Geek Weekly: Technology Decisions' quirky tech stories for 24 November 2015

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

Going off grid. The email grid, that is. It’s what happened to thousands of Canadian government employees recently, after a ‘faulty power distribution unit’ at the Aviation Parkway Data Centre crashed the system for almost 24 hours. The Canadian government is trying to consolidate 500 old data centres into just seven newer ones. Those older centres and the software running them are becoming obsolete, clearly.

Lost (power) in space. The International Space Station’s solar power system hit a bit of a glitch earlier this month when a sequential shunt unit (you know what that is, right?) decided to stop playing, reducing the number of electrical power channels from eight to seven. Fortunately, mission controllers have been able to work around it. NASA is debating whether to schedule a spacewalk for sometime next year to fix the unit, as they did back when a similar device broke in 2014.

Want to be more productive? Then learn to organise your PC desktop, says psychologist Pamela Rutledge. In advice that will not astound anyone, she suggests four simple ways in which you can help yourself focus whenever you’re forced to stare at your computer screen (which is most of the day, yes?). Read about it here.

The Grinch strikes again. Revellers in the UK town of Chester had enjoyed their annual Christmas parade and were looking forward to the moment when the festive lights were turned on with a flourish. But they were left disenchanted when, at the appointed hour, the switch was pushed and nothing happened. It’s all due to a ‘computer problem’, you see. It had been tested twice earlier in the day and all was good. But would it work when it was need for real? Damn right it wouldn’t. Bah humbug.

When robots say no. Researchers are working on ways to teach robots when to say no to orders given to them by human beings. Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics are a good start, but the devil is in the detail… as Asimov showed in the moral dilemmas he presented to his fictitious robots in his famous short stories and novels. But it is definitely something that needs to be sorted out, if we’re not to have axe-wielding androids running around doing whatever they please… or are commanded to do by evil humans.

When we should say no to robots. Have you heard of Hebocon? It’s a Japanese homemade robot competition, billed as “a competition where crappy robots that can just barely move” gather and try to destroy each other. Here’s the video — you’ve been warned: