Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 18 December
Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more. This is our last update for 2014. Please have a safe and happy end-of-year break, and we’ll see you again in the second week of January.
XPrize extended. The organisers of the Google Lunar Xprize have extended the deadline for landing a rover on the Moon by one year to the end of 2016. US$30m is up for grabs for the first private consortium that can build, launch, safely land and operate a remotely controlled rover on the Moon, accomplishing certain tasks such as imagery.
Glitch grounds the UK. A computer error in the air traffic control flight data system at Swanwick in the UK brought London’s airports to a standstill on 12 December. The problem was fixed by the end of the day, but not before causing delays and wreaking havoc with flights. The Swanwick £623 air traffic control centre opened in 2002, but reportedly has been troubled by glitches ever since.
Fooling computers with optics. Researchers at the University of Wyoming and Cornell University have worked out how to make images that look like random noise to you and me, but which neural network computers think contain recognisable images. “To some extent these are optical illusions for artificial intelligence,” researcher Jeff Clune told The Atlantic.
Queensland hospitals hit by glitch. A computer problem reportedly caused chaos across hospital and health department systems in Queensland last week. Officials say patients were not affected, but all services experienced interruptions.
Santa came early. An Amazon website error saw hundreds of items listed for just one pence on Friday, 12 December last week. Some buyers took advantage of the glitch, which affected mainly smaller retailers. “I have lost about £20,000 overnight,” Kiddymania’s Judith Blackford told Sky News in the UK. “Surely someone has to be accountable for this. I will be bankrupt at this rate by the end of January.”
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