Working on a next-gen operating system for a large tech company in the Pacific NorthWest in the previous century, I was able to reliably bluescreen the OS when stressing the network using an internal network protocol driver.
Later that day, I read in one of the trade rags about a columnist talking about the efficacy of a bluescreen screensaver.
1+1 = 2
Less than an hour later, most of it spent transcribing the bluescreen text output, I had a BSOD screensaver. Released it to the company intranet and waited for the ensuing hilarity.
Wasn't long before the guys in the build lab took advantage of the screensaver.
They installed the BSOD screensaver and disconnected the mouse and keyboard.
The main dev on the project comes in, sees the bluescreen and proceeds to restart the computer! Oops.
A few years later, on another multi-year large software project at this PNW tech company, the morning that the software was supposed to be signed off and released to manufacturing, the build lab, different group of people, installed the BSOD screensaver and disconnected the mouse and keyboard on the dogfood server for the project.
When the project manager arrived, he went to check on the status of the server, only to find the BSOD. This time a server restart was averted.
So, it's all fun and games until a server is hard rebooted.
Later that day, I read in one of the trade rags about a columnist talking about the efficacy of a bluescreen screensaver.
1+1 = 2
Less than an hour later, most of it spent transcribing the bluescreen text output, I had a BSOD screensaver. Released it to the company intranet and waited for the ensuing hilarity.
Wasn't long before the guys in the build lab took advantage of the screensaver.
They installed the BSOD screensaver and disconnected the mouse and keyboard.
The main dev on the project comes in, sees the bluescreen and proceeds to restart the computer! Oops.
A few years later, on another multi-year large software project at this PNW tech company, the morning that the software was supposed to be signed off and released to manufacturing, the build lab, different group of people, installed the BSOD screensaver and disconnected the mouse and keyboard on the dogfood server for the project.
When the project manager arrived, he went to check on the status of the server, only to find the BSOD. This time a server restart was averted.
So, it's all fun and games until a server is hard rebooted.