The Trouble With Automation

Monday, June 08, 2009

Air France pilots refusing to fly unless monitors are replaced

It’s not about Air France, nor the Pilots, nor the pilots union.

It’s about the haste to get the news out, the lack of genuine human overseeing of the process, and poorly-tested macros or other automated procedures.

Did you spot it?

“The two towed pinger locators the U.S. is sending are expected to arrive in Brazil late Monday and will be dropped into the ocean near the debris field by Thursday, Berges said. The search is focusing on several hundred square miles (square kilometers) roughly 400 miles (640 kilometers) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha islands off Brazil's northern coast.”

The Toronto Star (and I suspect other major papers) has programmed code to assist what we used to call journalists. Wherever something is keyed in as “miles”, the same phrase must be translated to “kilometers” enclosed in parentheses.

Hence “400 miles” to “(640 kilometers)”.

And sadly, also, “square miles” to “(square kilometers)”, which tells us nothing that we didn’t already know, that is, is NOT news.

When they track down the offending code they will find something like this:

If “[something]square miles” then
Substitute “([something]square kilometers”)
End If

Better they had tested that [something] existed before playing with it!

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