April 26, 2005Airport Internet Kiosks by ZD NetAirport kiosks not showing Windows� best hand by ZDNet's David Berlind -- Of the many character roles played by Windows, the one that probably gets the least coverage is its use in public as the underlying technology behind embedded applications such as kiosks and information panels. Earlier this year, I interviewed a designer of embedded systems who, until then had been unwavering in using Windows as his [...] Airport kiosks not showing Windows� best hand by ZDNet's David Berlind
4/25/2005 Of the many character roles played by Windows, the one that probably gets the least coverage is its use in public as the underlying technology behind embedded applications such as kiosks and information panels. Earlier this year, I interviewed a designer of embedded systems who, until then had been unwavering in using Windows as his choice for embedded operating systems. But, after years of dedication to Windows, he was considering alternatives. Until that interview, almost all of my exposure to embedded Windows, or something like it, was through public Web terminals and headless display. If you travel like me, you know what I�m talking about. With many such applications, it�s sometimes difficult if not impossible to tell what the underlying OS is because users typically have no access to the OS (as well it should be with embedded OSes). But occasionally, you�d see one of three tell-tale signs that Windows was in use under the hood. The tell tale signs that it was Windows weren�t just the familiar Windows accoutrements, but also the instructions "To return to Windows and check the status of the program, click Cancel." This of course is a pretty silly message to display on an information panel that has no way for users to perform a click � a sign to me that, whether it�s the fault of Microsoft, the application provider, or the application deployer, somewhere, someone is doing a really bad job of adapting a desktop or server-based operating environment to a more public environment. At this point, open source advocates will probably chime in to remind everybody that open source operating systems like Linux are more well-suited to the task because of how such error dialogs can be more easily customized through the sort of software re-engineering that open source licensing permits. I caught a similar situation in the airport at Ixtapa, Mexico where, as you can see by the photo below, I was standing in front of a credit-card operated Windows-based Internet access terminal that is based on Windows 2000 (you can see the credit card slot off to the right). The problem? The system seemed to have hung while Windows was starting up. There was no big red button. Just a display that showed the system sitting there having advanced about half-way through it�s startup sequence. Had it been working, I would have used it to get my first update on what was going on in the real world after having been incommunicado for a week. Unfortunately, that Internet Access Provider would not be ringing the cash register with me. Another tell-tale sign that Windows is under the hood � one that I don�t see as much of anymore � is the infamous Window Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). I guess that�s a good sign that the BSOD isn�t as common as it once was. Lest I single Windows out as a common denominator to all the problems I�ve seen, it�s not. Last fall, while dropping my son off at Logan Airport for a trip to Florida, I spotted a string of terminals that were obviously having problems, in their pre-OS load mode, contacting a remote boot server. What struck me as being odd was the plethora of diagnostic information that appeared on the screen including the MAC (physical layer) addresses of terminals as well as enough information to determine what local IP subnet they were on. While I�m not an expert in airport security (feel free to comment below if you can expound), this just seemed to me to be the sort of information about an airport�s digital infrastructure that the airport would rather not have on public display. Editors Note: the kiosks pictured at the top of the story are powered by Linux and are made by KIS. |