Gizmodo Australia » borked

Google Explains the Site-Wide Mistake: ‘Human Error’

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Earlier this morning, every single one of Google’s search results came with a warning that the site “may harm your computer,” including their own properties like Gmail and Google Maps. They’ve since explained what happened:

Google works with the non-profit StopBadware.org to create a list of potentially dangerous sites, which is updated periodically. One such update happened this morning, but somebody typed in “/” by mistake. That simple keystroke expands to every single URL, which is why Google was universally borked. Google engineers fixed the problem in about half an hour, and it’s back to normal now.

Please don’t play with our heads again, Google. We trust you. If you tell us the entire internet might infect our computers, we’ll probably believe you. [Google]

Seagate Firmware Fix Turned Barracudas into Paperweights

Elaine Chow — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Seagate’s SD1A firmware update, meant to fix problems with its Barracuda 7200.11 models, only managed to make things worse—bricking the drives of those who bothered to install it. They’ve pulled the update pending validation.

Barracuda owners who flashed their disks with the firmware found that after they rebooted, they’d receive a system disk failure error message. Backups, if they were stored on the same drive that was flashed, also became unavailable.

If you have a Barracuda hard drive, best follow this forum thread to keep updated on news from Seagate. Hopefully, the next “fix” they release isn’t such a mess. [Slashdot]

Apple Tries To BSOD Digital Signage With Software Update

Nick Broughall — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:00:02 +0000

Reader Gianpaolo was wandering through Burwood shopping centre when he noticed this borked digital sign for Nokia. While it’s no BSOD, it’s good to see that Microsoft isn’t the only software company that can bring a digital display to its knees (click the image for a larger version).

[Thanks Gianpaolo!]In case you couldn’t make it out, the error was caused by Apple software update…

Walmart Shutting Down Music Store DRM Servers, Umpteenth Reminder to Not Buy DRM’d Content

Matt Buchanan — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Like Yahoo and MSN before them, Walmart is turning off its DRM servers on Oct. 9, effectively putting any DRM’d songs you bought from them into a cold stasis they’ll never wake up from, since they’ll become totally unmovable unless you circumvent the DRM. Walmart went through this earlier with their video store, though it didn’t matter since no one bought anything from it. Walmart’s music store is DRM-free now, though I doubt that’s any consolation to people who actually paid for music that’s now nigh useless.

From: Walmart Music Team
Date: Fri, Sep 26, 2008 at 7:42 PM
Subject: Important Information About Your Walmart.com Digital Music Purchases
To: xxxxxx@gmail.com

Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site.

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD. By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash. Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorised computer.

Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.

Walmart Music Team

[BoingBoing]

LHC Repair Update: Temperature Must Be Raised so Repairmen Don’t Die

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 20:00:00 +0000

In case you were still worried about the LHC bringing on the biblical apocalypse, you can calm down, because it turns out the Collider is going to be out of commission for a lot longer than previously thought. The “electrical transformer” problem wasn’t the cause of the shutdown at all, and the real problem means the LHC won’t be back up and running for at least two months.

CERN spokesman James Gillies explained, “”It’s too early to say precisely what happened, but it seems to be a faulty electrical connection between two magnets that stopped superconducting, melted and led to a mechanical failure and let the helium out.” The specific section will have to have its temperature raised significantly above its usual absolute zero so engineers can go in and repair it without dying, which is apparently a very time-consuming process. This kind of failure isn’t unusual for particle accelerators, but the LHC’s internal temperature makes the whole ordeal much more difficult. Each warm-up or cool-down takes a minimum of several weeks, so the total repair will last more than two months. I suppose we’ve waited a long time already to unlock the secrets of the universe, so a couple more months can’t hurt, right? [CNN]

Dell Extends Warranties for Laptops With Failing Nvidia Chips While Nvidia Stays Mum

Matt Buchanan — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:30:00 +0000

A major cause of frustration in the Nvidia notebook GPU fiasco–where “significant quantities” of notebook graphics cards are packaged with “weak” materials leading them to overheat and fail at a “higher-than-normal rate”–is that Nvidia is declining to identify exactly which chips are bad, as the WSJ notes today. So you’ve gotta find out from your notebook maker if you’re possibly stuck with a time bomb. Dell is extending its limited warranties by a year to deal with the issue in the following notebooks:

Even if, as Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says, that different notebook configurations and designs affect how the flameout will rear its head, it doesn’t really excuse not disclosing the exact chips affected–widely believed to be of the G84 and G86 variety–and this effective silence is largely why rumours that most of their mobile GeForce 8 series is bad are able to gain traction, despite Nvidia’s protests. Some actual information would go a long way in quelling them.

In the meantime, a BIOS fix that will simply delay or reduce the chance of the onset of the problem by kicking on the cooling fans earlier is an incomplete solution. We hope Dell is “going to take care of [their] customers” as promised. Ideally, since they (presumably) have the information about which specific configurations are at the greatest risk, they would notify those customers and offer to replace the card entirely, otherwise those customers are basically waiting for their cards to die. [WSJ, Dell]

Netflix’s Shipping Systems Have Been FUBARed Since Tuesday

Jason Chen — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:00:00 +0000

CNBC reports that Netflix’ shipping systems have been at least partially broken since Tuesday. They managed to ship nothing on Tuesday, half of what they were supposed to on Wednesday, and nothing today. What’s the deal?

Apparently the outage affects 1/3 of their customers, to whom Netflix is trying to figure out the best way to refund some cash. They’re still not sure what the root of the problems are, so in essence, they have no idea how to fix it. Be prepared for a few more days of outages, unless it turns out that it’s a super easy fix that’s much harder to diagnose than to repair. Your Bernie Mac marathon will have to wait. :( [CNBC via Valleywag - Image Credit]

Optus Cable Borked – Phones Down in QLD And NSW

Nick Broughall — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:21:33 +0000

Today doesn’t seem to be a good day to be an Optus customer, with a broken fibre optic cable on the Gold Coast leaving their landline, mobile and internet services borked throughout Queensland and parts of NSW.

The cable was broken at about 8am, although how is still not known. And although Optus believe services should be back to normal soon, it hasn’t stopped delays from hitting Brisbane airport and countless other businesses.

Anybody out there experiencing problems?

[via News.com.au]

The US Feed Is Coming – We Promise

Nick Broughall — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:33:46 +0000

Sorry for the tardiness of the overnight feed – Our CMS was borked by an automatic update. It’s back at the moment, so we’ll be bringing you all the stuff out of the US as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!

Legal Snafu Makes Thousands of Patent Rulings Since 2000 Invalid

Adam Frucci — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:50:00 +0000

Oops! According to a law professor at George Washington University, all patent judges appointed after the year 2000 have been done so unconstitutionally, making thousands of patent rulings made by said judges null and void. This will have ramifications on patents worth billions and billions of dollars, and it’s not clear exactly what’s going to happen.

But the Justice Department has already all but conceded that Professor Duffy is right. Given the opportunity to dispute him in a December appeals court filing, government lawyers said only that they were at work on a legislative solution.
They did warn that the impact of Professor Duffy’s discovery could be cataclysmic for the patent world, casting “a cloud over many thousands of board decisions” and “unsettling the expectations of patent holders and licensees across the nation.” But they did not say Professor Duffy was wrong.

If it was a legislative mistake, it may turn out to be a big one. The patent court hears appeals from people and companies whose patent applications were turned down by patent examiners, and it decides disputes over who invented something first. There is often a lot of money involved.

The problem Professor Duffy identified at least arguably invalidates every decision of the patent court decided by a three-judge panel that included at least one judge appointed after March 2000.

Yikes! The Supreme Court will probably take this issue on in the not too distant future, but before that, lemme just put this in writing now: I came up with the idea for the iPod and iPhone way before Apple, and I deserve all of the revenue from both of those products. See you in court, Jobs. [NY Times via Boing Boing]