Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 16 October

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

Computer says ‘I don’t know’. Doesn’t know how to calculate your tax, that is - which is particularly embarrassing considering that the system in question belongs to the UK’s HM Revenue and Customs (the equivalent of our Tax Office). The agency admitted four months ago that it collected the incorrect tax amounts from more than five million taxpayers in the 12 months up to April 2014. The issue came to light following a leak of internal emails.

The hazards of Duke. Duke Energy, the USA’s largest electricity supplier, has admitted to incorrectly reporting 500,000 of its 800,000 current and former customers as being delinquent in their payments. The company blames a coding error. Small consolation to those businesses who had their credit ratings flagged.

Galileo, we have a problem. Initially thought to be caused by a software error, the failure of a Soyuz rocket’s Russian-built Fregat upper stage on 22 August - which led to two of Europe’s new Galileo navigation satellites going into the wrong orbits - has been tracked down to frozen fuel lines connected to two small thruster rockets. The lines froze because they had been built too close to a different line carrying ultra-cold liquid helium. Rocket stages presently on the production line have the same problem and are being fixed. Given the chilly weather on Australia’s east coast at the moment, we can completely sympathise with the thrusters’ lack of will to work.

$110 million for light circuits. The US military has US$110 million up for grabs for researchers to produce the next generation of photonic circuits - ones that use light instead of electricity. The money will go into an Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Institute, and researchers will need to match it, dollar for dollar, from private sources. New photonic integrated circuits are expected to boost speeds, be much smaller than current ICs and use less power.

New router is Tor-rific. For those who want to hide their cyberworld activities, or who just don’t trust the government, it’s hard to go past the Tor Project, which uses a clever system to anonymise browsing sessions. But it can be hard to use. Enter the Anonabox, a nifty little modem-like device that plugs in and does all your Torring for you. Funded via Kickstarter, it’s inexpensive (US$51), open source and claimed to be easy to use.

Fair share of problems. Trading of bond futures and equity on the ASX was brought to a halt this week following a ‘technical issue’ that saw some prices cease being updated. The ASX 24 market was paused by the exchange until the issue could be sorted out. Apparently this was the second time so far this month that a technical problem had struck.

Opal still needs some polishing. Sydney Trains continues to have problems with its new Opal card, with hundreds of passengers reported stuck at Town Hall station on Tuesday when the ticket gates refused to work. This isn’t the first time it’s happened - “I’m getting a bit used to glitches like this,” one commuter told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Buzz off. Finally, our robot video of the week. These little flying drones are cute, but also somehow sinister - like they have minds of their own. Watch the formation flying:

Image courtesy Steve Jurveston under CC