Reading Log n31

Date: September 12th,2007
Title: Who needs hackers?
Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/techspecial/12threat.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

Vocabulary

1-ripple:to flow with a light rise and fall or ruffling of the surface.
2-mobster:A member of a criminal gang or crime syndicate.
3-pipeline:a long tubular conduit or series of pipes, often underground, with pumps and valves for flow control, used to transport crude oil, natural gas, water, etc., esp. over great distances.
4-grid:a system of electrical distribution serving a large area, esp. by means of high-tension lines.
5-outage:an interruption or failure in the supply of power, esp. electricity.
6-deluged:anything that overwhelms like a flood: a deluge of mail.
7-cobble:to put together roughly or clumsily.
8-levee:an embankment designed to prevent the flooding of a river.
9-fledgling:young, new, or inexperienced: a fledgling diver.
10-glitch:a defect or malfunction in a machine or plan.
11-chad:a small paper disk or square formed when a hole is punched in a punch card or paper tape.
12-ballot:a slip or sheet of paper, cardboard, or the like, on which a voter marks his or her vote.

Summary

International travelers flying into Los Angeles International Airport — more than 17,000 of them — were stuck on planes for hours one day in mid-August after computers for the United States Customs and Border Protection agency went down and stayed down for nine hours.
One should think that this kind of things happens due to the intrusion of hackers in the systems, but this was not the case. Many of these malfuctions occur due to the lack of back up that these complex computer systems have, so the work of hackers is just one of the many apparent causes for informatics chaos.

Personal reaction

It is amazing that people can create such complex computer systems that when they malfunction, they don´t know the cause.Sometimes technology develops in such a way and so fast that even people who work in this field are overwhelm by the problems they have to face when one of the systems colapses. I think that they should a little more time studying the possible unintended consequences and develop ways to avoid them.