Microsoft bugs Google

I do not want to start a typical Microsoft vs Apple battle here, but the focus of Microsoft disruption strategy seems to have shifted from Apple to its largest rival of today, Google.

Sadly, Google is fighting back with its hands tied behind its back, and the do-good goody shoes attitude could result in the downfall of this giant.

The latest was yesterday when the Google Mail programme "gmail" in most parts of the world and "googlemail" in the UK, suffered a major world outage which lasted several minutes.

Reason - the "inability" of the Microsoft "Windows" operating system to handle a simple delay in Australia of the change of the time change from Summer time to Winter time!

This article "Microsoft bug cripples Google quantum-based spam filtering" by Adam Turner appeared in the Australia "The Sydney Herald" on April 1, 2006.

Google's quantum-based spam filtering launch was thrown into chaos today due to Microsoft Windows's inability to cope with Australia's daylight savings changes.

Google's long-awaited quantum-based spam filtering project went online today, continuing the internet giant's tradition of launching new features, such as Gmail, on April 1.

More...

Daylight savings was extended in Australia this year, ending this weekend, to allow for Melbourne's Commonwealth Games - but Windows lacks the flexibility to handle such changes. As such, the analysis of Australian inboxes from Windows users saw the system attempt to process 25 hours worth of data.

The resulting quantum fluctuations created a feedback loop which engulfed London's Supercomputing Methods Experimental Group (SMEG) research centre where the project is based.

More.....

Was this article an April Fool's plant?

If I had not suffered the gmail outage at exactly the Australian midnight hour, I would have thought so.

The gmail programme was unable to do anything, even though I am not running the Windows platform, so the bug was a cross-system one.

Kudos to Google for solving the problem in about 14 minutes (from my personal experience). The dialog kept asking me to try again "in a few seconds", but it was a full 14 minutes before the sytem was restored. If life critical operations based on gmail had to be undertaken at that exact moment of time, there would have been chaos, as 14 minutes is far more than can be borne in such situations!

If, in fact, this chaos was created by the incompetence of people in Microsoft, I think we, along with Google, should have a Class Action suit against Microsoft for disruption of the international computing network because of bad system design.

Anyone interested in joining me on this?