Technology Lesson: Blue Screen of Death

Windows 8, the newest operating system from Microsoft, has a new Blue Screen of Death (BSoD; above).

The Blue Screen of Death is formally known as a Stop Error or Bug Check. The screen usually pops up unexpectedly, and strikes fear and/or irritation in the user. I'll let Wikipedia explain what's happening when the blue screen appears:

Stop errors are usually hardware or driver related, causing the computer to stop responding in order to prevent damage to the hardware, whereupon, in the latest versions of Windows, the screen presents information for diagnostic purposes that was collected as the operating system performed a bug check.

The old screen, below, was blue with white text. It provided a length bit of code for developers pre-reboot, to "explain" the error. The new screen provides significantly less information for developers. It's still blue, but includes a sad face emoticon. This is laughable in the technology community, but at least Windows acknowledges the stress and frustration accompanied with a Blue Screen of Death?

Additional Resources:
Windows 8 Upgrades the Blue Screen of Death, Mashable
Windows' Blue Screen of Death, PC Mag
Blue Screen of Death, Wikipedia

Previously:Technology Lesson: Emoticons