Eircom "Smart"phone

satchmo

So I'm hanging around Heuston station waiting for my girlfriend to arrive from Cork, and wandering around with nothing to do. I decide to check out these fancy looking internet-enabled Eircom "Smartphones" standing in the middle of the station.



Very pretty huh? But wait, what's that on the two phones on the left?



Doh!



I guess this sums up the state of the industry.....



...but on a positive note, at least I finally found a legitimate use for the camera on my phone!

bizmark

damn. Good quility picture from a phone (that must of cost ya)


Anyway what do you expect from eircom ? a good service LOL

Creamy Goodness

hehe i also gotta admit nice quality from a phone mind i ask which make/model

satchmo

Sharp GX-10, largest picture size. I've gotta admit I was surprised at the quality myself!

andrew163

LOL

well at least we know what OS they use now :ninja:

Capt'n Midnight

On its web site, Microsoft states: "Starting July 1, 2003, Microsoft will no longer accept support calls or hotfix requests on Windows NT Workstation 4.0. Security hotfix support will also end..

---

I am sure you could complain to ComReg about them using obsolete unsupported technology....

BTW: was it SP6a ?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Capt'n Midnight
I am sure you could complain to ComReg about them using obsolete unsupported technology....

They have a requirement to supply working public telephones under their USO. Cause for complaint, I think.

Possible complaint letter if anyone's interested.

Dear ComReg,

I wish to draw your attention to some public payphones in Heuston Station. The phones in question utilise a television style screen in addition to the normal telephone handset. Instead pressing physical buttens or turning a dial, the user is required to press a 'touch screen' above a pictorial representation of telephone buttons.

In addition to being hard to use, the telephones rely on an embedded personal computer running an unsupported operating system by the American software company, Microsoft.

The operating system (called NT version 4) has a number of security issues as well as being unreliable when compared to other operating systems (e.g. Unix). On [date] it was found that several of these in the station were displaying what is known as the "blue screen of death", a diagnostic message indicating that a serious fatal error has occurred.

I understand that under Eircom's Universal Service obligation Eircom is obliged to provide working public telephone aparatus in public spaces, however the non-functional nature of these telephones calls into question Eircom's ability to do this. I would be grateful if you could investigate Eircom's competance in the installation and operation of this equipment and whether or not it represents a potential security breach. My concern is that Eircom may attempt to use this equipment in place of traditional mechanical coin operated eqiupment for which they have some experience in operating. A ruling on this issue would be appreciated.

theciscokid

theres a really 3lee7 h4Xor5 way to get access to the machines and it takes a bit of time and skill to utilise,learn and master the code as below

c:\

lol.. put that into the url and hit return, the system can't handle it and will crash/freeze then restart..

when it reboots, if you are quick enough there will be a small launcher icon in the bottom left hand of the screen (although this may vary)

if ya cancel this, you can do as you like... :rolleyes:

i don't condone any illegal activity.. lets hope eircom fixes this bug

:ninja:

spongebob

/me quivers at the very thought of ringing Biddy on 1901 pressing 2 for repairs and explaining that Eircom are obliged to go and fix a

"Blue Screen of Death"

and a

"Kernel Dump"

followed by a

"Hexdump"

to her.I just ain't that brave. Ye mightn't think so but I'm not. She would swallow her dentures with rage as I explained the etymology of the word 'dump' with regard to this particular Eircom kit.

M

andrew163

hmmmmm.......interesting........yesss.........im just going to take this information and uhhhh......go do that thing i just remembered i was supposed to do............:ninja:


(not really though............i wouldnt dare go up against........THE RAT )

FirA_Serjio

i never realised how crap eircom are, i feel ashamed to be using them rite now
dont hose fones cost up to €200? i think der a rip off tbh
all ye need is a small cam and a ****ifone and get sum tape, and der ye have it

FirA_Fascio

hmmm.... VERY interesting.... a blue screen of death on a public "smart" phone.....

yes.... pity if this information fell into the wrong hands.......

:ninja:

well off i go to the blanchardstown centre to "make a call" on the "smart" phones hyuk hyuk hyuk

(in case ur slow, the " " around "smart" indicates bunny-ear fingers and that the phones have about as much intelligence as ms-dos 3)

ColinM

Originally posted by theciscokid
theres a really 3lee7 h4Xor5 way to get access to the machines and it takes a bit of time and skill to utilise,learn and master the code as below

c:\

lol.. put that into the url and hit return, the system can't handle it and will crash/freeze then restart..

when it reboots, if you are quick enough there will be a small launcher icon in the bottom left hand of the screen (although this may vary)

if ya cancel this, you can do as you like... :rolleyes:

i don't condone any illegal activity.. lets hope eircom fixes this bug

:ninja:

I really like the idea of this - phone phreaking and computer hacking meeting again after so many years.

Incidentally, I was in Superquinn the other day, and they have some really nice plasma screens which display advertisments and general notices. I was faintly amused to see (windows) scandisk running on the screen covering most of the ad. I guess that means they're on Windows 2000 or later, and they're slightly less "mission critical".

By the way - have you seen this thread about NT BSODs in another public place?

Cabaal

On the plus side, if your talking to someone you don't wana talk to you can hang up and just say that the phone crashed (same as with the XDA

Cabaal

Originally posted by Muck
/me quivers at the very thought of ringing Biddy on 1901 pressing 2 for repairs and explaining that Eircom are obliged to go and fix a

I'm half tempted to phone 1901 say I'm in Heuston station and advise them one of there phones just had a memory dump.
Just to see what they say

Especially when I start debating why there using NT4 as apposed to a stable/bug free/secure OS.



Dam I'm bored...