Death and Technology

[cahwyguy]

This has been another busy week, and so I haven’t had the time to post my usual news chum. Still, I have collected some for you, and as I’m working from home this morning, let me share an early morning collection dealing with death and technology; that is: dying technology, and technology that kills.

• Killer Software. We’ve all heard about the sudden acceleration problem that Toyota has. Officially, Toyota stated the problem was floor maps. However, Toyota recently was involved in a trial in Oklahoma, and this trial unveiled a different source of the problem. This Slashdot article provides a number of links with more information. In short: ‘Although Toyota had performed a stack analysis, Barr concluded the automaker had completely botched it. Toyota missed some of the calls made via pointer, missed stack usage by library and assembly functions (about 350 in total), and missed RTOS use during task switching. They also failed to perform run-time stack monitoring.’  In other words, “it’s the software, stupid.”
• Technology That Doesn’t Die. Some technology doesn’t kill, but it does refuse to die. Here’s an ARS article on a number of “zombie” technologies that refuse to die. A number of these I use regularly, such as copper land lines, Ethernet, and postage and stamps. Some I still use infrequently, such as Fax lines. Others I still sympathize with. An interesting read.
• Technology That Is Dying (1). Some technology and ideas are dying. The LA Times has two articles touching on that subject. The first looks at how the Boeing 747 — the first wide-body extended range plane — is finally starting into its death spiral as a popular platform for airlines. The B747 replaced the B707, the first jet, and has been around since the 1960s. What’s killing the B747 is twofold: (1) four engines and a heavy fuselage == bad fuel economy; (2) a large number of seats makes it hard to make flying it profitable except on specialized routes.
• Technology That Is Dying (2). The second LA Times article looks at the death of the personal office: CBRE and other companies are experimenting with the untethered office, where you use any desk and put your stuff in a locker at the end of the day. Personally, I don’t think I’d like it — I have too much stuff I would need to deal with, and where would I keep my collection of teas.

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