This morning I awoke and went through my normal routine of debugging some C algorithms that I wrote the night before and downloading the dozen or so NT security patches that become available over night and then left for work to drive to beautiful downtown Manayunk, PA. On my way I decided to pick up an Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s for brunch. I noticed a few months ago that the old speaker and voice-input box, where orders are taken and repeated, had been supplemented by some new technology. On the post above the box was a monitor, protected from the elements, that displayed your order total. It also showed brief pictures of McDonald’s food and made pitches for donations to local charities. A nice addition, I thought; it was much better than the old garbled voice repeat that I was used to. Well, this morning I drove up to the window and didn’t hear the friendly order taker right away as I have become used to. I looked up at the screen and noticed something very odd. I suddenly realized what I had been dealing with all along when those orders were tallied and ads were displayed. Instead of being ready to take my order, the following dialog box was displayed, which the employee was desperately trying to alt+control+delete out of:
“This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shutdown. If this problem persists, please contact your program vendor.”
I wish I had my camera! Anyone have any similar experiences or screen shots? Email me.
