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United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

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Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#62

Official status page: http://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/jsp/summary_sys.jsp Currently says: ATCSCC ADVZY 027 DCC 07/08/15 UAL GROUND STOP REVISION DESTINATION AIRPORT: ALL AIRPORTS FACILITIES INCLUDED: ALL FACILITIES GROUND STOP PERIOD: 08/1200Z - 08/1315Z REASON: USER REQUEST AUTOMATION ISSUES

Good to see the Sun Microsystems favicon on the FAA status page - not seen one of those for a while!

Last one I noticed was the FCC's comment system.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#63
post #47
post #13

Off-topic: Please use ISO 8601 format(YYYY-MM-DD) for dates in titles. The US date format hurts my poor logical soul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

Or use JSON: {"year": 2015, "month":7, "day":8}

Except that month starts at 0.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#64
post #47
post #13

Off-topic: Please use ISO 8601 format(YYYY-MM-DD) for dates in titles. The US date format hurts my poor logical soul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

Or use JSON: {"year": 2015, "month":7, "day":8}

Are the airlines using systems that modern?

I was guessing something a bit more

01 OUTAGE-DATE-DATA.

     05  OUTAGE-DATE.

          10  OUTAGE-YEAR           PIC 9(04).

	  10  OUTAGE-MONTH          PIC 9(02).

	  10  OUTAGE-DAY            PIC 9(02).

     05  OUTAGE-TIME.

	  10  OUTAGE-HOURS          PIC 9(02).

	  10  OUTAGE-MINUTE         PIC 9(02).

	  10  OUTAGE-SECOND         PIC 9(02).

	  10  OUTAGE-MILLISECONDS   PIC 9(02).

     05  OUTAGE-DIFF-FROM-GMT       PIC S9(04).
MOVE FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE TO OUTAGE-DATE-DATA

I always kinda liked the meme from that language of "variable as picture". Calling something a picture has inherent and obvious implications WRT call by value vs call by name.

On the other hand intrinsic functions like FUNCTION CURRENT-DATE are not as logically amusing.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#65
post #13

Off-topic: Please use ISO 8601 format(YYYY-MM-DD) for dates in titles. The US date format hurts my poor logical soul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

For future proofing please use 5 digit years (YYYYY-MM-DD) e.g. 02015-07-08. :P

Stardate 1673.85

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a minute ago they tweeted about it: https://twitter.com/united/status/618769524544942081

Took them until just now to go "oh, we should probably post something that isn't a @reply". https://twitter.com/united/status/618777538865799168

I bet they could have saved themselves untold numbers of telephone calls in the support queue, and thousands of in-person queries to ticket agents and other airport staff with one or two tweets and a facebook post or two.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#68
post #32
post #13

Off-topic: Please use ISO 8601 format(YYYY-MM-DD) for dates in titles. The US date format hurts my poor logical soul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

ISO8601? Easy. 2015-W283. Or maybe (?) 2015188. ISO8601 will hurt your logical soul, don't stare too deeply into its eyes.

Or you know, 2015-07-08, which is perfectly readable to me.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#69
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, you know, the load is increasing over time, and the system is failing to scale to it, and so will fail more and more frequently as the load continues to increase?

The amount of daily UAL passenger seats doesn't change or grow radically over weeks or months. What is the scale-up here? Everyone using their phones to check rez/status/boarding passes?

Some quick googling suggests they take delivery of several-many dozen planes a year (based on various order/delivery/etc. coverage), which would absolutely cause a step function in the number of passenger seats.

I expect there's growth on all of these:

- Total planes

- Total flights

- Number of routes

- Number of passengers

- Passenger utilization of electronic boarding

- Passenger utilization of reservation modification (seat changes, upgrades, etc.)

- Passenger utilization of in-flight electronic amenities (wifi, in flight entertainment, etc.) that are billed through the system (United has a proprietary WiFi that's tied to your frequent flier account)

- Online booking

- Travel agent/reseller pricing queries

- Travel agent/reseller booking

I'm not saying any of these are dramatically increasing, but I'd bet they're all going up slowly, which will add more and more load to the system.

Re: United Airlines System-Wide Computer Problem

#70
post #13

Off-topic: Please use ISO 8601 format(YYYY-MM-DD) for dates in titles. The US date format hurts my poor logical soul. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

Or just use words (8th July 2015). But yes, YYYY-MM-DD actually sorts correctly.

It's called "8. Juli 2015" where I live. Use numbers, please.
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