Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 21 May 2015

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

Apply the ‘Dear Leader’ filter. It’s official - North Korean Photoshoppers have struck again. A widely lampooned image of Kim Jong-un standing on a boat, watching a ballistic missile erupt from beneath the waves, has been shown to be just the latest in a long line of not-very-impressive  fakes. Enough said.

Not jumping for joy. A computer glitch that froze a scoring system has been blamed for costing British Olympian Jade Jones a medal at the World Taekwondo Championships in Russia. Points scored by Jones during the freeze seemed not to have been recognised when the system came online, and she lost out to her rival in a score of 10-9. “Jade was very unlucky, and the system may have overloaded just as she struck,” Steve Flynn, operations director of GB Taekwondo, was quoted as saying. “It’s hard to know, but obviously we’re frustrated. We’re not able to appeal, because there’s no immediate record of what happened and it would involve trawling through huge amounts of data to try and recover any evidence.”

Don’t mess with lawyers. The company that produces software for bar examinations is facing a potential US$2.1 million class action after students were unable to upload their exams. The company has said it is “sincerely sorry”, adding that the problem was a “‘processing issue’ and that the exam’s content and reliability were not affected”.

None shall pass. A problem with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority’s (Zimra) computer system led to cargo piling up at the border for five days. Officials say the problem arose during an update to the system. “The situation hasn’t improved since last Sunday and Zimra officials are just looking at the trucks parked outside their offices,” William Gobvu, operations manager at Harare-based CKD Clearing Co, told Bloomberg. “They caused this problem by changing their system to a new platform which constantly breaks down.”

Perhaps they’re using the Zimbabwean system? According to government records, as many as 2600 passengers arriving in Sydney on the cruise ship Diamond Princess are not actually here. That’s because immigration data was not properly filed before the ship reached our shores. Some irate passengers-who-aren’t-here have complained of receiving letters from Centrelink telling them their allowances have been suspended because records show that the people are still overseas. So, don’t turn back the boats - just pretend they haven’t arrived!

Image courtesy KCNA