Reports of one's death have been greatly exaggerated: French radio station splurges obituary bank over interwebs
- Reference: 1605615607
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/11/17/rfi_obituary_error/
- Source link:
Oh, it happens. [1]A lot actually . The latest victim is Radio France Internationale (RFI), which spaffed a bunch of pre-written notices about the expiry of several famous (and infamous) faces across its website yesterday.
One of those was Her Maj Elizabeth II, globally beloved Queen of the United Kingdom, for whom, at the ripe old age of 94, we can say close but no cigar. On the other hand, who knows what life-extending tech the Royal Family has under wraps at Windsor or Balmoral?
Bathing in the blood of virgins apocryphally worked for another highborn, Countess Báthory of Hungary, history's most prolific female serial killer. And a more modern-day member of tech nobility, Peter Thiel, is definitely not [2]harvesting the vital fluid of youths ... but it's fun to pretend.
[3]Youtube Video
What we mean to say is we could be waiting a while yet.
Others said to have kicked the bucket include Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which would be music to the ears of whoever is supposed to be running the United States right now, Cold War US prez Jimmy Carter, and Raúl Castro, who inherited the title of First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from his better-known brother, Fidel, in 2011.
All are still very much alive and kicking. But how did RFI explain the error? Why, it was "un problème technique" (a technical problem) of course.
🔴 Un problème technique a entraîné la publication de nombreuses nécrologies sur notre site.
Nous sommes mobilisés pour rectifier ce bug majeur et présentons nos excuses aux personnes concernées ainsi qu'à vous qui nous suivez et nous faites confiance. — RFI (@RFI) [4]November 16, 2020
Some were surprised by the implication. "Does that mean that the obituaries are written before the deaths?" [5]asked one shocked onlooker.
A more [6]detailed statement explained that the mass publishing of early "nécrologies" (which is a much cooler word for it to be fair to the French) was linked to RFI migrating its website to a new content management system.
"These articles were therefore published as drafts without any editorial intervention," the station added. Unfortunately, RFI also admitted that the error proliferated across "several partner platforms" including Google, Yahoo ! , MSN, and Flipboard.
So some poor intern has had a lot of deleting to do.
Still, it's not as bad as what has come to be known as [7]"The CNN.com Incident" of 2003 wherein the American news giant mistakenly published multiple draft obits, one of which described George W Bush's vice-president, Dick Cheney, as the "UK's favorite grandmother". That coveted title of course fell to the Queen Mother, who died in 2002 and whose death notice had apparently been used as a template. Cheney is still hanging on at 79. ®
Get our [8]Tech Resources
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_premature_obituaries
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/14/no-peter-thiel-is-not-harvesting-the-blood-of-the-young/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBA0AH-LSbo
[4] https://twitter.com/RFI/status/1328310373641039875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[5] https://twitter.com/HawoyeAissata/status/1328318065218637824
[6] https://www.rfi.fr/fr/technologies/20201116-RFI-excuses-publication-involontaire-necrologies-son-site?ref=tw
[7] http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/cnns-premature-obituaries
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Wouldnt mind, though
I've never been a royalist, but it's not cool to wish for anybody's death. Not even $insert_name_here.
Re: Wouldnt mind, though
OK, one exception.
If they are currently and actively attempting to kill you then you are allowed to kill them right back. If the threat is credible.
Re: Wouldnt mind, though
If Brenda & Keith find out what you've written, I'd avoid driving through any Parisian underpasses.
Better later than sooner for the aforementioned people
At least, it should be a real news some day.
For the mistake, blame the intern. Or the cleaning lady / man. Or the one who just resigned / was fired. It works well generally. At last resort, use this [1]link
[1] http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ballard/bofh/bofhserver.pl
Re: Better later than sooner for the aforementioned people
Clicked the link and just got this one: "Operators killed when huge stack of backup tapes fell over". Seems appropriate somehow.
Re: Better later than sooner for the aforementioned people
"Recursivity. If it happens again, call back."
Cow-workers wondering why I'm darkly chuckling to myself...
French Technology
What RFI is not saying is that their chief engineer is from Gallifrey, and un problème technique involved the temps et dimension relative dans l'espace .
Re: French Technology
A TEDRDLE ? Sounds tricky!
Time to change?
Who knows, maybe it could serve as a wake-up call to a few people, as it did with Alfred Nobel.
Re: Time to change?
Dynamite comment! Came on to post very much the same myself.
Imagine a world without the Nobel awards, or even the Ig Nobel awards!
Enough dynamite in a big enough pile! --------------------->
Content Mismanagement System
Used to develop bespoke CMS stuff myself for a rather boring couple of years.
Eventually learned the value of "needs double independent signoff before publishing" functionality, after similar but less publicly embarassing unwanted info splurges onto public websites. Though this is a migration issue, and getting the draft / published indicator wrong is a major boo boo that testing definitely should have trapped.
Definitely a cooler word
There was some fiction of Cyril Connolly's--a short story that perhaps formed part of a novel--in which a noted author collapses and dies when presented with his own obituary, which an incautious guest has brought along to a country house weekend. As far as I know, this has never actually happened. The famous do sometimes sit for interviews with their obituarists.
Re: Definitely a cooler word
It's pretty well established that it happened to Marcus Garvey though he was clearly close to death at the time and there may have been some malicious intent involved.
Which is worse?
Having your obituary published early, or finding that your not important enough to have had one written?
What's the problem?
For printed news it makes sense to publish a description of someone's life when they die. But on the web, why not just have them there all the time? I suppose it would lead to more libel suits, though.
Wouldnt mind, though
If all of them scroungers ACTUALLY kick the buckets and save us further embarassments.
Lizzy & her beau (both hunched) makes such a pathetic figure in public these days. And her half greek progenies dont shine any brighter either.