[ale] OT: Downadup/conficker worm makes MSM

[tom]

On Sat, 24 Jan 2009, Mike Harrison wrote:

>> The Register published a hilarious story about a hospital whose network was
>> brought down by the worm. They had turned off automated Windows update, because
>> they had a critical computer reboot on them in the middle of surgery. Having
>> turned off the updates, they missed the one that would have offered them some
>> protection.
>
> I'm a few years (10+) out of date, but I specifically remember that MS
> products were specifically NOT allowed (By MS) to be used for life support
> applications in hospitals. Apparently this has changed. Unfortunately.
>
> Story: Once upon a time in '89 I ended up sitting on the floor in the OR,
> cranking, by hand, the "heart lung machine" (Perfusion), because the
> hospital lost power, both feeds, the generators would not start,
> and the internal battery backup of the machine was dead.
> Having a machine that only required a flow of 02 and something to
> crank the rollers for blood flow (hand crank was affixed to bottom of
> machine with clips and tie wraps) to keep the patient alive was a savior.
>
I like it.

'Nother story. Not as good a story. When I was with a hospital years and 
years ago, there was a surge or something on the mains which blew two of 
the three circuit breakers. The rumor mill had it that the third breaker 
tried to break, but fused on instead, which prevented the emergency power 
backup from kicking in. The emergency power outlets went dead, other 
outlets were live, elevators fell a half story. Rather a jolly lousy time 
was had by the employees while Maintenance (sp?) tried to get around the 
fault and bring us all back up.

We had a _lot_ of power drills for the next two years...