Articles or webpages that caught my eye recently:
- Definitely a case of oops for Michelin, here.
For the first time in its 105-year history, Michelin is recalling an edition of its famous food guide after it recommended a restaurant whose rating was determined before it served customers.
- A row over a tsunami warning system:
Thailand proposed that the centre should be in its capital, Bangkok, but was opposed by India and Indonesia.
This sounds very much like what Cringely talked about:
Here’s the problem with big multi-government warning systems. First, we have a disaster. Then, we have a conference on the disaster, then plans are proposed, money is appropriated, and three to five years later, a test system is ready. It isn’t the final system, of course, but it still involves vast sensor arrays both above and below the surface of the ocean, satellite communication, and a big honking computer down in the bowels of the Department of Commerce or maybe at NASA. That’s just the detection part. The warning part involves multilateral discussions with a dozen nations, a treaty, more satellite communication, several computer networks, several television and radio networks, and possibly a system of emergency transmitters. Ten years, a few million dollars and we’re ready.
Le sigh…
- Another case of oops
At least 75 pages of highly classified information about human traffickers from the Dutch Royal Marechaussee - a service of the Dutch armed forces that is responsible for guarding the Dutch borders - have been leaked to the controversial weblog Geen Stijl (No Style).
The documents, which contain phone numbers and tapped conversations, were found unencrypted on Kazaa, the public file sharing service. The likeliest explanation for their appearance is that a member Dutch Royal Marechaussee worked on the documents from home and unintentionally shared his entire hard drive with the rest of the world, through Kazaa.
Enough for now.
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