Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 13 November 2014

Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.

The Philae has landed. In an amazing climax to a 10-year voyage, Europe’s Philae spacecraft has landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, almost 500 million kilometres from Earth. After detaching from its parent craft, Rosetta, the lander spent about 7 hours slowly descending to the comet’s surface. Not all went according to plan, though. A small thruster intended to help it on its way apparently didn’t work. And there were early signs that two harpoons designed to anchor the craft to the surface also didn’t fire. Those small problems aside, Philae will now begin its work of imaging the comet’s landscape and conducting chemical tests to see what it’s made of.

Bank faces huge fine for IT fail. The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has told the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) that it faces fines of many millions of dollars for a 2012 IT failure that left 17 million customers unable to access their accounts for a week. The bank has already had to pay out £175 million in compensation and other costs. Last December, following another IT failure, the RBS’s boss said that the bank’s IT systems had been ‘neglected’ for decades.

It’s about to get crowded up there. Reports are filtering out of discussions between Google and Elon Musk, the founder of rocket company SpaceX, on plans to launch up to 700 small communications satellites that would provide global internet coverage.

At last, a true ‘aircraft carrier’. The US military’s brain’s trust - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - is asking for help to develop ways to turn existing large aircraft such as C-130 Hercules’ into drone carriers, able to launch and recover swarms of the little beasts.

Image: Artist's impression of Philae landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Courtesy ESA.