Seattle Space Needle fireworks SNAFU...(okay...you have one button to push one night a year....)

1/1/08 | Moi

[Plumberman27]

I bet that’s a union job. I doubt that.The safe bet would be it was some drugged up management type scab that is not required to drug test, not required to do a whole lot of anything except sit on his a** all day and complain about unions. The asinine. non educated, mentality that exists here sometimes in union versus non union never fails to amaze me. If it was not for unions most of the people in this country would be working 60 hour weeks for third world wages and there would be no white collar sit on your a** all day jobs.

[geezerwheezer]

That would have been a real hoot to see. I love it when simple things get screwed up, especially when it is media related like the TV folks going balls-up over the mess. Was it a three-ringed circus or just a snafu? Sounds like fun, and Happy New Year too.

[lastwizards]

It was kinda creepy when the King5 announcer said “...we didn’t get to hear...” and then sang “..bombs bursting in air, oh say can you see...” did a hacker hack out the star spangled banner?!

They did after all blame it on a “computer error” but this is Seattle, at that level if you blame something on a computer error you’re either pointing the finger at Microsoft or accusing some hacker.

So... 2008 Bombs Bursting in Error... how appropriate, lol

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

We owe it all to the unions huh? Do you believe everything your thug leaders tell you?

[flowerplough]

If it was not for unions most of the people in this country would be working 60 hour weeks for third world wages, you say, but I say, but for today's unions this country would have more many more efficient, private, conservatively-based private schools getting students with vouchered tuition, and many fewer illegal aliens here working construction and undercutting ridiculous prevailing-union-wage contract jobs.

In my line of work, unions are, "Hey, you can't unbolt that cover and read that hourmeter, you have to wait while I find the union millwright so he can can turn the wrench. And don't even think about leaving the cover off the meter, or replacing the sheetsteel cover with plexiglass so that you don't have to wait for the millwright next time!"

[joe fonebone]

you forgot that the millwright cannot work alone...he also needs a helper, a spotter, a foreman and a general foreman to undo the 4 bolts on the cover, plus ya gotta have the electrican and his foreman, plus the pipefitter and his foreman, along with the sheet metal worker and an operator to drive the hi lo that carries his tool box.....

[Vinnie]

.it was like a Viagra commercial gone bad.

4 hours worth of fireworks?? :^)

[Balding_Eagle]

Thanks. It did take the punch out of the line.

[Psycho_Bunny]

I live across the street....in the Wall Street Tower.....it was pretty funny.

[BookmanTheJanitor]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbzAPcmXWLI

Here’s the video.

[Plumberman27]

Who said anything about me being in a union as it appears you have presumed? Maybe i just study the economic past and the history of how owners treat their work force. All one has to do is look and see how the shoe companies or textile industry owners treat the people overseas to bear the truth in my comments.

[djf]

When they pushed the button, they got one of these:

[sionnsar]

Computer Glitch Halts Seattle New Year's Fireworks

Posted by Zonk on Tuesday January 01, @08:33AM
from the probably-not-funny-for-seattle dept.

supersat writes "At the stroke of midnight New Year's Eve, Seattle's fireworks show ground to a halt. The source of the problem is reported to be a corrupted file that wasn't checked until the last minute. After two reboots, the fireworks had to be detonated manually. And yes ... one blog commenter, claiming to have worked on prior shows, said that the shows run on Windows."

 [+] bug, humor, windows, bsod, millenium

[sionnsar]

Say WA? Evergreen State ping

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this ping list.

Ping sionnsar if you see a Washington state related thread.

[beelzepug]

“...most of the people in this country would be working 60 hour weeks for third world wages...”

Yeah? And you mean they’re not?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Unions certainly helped affect positive changes. I don’t know how useful they’ve been over the past 50 years.

[Lexinom]

The solution, of course (for the future), is run a simple operating system that performs only the tasks it needs to do its job. Human nature opts toward complex solutions that swell pride, and set the stage for massively humiliating scenarios like this one. The dominant software maker has this running through its culture. Humility is not one of their virtues.

A simpler system reduces the probability for error and makes errors easier to test and detect beforehand. The overall trend with the dominant software maker is toward greater complexity, not streamlined simplicity. We can expect even less stability in the future. Ain't "progress" just grand?

[Plumberman27]

...most of the people in this country would be working 60 hour weeks for third world wages... Yeah? And you mean they’re not?

Not me i get what i am worth. It all depends on how much you value your time. When one goes and applies for employment it he not the employer that decides what he is worth in terms of wages. One just has to have the gonads to take that attitude. Anyone that would work for minimum wage deserve just that too. Personally i do not know of anyone that would work for minimum wage.

[beelzepug]

Good thing you’re a plumber and not a writer. Still, I agree that most plumbers earn their money. If you don’t mind crawling in the mud under someone’s house, fixing busted pipes on a sub-zero morning, or being up to your elbows in somebody else’s $#it, you deserve all the money you can get. Good on you.

[Not A Snowbird]

The TV commentators were hilarious. Desperately trying to fill dead air with something... anything... I see a possible Mac/PC commercial taking shape.

I felt sorry for the poor guy in charge of the button.