Filed under: Computers
O, mighty gods of technology! How beholden to you we are! You hold every facet of our lives in your cold, digital paws. And to remind us of just how much control you wield over our fragile lives, you decided to bring all of Montgomery County, Maryland to a standstill this week.
County technicians are still trying to figure out why a computer that controls all 750 traffic lights in the area crashed around 3 a.m., Wednesday. The computer, which oversees the timing and synchronization of the lights for the entire county, which itself includes several major suburbs of Washington, D.C., dates back to the Carter administration and is in the process of being phased out. But, apparently, the system couldn’t hold onto life any longer and turned the entire county into a sea of glowing brake lights. Thanks to the meltdown, the grid failed to switch into rush-hour mode and, as a result, did not leave individual lights green for long enough to keep traffic flowing.
Continue reading Maryland Computer Crash Causes Gridlock and Mayhem
Maryland Computer Crash Causes Gridlock and Mayhem originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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