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stories filed under: "computer glitch"
(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Apr 13th 2009 1:33am


Filed Under:
computer glitch, gay, lesbian, rankings

Companies:
amazon



What Do Amazon's Computers Have Against Fictional Gays And Lesbians?

from the just-wondering... dept

The big controversy of the weekend (there's always gotta be at least one, it seems) is that people started noticing that Amazon.com started removing books that involve gay or lesbian characters from its sales rankings, and when asked about it, the company initially said that it was excluding "adult" material from certain searches. That struck many as odd, considering that many of the "excluded" books weren't "adult" at all. After the controversy continued, Amazon changed its story and started claiming that it was actually all just a computer "glitch." Of course, this sounds remarkably similar to the computer "glitch" Amazon found when it suddenly deleted a bunch of negative reviews of EA's DRM-encrusted video game Spore. Whether it's true or not, Amazon is certainly giving off the appearance that it blames any such mistake on a "glitch," but never seems to provide anything in the way of details to support that.

53 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
Wall Street

Wall Street

by Mike Masnick

Thu, May 22nd 2008 1:46am


Filed Under:
bond ratings, computer glitch



When A Computer Glitch Mucks Up Bond Ratings

from the what-do-you-do dept

Interesting story in the financial world, as the Financial Times reported that Moody's, the big name in the bond rating business, may have incorrectly rated certain bonds as Aaa, its highest rating -- given only to a class of bonds that will almost never default. Apparently, the incorrect ratings were due to a computer glitch (always a convenient scapegoat). However, more troublesome is the Financial Times' claim that it has seen documents suggesting that Moody's execs were aware of the error last year and didn't do much to change the incorrect ratings. This is troublesome, as it would be a big hit to Moody's reputation -- which is its biggest asset. Of course, when you rely on a single source (or a single algorithm) to rate bonds, this sort of thing is bound to happen eventually -- and extracting yourself from the resulting mess is always going to be tricky. It makes you wonder if there aren't better ways to rate bonds, that don't have a single point of failure.

8 Comments | Leave a Comment..

 
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