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The modern news consumer ignores Weblogs and online citizen journalism at his own peril. But not everyone has the time to keep track of what's going on the Web. With this blog we hope to track the highlights of what's being discussed online so when news breaks from the Web, we're ready.

Will Femia is a Weblog enthusiast who, through good fortune and dumb luck, was introduced to the form as his position as chat producer for MSNBC.com careered into obsolescence. On any given day, Will can be found having already spent an unhealthy amount of time squinting at a computer screen.

Send a message to Will at spotter@msnbc.com



Summer lights

Posted: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 2:04 PM by Will Femia
Filed Under:

I'm racing between meetings and chores but I wanted to share a few quick links, and especially point out that the first Dr. Horrible episode came out yesterday.

The periodic table of videos - The kind of fun and interesting chemistry lessons you wish you had in high school.

The first episode of Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog was released yesterday but the site was crashed all day. I watched it this morning. Not surprisingly, it's really well done. I wonder if this could work on TV.

Chinese restaurant called TRANSLATE SERVER ERROR

Ugly Overload Giving ugly animals their day in the sun. In case you don't get the joke in the title, it's based on Cute Overload.

Because it's in the news and I like to dig up these kinds of things, here's the Myspace blog entry by Christopher (Peter Brady) Knight in distress over comments by his former fake TV mom, Florence Henderson, about his new reality TV model wife.

The story of the B-2 bomber crash reminds me that I think it'd be a winning feature for some publication to focus on mistakes and the lessons learned from them. I often wish the motorcycle magazines I read would include first person stories of crashes and how they happened. I don't fly B2 bombers but even in this story I feel like I've benefited from some vicarious lesson.

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Water, water everywhere, and all the boards did shrink.  Water water everywhere and boy did the B-2 sink!  

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_B-2_bomber_crash_in_Guam_caused_by_moisture_on_sensors

Mike - Chaska MN (Sent Wednesday, July 16, 2008 11:30 PM)

I'm surprised that the Translate Server Error sign didn't end up on the Engrish.com site.  That place is full of frequently hilarious East/West language botching.

Michael T, Hollywood, CA (Sent Thursday, July 17, 2008 1:38 PM)

I waited until I got home to watch Dr. Horrible (bigger screen, better sound than at work).

Great cast, great writing, great performances!

Gadfly (Sent Thursday, July 17, 2008 3:41 PM)

Carefull, Dr. Horrible. That little witch will put Cheetos in your dryer.

jk, Washington DC (Sent Thursday, July 17, 2008 9:16 PM)

I'm always amazed that the "cause" cited is so wrong.

What "caused" this crash wasn't water on the sensors. It was crappy programming.

There is no reason why a computer should be allowed to place this aircraft in a 30-degree nose up attitude while it is travelling at takeoff speeds.

That can ONLY cause a crash, and ALWAYS cause a crash.

The programming is what crashed the aircraft, not bad sensors. The potential for bad sensor data should be ASSUMED by the software developers and the aircraft programmed to fly safely even in the presence of such bad data.

I hope that lesson is the one the designers take away from the crash.

kevin (Sent Friday, July 18, 2008 12:15 AM)

One note about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog:  You may have to temporarily disable your computer's firewall in order to view the video.  Apparently some firewalls block the video player, so you get a message saying: "This video is not available at this site."  If you switch off your firewall, it should play fine.  (BTW, I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan, and this is a wonderful project.  I never thought I'd be rooting for a singing supervillain before.)

Greg, Athens, AL (Sent Friday, July 18, 2008 3:59 PM)

The Naval Safety Center publishes an interesting magazine with the attitude: what went wrong, and how can we avoid the problem in the future.  The stories are written by the pilots/ aircrew involved, and are very compelling.  It's called 'Approach'.  http://safetycenter.navy.mil/media/approach/default.htm

Dan (Sent Sunday, July 20, 2008 4:54 AM)

While I would agree with Kevin that the software could most definitely been written to avoid this situation, it opens the door to an endless series of finger pointing.  For all we know, this could have been a known risk/anomaly with the software that was allowed with the warning (probably buried deep in some documents that were never reviewed for maintenance impact) that such an anomaly could occur.  The vast majority of software deliveries involving complex systems have some risks that are ultimately accepted to meet delivery dates.  NOT THAT I AGREE WITH DOING SO WITH THE FREQUENCY THAT IT IS DONE, but it's just a reality of how complex software systems become once development begins and all sorts of "undocumented requirements" come to light.  Again, I agree that Kevin has a significant point.

On that specific day, at that specific time, with the sw that was installed on the aircraft, the primary cause of that specific crash was directly related to a sensor/perception malfunction.

KRW (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 12:58 PM)

Will:

There are some publications that help us learn from others' mistakes.

For as long as I can remember "Flying" magazine has had a monthly feature that goes over a general aviation plane crash (from NTSB files and other sources) to act as a lesson on how NOT to fly.  They also have a monthly column entitled "I learned about flying from that."

In the motorcycle world, the Adventure Rider web site has its "Face Plant" forum where people share their experiences in failing to keep the rubber side down.  www.advrider.com.  A must read, in my mind, for any motorcyclist who wants to reduce his or her chance of injury or death.

Lee

Lee Keller King, Sugar Land, Texas (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 2:25 PM)

"Lessons Learned" is a major part of "Conduct of Operations", allowing useful findings to be communicated and operations adjusted as needed.  The nuclear industry has had to develop an intense concentration on ConOps - and things are much better over the last 10 - 20 years because of it.  It's very unfortunate that lapses of ConOps still occur - sometimes (as seen in the B-2 crash) with extreme consequences.  

One good example is the Department of Energy's "Corporate Operating Experience Program", at:  http://www.hss.energy.gov/csa/analysis/ll/

You can see many "Lessons Learned" reports there.

D.M. Carson (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 3:26 PM)

Dr. Horrible has to be one of my all-time internet favorites.  Sadly, it's gone now.  Can't wait to see what happens with it.

Tim (Sent Monday, July 21, 2008 3:44 PM)



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