Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Where little fears grow great
FEAR may, sometimes, best be tempered by focusing on a new fear. This may even be the hidden editorial policy of some publications whose every article could be prefaced: 鈥淏e very afraid, Middle England鈥︹�� In any case, whatever dire threats present themselves this week, Feedback hopes you appreciate the opportunity to distract yourself by worrying about the apocalypse coming at the end of June. Virtual apocalypse, anyway.
We were looking up when a 鈥渓eap second鈥� is going to be inserted this year, to get hyper-precise atomic clock time back in sync with the rotation of our planet. We were startled to find our search results dominated by this from CNN Money: 鈥溾��.
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鈥淵2K鈥� is, of course, a reference to the millennium bug that might have destroyed civilisation, had it not been sorted out by recoding computer date arithmetic before we reached the year 2000. That made it a classic meme for those who argue that predictions of doom are bunkum, forgetting that it was precisely because action was taken that we鈥檙e still here. Similarly, the ozone hole isn鈥檛 as deep as it would have been without action.
Bernard Liengme鈥檚 Windows 8 system welcomed him to his new year: 鈥淔riday January 2, The Day after New Years Day (Quebec)鈥� So what was it in other parts of that Canadian time zone?
Self-awareness by link elf
SOMEONE at CNN seems to have shown some self-awareness in the report about the threat of the leap second, mentioned above. When we got to the end of the story we read: 鈥淩elated: Poodles are attacking the Internet.鈥� Or, given how such links are often automatically generated, could it be that something, not someone, at CNN is emulating self-awareness?
The time itself unsorted soon
NOW may be the time to start worrying about the 2038 problem. At 03:14:07 on 19 January of that year, the 鈥�long integer鈥� data type used by Unix-flavoured computer systems to store the time and date will reach its maximum and 鈥渨rap around鈥� to a negative value. Disappointingly, from a narrative point of view, it seems that many systems will interpret this as a date in December 1901 rather than as a negative time. But it鈥檚 still easy to imagine the havoc this might cause.
At least we know to start now on sorting out databases that have to deal with events after 2038, like pensions systems, and 鈥� perhaps most difficult 鈥� systems hard-coded into machinery.
When news comes round again
WHAT should we call the phenomenon of old news stories resurfacing as if they are current, we asked (29 November 2014). We are replete with suggestions to supplement our 鈥渞evenant news鈥�.
Colin Reynolds reports that he has had a revenation, but what it was has not yet come back to us. William Rees went biblical on us with 鈥淟azarus stories鈥�.
David Muir suggests that anachronews is perpetrated by regurjournalists. We suspect that鈥檚 an entirely different kind of repeat.
Andy Johnson-Laird thinks such stories are 鈥渄茅j脿 lu鈥� 鈥� meaning already read. The term recalls, of course, the interesting phenomenon of d茅j脿 vu (20/27 December 2014, p 8). This line of thinking leads him to consider when wine might be 鈥渄茅j脿 bu鈥�. We鈥檙e not going there.
Tony Kline points out that such items are retrospective reads of worn-out old news. Conveniently, that would be contracted to 鈥渞et-reads鈥� and then to 鈥渞etreads鈥�.
And a colleague who proofread our original piece promised to tell us their idea. 鈥淎ny minute now鈥� here it is: 鈥榥ewmerang鈥�.鈥�
We feel certain we shall be returning to this question.
Comets on the roads
FEEDBACK mentioned that the image on a sign directing tourists to the UK鈥檚 appeared to be of a Nazi V-2 rocket (6 December 2014). That reminded James Hamilton-Paterson that, to his eye, signs warning UK drivers of aircraft noise seem to feature the silhouette of a groundbreaking triumph of British aerospace technology 鈥� the Comet Mark 1, the world鈥檚 first commercial jet airliner. We agree.
Unfortunately the DH 106 Comet 1s turned out to be more groundbreaking than intended. Metal fatigue was the reason they kept falling out of the sky, pioneering investigators found. Could this, perhaps, be why it seems to feature on a sign warning of noisy incoming aircraft?
The power of corridors
FINALLY, the UK government now has a 鈥淒igital Catapult鈥�. With a staff of 40 in trendy offices near King鈥檚 Cross in London, it is on a mission 鈥渢o rapidly advance the UK鈥檚 best digital ideas鈥�. A colleague went along to hear a battery of engineers debate the future of television.
The subject of curved screens came up. Do they really improve viewing as much as the manufacturers would like us to think? Or do they just make it more difficult for several people to watch at the same time?
The massed brainpower seemed happy to agree with the throwaway comment from Chris Johns, chief engineer at broadcaster Sky: 鈥淭hey make it easier to move big-screen TV sets round corners.鈥�