2023 was the year of Artificial Intelligence, but there was no shortage of natural stupidity. In this post we will talk about technological mistakes and their lessons. They are all errors attributable to human beings.
If these stories have something in common, it is that Richard Stallman's warnings about the risks of using proprietary software are highlighted and the threat to the rights of users of their licenses. It is true that the use of free software and hardware does not eliminate the need for responsible management of computer resources. But, many of the problems we describe here would not exist.
Technological blunders and their lessons
The goose was laying!
Made fashionable by a comedy show from the 80s, andThis Argentine expression indicating that it is time to take out your wallet It has its origins in the 19th century.
An aspiring politician from the interior of the country, known by his neighbors with the nickname "The Goose" (Due to his lack of intellectual gifts) wanted to access public office. His campaign argument was to pay all his neighbors for drinks at the town's pulpería (tavern). So it was that when the time came to pay, the neighbors chorused the expression that gives the section its title.
Software development companies are a little more polite when asking us to pay for the license, but equally insistent (Except maybe Winrar). The organizations that are the protagonists of our history can attest to this.
Since landing on the Moon, NASA has been the protagonist of great technological advances that later spread to the rest of society. Unfortunately, its administrators are not at the same level as its scientists. The result, He doesn't even know how many computers they have or what they are used for or what software they use.
It recently purchased licenses of outdated software from Oracle for the space shuttle program that was canceled a decade ago. The reason? They do not know if they have these programs and, if they do, if they purchased the license. They were afraid that Oracle would do an audit and ended up suing them for a million-dollar sum.
The one that tried a different (and equally disastrous) approach was Nutanix, a cloud services firm. They used testing software for their daily operation for years. The amount they had to pay suppliers was so large that they did not arrive in time to submit the quarterly report. to the Securities Commission about the results of the period.
Let there be light!
A passion for responsible consumption has been unleashed around the world, and Minnechaug Regional High School in Massachusetts is no exception. In 2011 The establishment inaugurated an intelligent lighting system that adjusted the level of indoor or outdoor light responding to the time of day and whether it was cloudy or sunny.
In 2021, malware affected the system, which entered “emergency mode.” Lights on at maximum level 24 hours a day. If you are going to suggest that the lights be turned off manually, I answer that switches would be needed for that. They didn't put them.
Since the program was part of a more complex school administration software, it was difficult to make modifications. Assuming someone knew how to do it, The installation company had disappeared and the intellectual property was sold several times. By the time the current owner found a solution, the pandemic hit.
Who backs up the back up?
In 1986 Commodore launched a revamped version of its flagship product, the Commodore 64. The new model came with an ergonomic design and an operating system with a graphical interface on floppy disks. At least in Argentina, those of us who had the traditional version couldn't get it, at least not through legal channels.
A karate classmate of my brother lent him the floppy disks, but when I copied it I made a mistake and put the original in the floppy drive when I was supposed to put the copy with the result that the original was ruined.
Something similar happened this year to the United States Federal Aviation Administration. This organization has a computer system that alerts about operating problems at all airports in the country. On January 11, the system failed, paralyzing all civil and commercial flights.
The problem? A contractor, trying to correct the synchronization problems between the original database and the backup one, he deleted the wrong one.