Uncle Rummy - Slashdot User

Submission + - Computer Failure Causes Gridlock in MD County (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by Uncle Rummy on Thursday November 05, 2009 @12:13PM

Uncle Rummy writes: A central traffic control computer in Montgomery County MD failed early Wednesday morning, leading to widespread gridlock across the entire county. The computer, which dates to the 1970s, is the single point of unified control for all traffic signals in the county, which comprises a number of major Washington DC area suburban communities. When the system failed, it caused all signals to default to stand-alone operation, rather than the highly tuned synchronization that usually serves to facilitate traffic flow during rush hours. The resulting chaos is a yet another stark reminder of how much modern civilization relies on behind-the-scenes automation to deliver and control basic services and infrastructure. The system remains down Thursday, with no ETA in sight.

Submission + - Disney close to unveiling new "DVD-killer" (wsj.com)

Submitted by Uncle Rummy on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @02:17PM

Uncle Rummy writes: The Wall Street Journal reports that Disney is close to releasing a new system that will sell permanent, multi-device access to digital media. The system, dubbed Keychest, is being positioned as an answer to consumer concerns about purchasing digital media that are locked to a small number of devices, and thus as a way to finally shift media sales from an ownership model to an access model. They claim that such a service would reduce the risk of losing access to content as a result of a single vendor going out of business, as purchased content would remain available from other vendors. However, they do not seem to have addressed the question of what happens to customers' access to purchased content if the Keychest service itself is discontinued.

Submission + - Official MS Patch Available For VML Vulnerability

Submitted by

Uncle Rummy

on Wednesday September 27, 2006 @11:28AM

Uncle Rummy writes: "Microsoft has quietly released an official patch for the zero-day VML vulnerability. Though the patch was publicly available yesterday, they don't seem to have announced it or added it to the Security Bulletin Index yet."

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