Also known as an airplane's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the black box – while infact orange in color – is what investigators look for in the aftermath of wreckage to point to where things went wrong.
In a similar vein, Microsoft intends to add a data-tracking system to its next-generation Windows platform Longhorn to more closely monitor the steps preceding a computer crash.
Microsoft CEO Bill Gates told attendees at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference that the PC black box diagnostic technology will be able to provide Microsoft with more detailed data on what trips up its systems. The company will combine the technology with its Watson error reporting tool that already exists in the Windows platform.
Gates said that the new data recorder will even be able to recount document contents that were being created at the time of the crash and that data can be forwarded to either IT staffers or wherever else the PC user or company directs the information flow. Microsoft said it also will share the data with its product developers, a fact that has many free speech advocates up in arms alleging that Microsoft will use this type of access to gain firmer control of PC users and companies that use its software and hardware products.
But Microsoft is claiming that the new crash-tracking tool will benefit the user as much as its developers in being able to pinpoint trouble spots and rescue data.
"Our stance on this is that the user is in control," a Microsoft representative said. "In the consumer environment, you will be presented with a dialog that clearly gives you the choice whether to share the information and then also provides exactly what the detail is so you can parse character by character what's being sent."
Microsoft also will enhance its upcoming Longhorn operating system with Secure Startup, an encryption feature that insures that computers such as notebooks that are disconnected from a network are not affected by malicious programs. According to the computer maker, a security chip in the Longhorn platform will make sensitive files inaccessible if someone tries to boot the machine from a portable hard drive or floppy disk.
The latest release date for Longhorn is December 2006.