No train traffic without Adobe Flash. Surprising but true. (Photo: Dennis / Shutterstock)
No time now?
A Chinese railway operator might not have noticed that Adobe had pulled the plug on its flash tool. Because some parts of the operating software were based on it, all trains stopped.
Was on January 12, 2021 it so far. The very last now-but-actually grace period for Adobe Flash was over. The manufacturer thus determined that existing installations were no longer permitted to carry any material.
The plan was paralyzed through the Flash app.
In Dalian, northern China, the move had unforeseen consequences. The railway company there programmed parts of its operating software into Flash. These parts cannot be executed after the Adobe tool has finished. The results were severe. Rail traffic in Dalian was disrupted for about 20 hours. It is reported by Hong Kong online news outlet Apple Daily.
The automated control system did not fail. Instead, employees of rail operator Shenyang were no longer able to look at train operation plans and make train sequences and shunting plans. This meant that reliable operation plans could not be guaranteed.
According to the news, those responsible have not solved the problem at the root, instead installing an hacked older version of Flash Player that does not know the hard-coded exit date of January 12.
Adobe Flash: Ends with a longer duration
If it had been for Apple boss Steve Jobs, Flash would have been gone for ten years. Jobs already explained in 2010 why Apple does not support the format on its devices.
Adobe asked developers to switch to HTML5 in 2015. In 2017, the producer End of support for December 31, 2020 Announced. The fact that there are still users who rely on Flash for critical applications should come as a surprise. It is not known whether the railway in Dalian will be permanently administered with pirate flash.
