[593] in Humor
HUMOR: A little Morning (Mourning?) humour
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (abennett@MIT.EDU)
Wed Dec 7 10:35:24 1994
From: abennett@MIT.EDU
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 07 Dec 1994 10:30:20 EST
Date: Tue, 6 Dec 94 13:20:19 PST
From: Connie_Kleinjans@Novell.COM (Connie Kleinjans)
Don't Wurry, a Cumputer Cheked All of the Speling for the Artacle
by Scott McCartney, 12/6/94 Wall Street Journal
The Dallas Morning News can't blame this foul-up on the flawed Pentium
chip.
Yesterday's Morning News carried a story on how the microprocessor's
infamous flaw is just the latest high-tech fiasco in an increasingly
complicated world.
The News might have mentioned the dangers of high-tech newspaper editing
as well.
Its story identified Intel, Corp., the Pentium's maker, as Until Corp.
And it changed the name of Intel executive Vinod Dham to Vaned Dam.
The damage didn't end there. Software giant Microsoft Corp. became
Microvolts Corp. while VLSI Research Inc. packed its bags and moved to
VA-LISA Research. Dean Takahashi, the San Jose Mercury News reporter who
wrote the story, got the byline Dean Tuckahoes. Ron Leckie, vice
president of marketing for Megatest Corp., was identified as Ron Lackey,
vice president of Megadeaths Corp. "Not very flattering, is it?" said
Mr. Leckie.
Morning News editors, who picked up the story through a computer network,
said there was only one way to explain such goofs in a story about
technology goofs. They blamed it on a computer.
After searching three hours for a hacker, the newspaper concluded its own
electronic spell-checker program was to blame. Each changed name in the
story matched the first choice in the spell-checker program. The
software stopped on "Intel" and offered "Until" as the correct spelling.
In place of the reporter's name, it came up with an Algonquian root. The
newspaper's executive editor, Ralph Langer, says it appears that an
editor accepted the changes instead of telling the computer to ignore
them. "We stand by the gist of the story, " joked another embarrassed
editor.
Intel, which has endured widespread ribbing over the Pentium flub, wasn't
convinced, saying the explanation didn't add up. "Someone there
obviously made a conscious effort to satirize it," said Intel spokesman
Howard High, whose name would have made it through the Morning News's
system just fine. "IF it was part of a spoof and tagged that way, then
fine. But if somebody put out a spoof as serious news, I wouldn't be
thrilled."
To Intel's relief, the blooper didn't occur on a Pentium-based computer.
The spell-checker program the Morning News uses was run on an Apple
Macintosh.
