Bork!Bork!Bork! It's back to the railways of Portugal for today's bork. Remember how we called Windows 2000 the unkillable cockroach of the IT world? Seems it's been upset by software peeking at memory where it shouldn't.
Spotted by a Register reader who is clearly a sucker for punishment, today's touchscreen malady takes us once again to a crusty example of Comboios de Portugal's automated ticket retail experience.
No, we're not sure we'd want to touch the screen either. The rusty surrounds speak more of Granja station's coastal location than anything else. But despite the area's beauty, this delightful station puts to shame the glorified bus shelter frequented by this hack – and Windows 2000 is not happy.
Having glimpsed inside one of these machines in an earlier installment of bork, we can confidently state that Windows 2000 is running behind the scenes. Something related to the computer's memory has brought the terminal to a halt.
A Windows service has strayed somewhere it shouldn't and encountered an error. Our reader mused that the issue "may be why card payments are flagged as being out of service." We're not sure what would happen if the OK button were jabbed, and we're not sure we're brave enough to do so. See our earlier comment about the state of the screen.
There's no Blue Screen of Death – yet. The issue is probably some badly behaved software rather than anything hardware-related, despite the hard life this terminal has clearly lived.
The history of Portugal's railways will be depressingly familiar to many train fans: expansion followed by a contraction as passengers (and bean counters) discovered the joy of travel by road. A recent analysis suggested express bus services in the country were often a better bet than letting the train take the strain.
Perhaps the same is true of Microsoft's operating system. The glory days of Windows 2000 are long gone, but Windows 11 has yet to set the market alight. Despite Microsoft's efforts to push customers toward a bright new AI world, the best days of the company's flagship operating system are really behind it.
With only a rusting ticket machine in Portugal to remind users of the way things used to be. ®
Source: The register