Every Oculus Rift around the world stopped working this morning - Users appear to be experiencing the exact same issue

https://archive.fo/H2YMG

Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets around the world are experiencing an outage this morning, including devices here at Polygon. Users are not sure what is causing the issue, and so far neither Facebook nor Oculus itself has provided a solution.

One place where users experiencing the issue are gathering is on the Oculus forums. Last night user apexmaster booted up his computer, tried to open the Oculus app and was greeted by an error indicating that the software could not reach the “Oculus Runtime Service.”

That same error is cropping up on computers all around the world, including several devices here at Polygon. Once it has appeared, there’s no way to restart the Oculus app, which renders the Rift headset unusable.

I was able to get the Oculus application to open up just a little while ago, but an update of the software itself (version 1.24) appeared to be hung in the download queue. Troubleshooting steps listed by the Oculus website included restarting the software, which would not clear the issue for me. The next step given was to reboot my computer. After reboot, I received the same error message as listed above. There’s no clear way forward at this time.

At least one developer, Adam Boyne, was mid-demo at an event when his Oculus stopped working. He said that he spent an hour trying to get his unit to start back up, but was similarly flummoxed.

One user, digging through the Oculus files on his machine, seems to think that the issue could be a lapsed security certificate that expired today. Security certificates are issued by third-party agencies and allow for software and websites to authenticate with each other in order to prevent malicious hacking and fraud. Without a valid security certificate, some operating systems will prevent certain programs from running.

Polygon has reached out to Oculus for more information.

 

[neverendingmidi]

This doesn't effect me so honestly I don't care. Perhaps part of me laughs when toys break that I don't think are good.

But, I do want to point something out and not be a-loggy. In regards to serious things going wrong, yes that's a threat yes that can be scary, but this is something I try to express to people all the time, learn the old way. It's a crime schools don't teach hand writing, etc.

If my auto pay on my phone dies out, I know how to write a check. I know how to mail it etc. Now if it's a coolant system on a nuclear plant... fugg but, stuff like this happens, you aren't a crazed prepper for keeping some candles around if power is lost etc.

It's important we keep systems well oiled and smooth, but when it's a bunch of man children upset their toys break just take a chill pill point and laugh.

From what I understand they’ve gone back to teaching navigation and steering by hand in the US Navy recently because of all the crashes they kept having as everybody just assumed the automated systems would handle shit.

 

[Orkeosaurus]

This is partly why I refuse to buy a VR headset any time soon. Oculus Rift was supposed to be THE headset and then it ended up becoming the Dreamcast of VR while new versions of the Vive are already pretty close to being released.

Is there actually some good reason why a vr headset needs to be connected to a source network in order to run? Or is it like shutting down your single player video game because it loses connection to Ubisoft's servers and it's compete bullshit?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/06/oculus-reverses-course-dumps-its-vr-headset-checking-drm/
Apparently Oculus Rift used to have a DRM that presumably prevented you from playing pirated games. Maybe it's an artifact of that "feature".

 

[DeadwastePrime]

apparently this is what happened

 

[D. Sweatshirt]

apparently this is what happened

That's quite a nice piece of hardware, it would be a shame if something happened to it...

All joking aside, I consider this a warning shot. This time, it's just a glorified toy, but as @mindlessobserver has pointed out, the moment this happens with something actually important could spell disaster. If it's actually just something as benign as a security certificate expiring, it's not a reason to be relieved, it's a reason to realize how flimsy this whole kind of setup is.

Congratulations, @RomanesEuntDomus. You called it.

 

[Male Idiot]

Why would a nuclear power plant's systems be even connected to an internet? Most businesses know to have an intranet only.

I really thing stuff like powerplants should have their own network and backup computers. I also hope that life giving services like power and heating are treated with more care than making a falshy fad toy.

 

[:thinking:]

The internet of things is rapidly becoming an unmanageable system with way too much complexity. Every occulus rift on the planet not working because of a lapsed security script is funny. Now imagine every power plant not working because of a network run time error. We like to think great technological complexity makes our lives easier, but so many things could actually work just fine using vacuum tubes and punch cards, with the only tradeoff being the company would have to hire a few extra engineers and have them work on site rather then hiring one engineer to stare at 50 different computer screens from a central location and do fuck all as the system software does his job for him

Not an engineer, but a Pajeet shitting in the street.
He will work for air conditioning. And by work, I mean shitting in the street while ululating to his heathen monkey gods.

 

[Marvin]

Why would a nuclear power plant's systems be even connected to an internet? Most businesses know to have an intranet only.

I really thing stuff like powerplants should have their own network and backup computers. I also hope that life giving services like power and heating are treated with more care than making a falshy fad toy.

An air gap has been an essential part of designing infrastructure like power plants for a long time.

Of course, you still get stuff like stuxnet.

 

[mindlessobserver]

Why would a nuclear power plant's systems be even connected to an internet? Most businesses know to have an intranet only.

I really thing stuff like powerplants should have their own network and backup computers. I also hope that life giving services like power and heating are treated with more care than making a falshy fad toy.

I don't think people truly appreciate just what tech and business institutions are trying to accomplish. They want their powerplants to run automatically because its cheaper. They can even make a cogent argument that it is safer too because it removes the human factor. Cuz you know, humans make mistakes. To a large extent this is true. True enough that we are connecting everything from power plants to toasters into integrated network systems. Hell, the latest craze is to connect the doorbell to the internet so it can interface with a web cam and call your phone whenever someone pushes it.

Unfortunately, as every first year computer scientist will tell you, introducing more and more features to a system does not add to its complexity. It multiplies its complexity. There is no set plan to it either. We are building this massive technical network of integrated systems and products the same way people used to build cities back in the middle ages. Just plonk a house or something where it seems to fit to whoever is building it, and maybe cram a road or alley in there, and as the buildings get expanded the local government might decide to add a new wall, or guard tower or some shit, and repeat ad nauseum for years until you literally have a spider web of alleys, roads, buildings, walls, and nobody can make heads or tales of it. But it works, up until it doesn't work. and when it stops working its a major disaster. Like the Great Fire of London.

I actually had the privlige to tour the US Armies explosive labs and testing grounds at Indian Head. Their containment facilities use punch card computers built in the 1950's. Still, to this day. When people asked why, the guy doing the tour (who had worked there for 4o years) stated "cuz they still work, and at this point nobody can hack em cuz who can hack an analogue computer?" Hell, the US Nuclear arsenal still uses analogue computers to this day for this very reason. We could easily network the US nuclear arsenal and make so instead of having hundreds of operators at individual silos spread all across the country, we could just have two dudes sitting in a bunker under the white houses running the whole show. But we don't, for the obvious reasons that should be obvious to all these corporations merrily networking everything from the electrical grid to their fucking doorbell.

 

[Marvin]

I actually had the privlige to tour the US Armies explosive labs and testing grounds at Indian Head. Their containment facilities use punch card computers built in the 1950's. Still, to this day. When people asked why, the guy doing the tour (who had worked there for 4o years) stated "cuz they still work, and at this point nobody can hack em cuz who can hack an analogue computer?"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

People used to hack the shit out of analog computers and other predigital systems and it cost people shitloads of money. While it's rarer for them to get hacked, just because of archaic-ness, it's much more severe because a lack of accountability.

Building logging systems to keep track of accesses is easy with modern digital systems. If someone picks a lock, there's no record. But if someone accesses a digital lock, it can at least store an access record in a file somewhere.

 

[AnOminous]

They can even make a cogent argument that it is safer too because it removes the human factor. Cuz you know, humans make mistakes. To a large extent this is true.

Computers make whatever mistakes you tell them to make. The problem in the time of stuff like Stuxnet is suppose you sneak your worm into something capable of listening on RF frequencies. Then you can make them all make the same mistake at exactly the same time. Now suppose that's something like crashing the national electric grid.

Oops.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

People used to hack the shit out of analog computers and other predigital systems and it cost people shitloads of money.

It didn't even really cost them any money. That shit was just fun. It's not like those people would have been paying tens of thousands in phone bills anyway. It just amused them to fuck with the phone companies.

The only real cost was butthurt from the idiots who had to explain how their totally secure network was owned by some neckbeard with a whistle from a cereal box.

 

[Sperglord Dante]

The Day The Oculus Rift Stood Still

 

[Marvin]

It didn't even really cost them any money. That shit was just fun. It's not like those people would have been paying tens of thousands in phone bills anyway. It just amused them to fuck with the phone companies.

The only real cost was butthurt from the idiots who had to explain how their totally secure network was owned by some neckbeard with a whistle from a cereal box.

Correction: it cost them resources. It would cost them money depending on whether those resources were idle or not.

 

[AnOminous]

Correction: it cost them resources. It would cost them money depending on whether those resources were idle or not.

Most of their profits are from rent-seeking. They already have the infrastructure. Their way to collect rent is to degrade service and connectivity and get money for nothing, while excluding others from the infrastructure that was largely paid for with taxpayer money, not their own money.

 

[vertexwindi]

Guess it's back to text-only ERP for me.

The only real cost was butthurt from the idiots who had to explain how their totally secure network was owned by some neckbeard with a whistle from a cereal box.

Imagine getting hacked by fucking Captain Crunch toys. I'd hang myself in shame.

 

[frozenrunner]

This is partly why I refuse to buy a VR headset any time soon. Oculus Rift was supposed to be THE headset and then it ended up becoming the Dreamcast of VR while new versions of the Vive are already pretty close to being released.

So the greatest VR headset ever made which died too soon and will be supported by autists in perpetuity, then?

 

[GentlemanFaggot]

I love seeing people who fall for products with shit catches like Always Online get their just desserts. All the times I've heard, "LOL! EVERYONE HAS AN INTERNET CONNECTION 100% OF THE DAY NOW!"

Well, no shit. What about the company's network that you're connecting to? What if they shut down? What if they do something basic like not renew a certificate in time?

All because...what? They want to make sure you bought the product? They want to steal your info? I woudn't buy a car, let alone a box of chocolates because it was the next big thing, or they promised me a good deal, in exchange for touching a pile of manure for a minute, no matter how mundane it might seem.

So the greatest VR headset ever made, then?

This is what Segafags actually believe.

 

[Quijibo69]

And apparently, some of the Amazon Alexa units are now laughing even when not prompted..... hummmm..

This is some STephen King shit we're getting into here.

I haven't had an ATM tell me that I'm an asshole.... yet.