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To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (72767)	3/10/2010 4:55:55 PM
From: Maurice Winn	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

Not at all Elroy: <I see we have another believer in the church of "Computers are Flawless". > I have lived with computers for 4 decades now and have been well aware of the problems all of that time. It used to drive me nuts when my Fortran IV programmes would come back from processing with comments such as - "Bung programme... parenthesis missing on line 34". My name Mqurice derives from computers and me being at war with them and the people running the computer division. I am named after frustration with computers. Globalstar's launch of a dozen satellites from Kazakhstan on a Zenit rocket controlled by three stupid computers crashed and destroyed a very large chunk of my financial assets [helped greatly by mismanagement of the business]. My Uncle Bill, a long-retired pilot, tells a joke [he first told to me about 30 years ago] about Boeing's brilliant new all-electronic computer controlled airliner which required no pilots. Passengers boarded, and flight announcements explained how it was fully automatic, with pictures on the screens of where they were and so on. Takeoff was smooth and the flight proceeded beautifully, with delicious meals served by beautiful hostesses and all was great. Fares were cheap and all were very impressed by the wonderful new airliner. Towards the end of a smooth and excellent journey, the computers announced "We will shortly be starting our descent to land. Please fasten your seat belts, extinguish your cigarettes, and prepare for landing. The computer programme will take us through the descent and smoothly onto the runway and navigate the aircraft to the terminal gates. Thank you for traveling with us on this new automated service and we hope to have you travel again. Sweets will be served to assist with air pressure equalisation in your ears as you descend and rest assured that with this new automated computerized system, you are aboard the safest aircraft which can be built and after extensive testing you can be assured that nothing can go wrong can go wrong can go wrong ..." I get calls daily about various computer glitches in the telecommunications systems in NZ [people battling with internet to keep it working]. I'm well aware that the cyberspace era is at about the same stage of development and reliability as the Model T Ford era of 100 years ago. But people love a scapegoat. Government kleptocrats and anyone who can do so will blame a computer for the problem rather than accept they have blundered or done something wrong. Yes, computers can be the cause of problems but that doesn't mean all problems are caused by computers. I spent years solving customer problems in the oil industry. It's true that there were some problems with design, contamination or production, but more normally, problems arose from mistakes by users. "Oh, you mean I can't just put hydraulic oil in a diesel engine?" The runaway Prius, with the emergency call, with suggestions to put the car in neutral ignored, lead me to start with simple things such as the driver's actions and motivations. YouTube is full of all sorts of road chases. It's a cultural norm. Maybe he thought "Oh dang, that was a speed camera.... hmmmm.... I know, runaway acceleration ... phone emergency services to document the problem ...". Ignore the obvious ideas of putting it in neutral, or turning off the motor. People have all sorts of secret motivations. Which is not to say blaming the user first is a good strategy. Best to have a close look at the claimed problem first because it's a nice neutral way to pin down the problem. I saw a comment that he has a Toyota dealership. I wonder how negotiations between him and the company had been going. "So tell us, exactly what happened leading up to and during this unwanted high speed." My guess is "unwanted acceleration" is more of a driver and maintenance issue than a design problem. I doubt that the computers are driving people over the cliffs, even though they drove my money over a cliff and cause constant problems. With speeding illegal, there is very good incentive to have temporary unexplained unwanted acceleration. You can be sure that more than one person has thought of that. Mqurice

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (72767)	3/11/2010 9:02:39 AM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

US DATA: MBS says "Delinquency rates continued to increase. US DATA: MBS says "Delinquency rates continued to increase in the fourth quarter for most commercial/multifamily mortgage investor groups, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Commercial/Multifamily Delinquency Report. Between the third and fourth quarters, the 30+ day delinquency rate on loans held in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) rose 1.63 percentage points to 5.69 percent. The 60+ day delinquency rate on loans held in life company portfolios decreased 0.04 percentage points to 0.19 percent. The 60+ day delinquency rate on multifamily loans held or insured by Fannie Mae rose 0.01 percentage points to 0.63 percent. The 90+ day delinquency rate on multifamily loans held or insured by Freddie Mac increased 0.04 percentage points to 0.15 percent." Provided by: Market News International

To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (72767)	3/16/2010 3:13:51 AM
From: Snowshoe	Respond to of 74559

Turns out the "runaway" Prius driver has financial problems, having filed for bankruptcy in 2008 with $700K in debts (including $115K on 16 credit cards). He got to keep the leased Prius, but the lease terminates in a few months. Oh yes: "he hopes to get a replacement car out of this ordeal." Prius incident shines spotlight on driver, his finances usatoday.com