Long Distance Tech Support Phone Call

I had to laugh. I was tuned into the NASA TV channel on my satellite receiver. I listened to a ground-to-ISS exchange where a Japanese project manager for the Japanese module called Kibo was asking one of the astronauts to do a file copy from the C: drive on a computer of some unknown type (probably a laptop) onto a USB flash drive. They had to repeat the file path verbally a couple of times. Reminded me of the numerous times I've had to do exactly the same thing with an off-shore electrician or technician on some oil rig. Off-shore gets translated a lot differently when its off-planet!

The astronaut reported that when he came into the module, the laptop running one of the experiments was blue-screened. He reported that the system reported a fatal system error but still rebooted.

It also unfortunately reinforced the knowledge that Windows has made it to at least Earth orbit. I wonder how many other subsidiary functions have been assigned to space-placed Windows equipped laptops? I also hope that no mission critical components or systems in the ISS, the shuttle and the future Constellation systems run on Windows. I hope that BSODs don't happen very often. I also hope that whatever network facilities are used to connect those laptops to the Internet is protected by the very best firewall possible.