It’s been a busy week in the online world. Here are some notable news items from around the computing world this week:
♦ The Social Security Administration admitted this week that nearly 700,000 Americans may be due some extra money. A small error in a computer program written in 1972 inadvertently caused the agency to shave off a small portion of each monthly check for nearly 24 years. Social Security officials actually discovered the glitch in the computer program about two years ago, but they only recently realized the full extent of the problem—and it is one huge problem. Over time, of course, those small amounts have piled up to a very large sum. Officials estimate they’ll be shelling out a total of $850 million for the error, which only involved one misplaced number. So far, the agency has identified 400,000 people who were shortchanged, most of whom are owed an average of $1,500.
♦ Officials with the Peruvian national airline say the recent tragic crash of one of its planes, a Boeing 757-200, was apparently caused by a computer error. The crash killed nearly 70 people. “We have listened to the recordings of the pilot,” said Peruvian Transport Minister Elsa Carrera. “It seems that there was a blockage in the computer system.” The pilot had tried to radio for help before losing all communications. Transcripts say his final words were, “I am reducing engine power, but the plane is still accelerating.” Despite the evidence from the recorder, it’s still not known exactly what computer aboard the aircraft failed.
♦ A 12-year-old Missouri boy, threatened with the revocation of his Internet privileges, may have lashed out violently at his mother. Police say it appears that the boy killed himself and his mother in a dispute over Internet bills. They found the bodies of Ann Hoffman, 42, and her son Brad in their California, Mo., home last week. She had been shot six times, and the boy died of one shot to his head. A gun was found near his body. According to investigators, the boy’s telephone bills from an online provider ran into hundreds of dollars a month. The boy’s father, who was divorced from Hoffman, had previously met with his son and ex-wife to discuss the bills.
♦ CompuServe announced this week that it has made plans to follow the growing trend of online services moving to the World Wide Web. The initiative, code-named “Red Dog,” will see CompuServe shift most of its content and services to the Web in the coming year. This means that users will be able to log into CompuServe from any Internet service provider instead of relying on CompuServe to provide dial-in access.
The changeover may be coming at a critical time for CompuServe. The country’s oldest major commercial online carrier is suffering from a horrible case of stagnation. Membership is holding at 2.5 million in the United States and Canada and at 5.2 million worldwide, while rival America Online has passed the 6 million mark.
Microsoft’s online service, MSN, originally modeled itself after America Online and CompuServe but found itself caught in a tidal wave of support for the Internet. The company will relaunch its online service on the Web this Thursday, Oct. 10. CompuServe, meanwhile, will phase in changes periodically over the next year.
♦ Speaking of MSN, subscribers might want to sit down before reading their next bill. Microsoft says that, due to a computer problem, customers may be charged for up to three months’ accumulated service. Microsoft says the billing backlog, which dates to June, is the result of a series of problems tied to the rapid growth of the service. Some critics charge, however, that the billing problem was caused by Microsoft’s own indifference to its online service since it was launched last year.
♦ It’s 1996, and for the third year in a row, America’s most high-profile geek is also America’s richest man. Forbes puts the net worth of Microsoft owner Bill Gates at over $18 billion, up about $4 billion from last year. To put that in perspective, here’s an explanation of how much Bill Gates is worth in terms the real world can understand:
If philanthropy were his mission, he could afford to buy 12 million Pentium home computers. That’s one for every low-income child in America. He could buy nearly 3 billion movie tickets; while at the theater, he could afford 6 billion large soft drinks, 5.5 billion large boxes of popcorn, or 9 billion JuJubes. But even if he wasn’t keen on seeing the movies, he could still safely purchase three of the largest theater chains in the United States, worth only $750 million together. Indeed, with that kind of money, he could arm his Microsoft salespeople with 2,117,647 compact cars. Or, if the mood struck, he could purchase 720,000 Rolls Royces.
Needless to say, hunger is not a problem when you’re a multi-billionaire: Gates could easily buy 13,953,488,372 Big Macs, 20,224,719,101 large fries, or 26,086,956,521 soft drinks from McDonald’s. Or he could go for the big-prize haul and shell out the same amount of money for 9,045,226,130 Happy Meals.
According to figures in the CIA World Fact Book, Gates alone could make up the total Gross National Product for at least 30 countries worldwide. If net worth of government property is any indicator, he could afford to buy exactly 40 Ethiopias, 22 Libyas, or two isles of Greece.
With his own personal fortune, Bill Gates is also capable of funding the Medicare program for another 11 years, running NASA for 2 years, paying for the operation of Congress for 1 year, or keeping Social Security afloat for another 8 months. All the while, he could buy 12 billion cans of cat food for Socks, the President’s cat. The odds of any of this happening? Oh, about 18 billion-to-1. But we can dream, can’t we?
Joel Moses can be reached via e-mail at joel@moses.com.
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