's US marketshare is around 4-5% of home users.

What do you mean "real world newsrooms"?

 

[Woody13]

Actually, there was a contest a while back to write a virus for the Mac platform. No one succeeded. Apple's security update (yes, singular) was released to patch 20 items. There was one download. Not 20. Apple's US marketshare is around 4-5% of home users.

Actually, the Apple OS is very easy to breach, but why bother. By your own 4 to 5% estimate (which is way high) any hack on an Apple platform would bring down a maximum of 5% of worldwide computers. It's not worth the effort to write the code. The real question is, does Apple matter. The answer is no. Check out all the Apple computers at Pixar....

 

[PaisleyMF]

Actually, the Apple OS is very easy to breach, but why bother. By your own 4 to 5% estimate (which is way high) any hack on an Apple platform would bring down a maximum of 5% of worldwide computers. It's not worth the effort to write the code. The real question is, does Apple matter. The answer is no. Check out all the Apple computers at Pixar....

All OS are easy to breach. Sometimes backdoors left by programmesr or a Flaw in the OS itself (most likely Windows).

I do remember the Hack the Mac contest, it wasnt an Apple contest, was a PC contest that paid 5 million dollars to the person that Hacked to and series of computers, The Windows server were down by the first 20 minutes of the contest and the Macintosh was up and Running for more that 3 months without any atacked reported.

Some people has a misconception about the Mac OS and the User around the World. Maybe at the time Pixar wasnt using as much as they could Mac Stations but they use it more than people think. Most of the compositions and edition of StarWars episode 2 and 3 were using enhanced Mac Boxes.

One of the fastes Super Computers in the World are Mac Xserver based.

Maybe Apple is in the numbers between 4 and 6% of the users in the world but someone once said to me that "Roaches are a more that humans but that doesnt mean that they control the world".

 

[Centrifugeer]

As steve pointed out, none of the rides or attractions were hit by this. Also none run on Windows and all are virtually immune to almost anything. I don't know what type of system the cash registars are on but I have seen them all out in the past.

I have to disagree. Many of the attraction Show Control systems do indeed use Windows as their OS. Most are running Windows 2000 at the moment. There are even some Ride Control systems using a DOS variant, such as on Mission: Space. It's simply a matter of necessity because much of the off-the-shelf equipment used in the control systems have programming interfaces that only come with Windows-based applications with which to program them.

Fortunately these are all self-contained systems. They they run networks to control elements (such as PLCs, Seriplex modules, DMX controllers, and the like) within an attraction, none (AFAIK) are linked parkwide with the exception of the messaging and fault reporting system of a few older attractions. This process is being decentalized though, so that's no longer much of an issue either. Being self-contained, the only way they'd be susceptible to a virus or worm would be through actual physical access.

 

[spoodles]

I don't know what type of system the cash registars are on but I have seen them all out in the past.

All point of sale at WDW runs on (or is moving to) a Microsoft-based system, using SQL Server with Matra's Freedom POS software.

 

[disneylands]

the bad news bears should be an alias for disney!

 

[wdwmagic]

Fortunately these are all self-contained systems. They they run networks to control elements (such as PLCs, Seriplex modules, DMX controllers, and the like) within an attraction, none (AFAIK) are linked parkwide with the exception of the messaging and fault reporting system of a few older attractions. This process is being decentalized though, so that's no longer much of an issue either. Being self-contained, the only way they'd be susceptible to a virus or worm would be through actual physical access.

Interesting stuff, thanks for the insight.

As you say their self-contained nature makes these systems pretty much immune to outside issues, unless there is some kind of physical access to the machines by an intruder. Is the move towards local control via Windows O/S relatively recent?

I can well understand the move to Windows O/S. As you mention, the amount of standardised components that have interfaces into Windows is huge. Its also a common misconception that Windows is unreliable. When ran in a controlled environment, it is VERY stable and reliable. Show control aswell is a part of the attraction that isnt really classified as mission critical.

I know up until around Test Track, WDI were using some custom stuff around MACH and HAWK for mission critical ride control. Is this still the case?

 

[Centrifugeer]

Interesting stuff, thanks for the insight.

As you say their self-contained nature makes these systems pretty much immune to outside issues, unless there is some kind of physical access to the machines by an intruder. Is the move towards local control via Windows O/S relatively recent?

I can well understand the move to Windows O/S. As you mention, the amount of standardised components that have interfaces into Windows is huge. Its also a common misconception that Windows is unreliable. When ran in a controlled environment, it is VERY stable and reliable. Show control aswell is a part of the attraction that isnt really classified as mission critical.

I know up until around Test Track, WDI were using some custom stuff around MACH and HAWK for mission critical ride control. Is this still the case?

The move toward Windows is fairly recent and became more common after the release of Windows 2000. It was far more reliable than the 16-bit/32-bit kludge that was Win95/98/ME and was finally an NT-based OS that had some decent hardware support. It wasn't adopted so much out of favoratism for Windows, but was borne out of the desire to move to more a more COTS type of design and development regimen and move away from the necessity of custom solutions. That pretty much applies to all the control systems now as well as A/V.

That's not to say everything runs on Windows. Much of the Ride Control designs are based on Allen-Bradley PLCs and/or SLCs that function as the "brains" to provide the core control logic. Some of the I/O controllers use their own custom OSes as well. Virtually all of them interface to or are programmed with a applications that run on Windows though.

btw, doesn't MACH form a portion of what is now Mac OS X?

 

[wdwmagic]

That's not to say everything runs on Windows. Much of the Ride Control designs are based on Allen-Bradley PLCs and/or SLCs that function as the "brains" to provide the core control logic. Some of the I/O controllers use their own custom OSes as well. Virtually all of them interface to or are programmed with a applications that run on Windows though.

btw, doesn't MACH form a portion of what is now Mac OS X?

Thanks for the info

Yup Mach forms a good part of the OS X kernel I beleive.

 

[SpenceMan01]

Centrifugeer:

You seem to know a lot about ride control systems. Do you work for the industry? Disney?

I ask because that is what I'd like to go into when I graduate college in just over a year. I'd like to become more familiar with Ladder Logic and A-B PLC's (or just PLC's in general), but my 4-year university doesn't offer anything relating to that. I'd have to take a class at a tech-school, but no schools in the area offer it

 

[csaguy]

ladder logic

Ladder logic and Boolean logic is great. I started over 30 years ago and learned them by just doing it. If you can draw schematics you're halfway there.

 

[SpenceMan01]

I'm a CS major and I've done stuff in VB, C/C++, Java (a lot), and a little bit of PHP/MySQL work too.

I've dabbled with ladder logic a little bit. Computerized simulations. Really simple stuff though. No timers or shift registers or anything of that nature. Just the real simple basics. I controlled an animated garage door though!

I wanted to maybe visit Birket Engineering back in January when I was down there, but the schedule dictated otherwise

Wow, I missed post #800... well, this is #804. Yay me! :sohappy:

 

[Centrifugeer]

Centrifugeer:

You seem to know a lot about ride control systems. Do you work for the industry? Disney?

I ask because that is what I'd like to go into when I graduate college in just over a year. I'd like to become more familiar with Ladder Logic and A-B PLC's (or just PLC's in general), but my 4-year university doesn't offer anything relating to that. I'd have to take a class at a tech-school, but no schools in the area offer it

I'm an Imagineer and work with the ride control systems, show control systems, as well as the mechanical aspects of the rides.

 

[SpenceMan01]

I'm an Imagineer and work with the ride control systems, show control systems, as well as the mechanical aspects of the rides.

I want your job. You're living my dream, give it back! :lol: