Why We Can't Have Nice Things (Page 3)

Corporate Memo

Citibank Wired Revlon's Lenders $894 Million by Mistake Because Its Six-Eye Approval Process Ticked One Box Where Three Were Needed. A Judge Let Them Keep Half a Billion, Four Months After Regulators Fined Citibank $400 Million Over Its Internal Controls.

In 2016 Revlon took out a seven-year, $1.8 billion syndicated loan, due in 2023. Citibank was the administrative agent: it collected Revlon's payments and passed them on to the lenders. On 11 August 2020 a group of lenders managed by Angelo, Gordon and Co. was swapping

Discontinued

Smart Home Company Insteon Switched Off Its Servers Without Telling Customers in April 2022. Its Status Page Kept Reporting "All Services Online" While Its Chief Executive Shortened His LinkedIn Name to "R. Li."

Insteon made light switches, plugs, thermostats, sensors and keypads that talked to each other over a proprietary "dual-mesh" protocol, half radio and half household wiring, and to the internet through the Insteon Hub. The hub was what made the app work, along with schedules, remote control and

Investigations

Norfolk Southern Blew Open Five Tank Cars of Vinyl Chloride in East Palestine to Stop Them Exploding. The Company That Made the Vinyl Chloride Had Said They Were Not Going to Explode.

At about 8:54 p.m. on 3 February 2023, Norfolk Southern train 32N, 149 railcars long, derailed 38 of them in the centre of East Palestine, Ohio. It was travelling at about 47 mph, under the 50 mph limit, with positive train control switched on and working. Eleven of

Obituaries

Juicero Raised $120 Million to Build a $699 Wi-Fi Juice Press That Checked Every Pack Against an Online Database Before Squeezing It. Bloomberg Reporters Squeezed the Packs by Hand and Finished First.

On 31 March 2016, a San Francisco startup called Juicero unveiled a countertop cold-press juicer priced at $699. The machine did not take fruit. It took the company's own produce packs, sealed pouches of pre-chopped organic fruit and vegetables that Fortune said "look sort of

Investigations

Hyundai and Kia Sold Millions of US Cars Without the Engine Immobilizer Fitted to the Same Models in Canada and Europe. The Fix Was a Software Update Requiring the Key to Be in the Ignition, and a Steering Wheel Lock From the Police.

An engine immobilizer is a small electronic check. A chip in the key sends a code, and the engine will not run unless it receives the right one. By the 2015 model year, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Highway Loss Data Institute, passive immobilizers were

Policy Updates

Colonial Hanoi Paid a One-Cent Bounty for Every Rat Tail Handed In During the Plague Scare of 1902. Officials Soon Noticed Live Rats Without Tails Going About Their Business in the Streets.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Governor-General Paul Doumer set out to make Hanoi the showpiece of French Indochina. The European quarter got wide, tree-lined avenues, large villas and, beneath them, what the colonial administration proudly recorded as more than fifteen kilometres of sewer pipe. Those homes

Corporate Memo

Knight Capital Lost $460 Million in 45 Minutes After a Software Update Reached Seven of Its Eight Servers. The Code Still Running on the Eighth Had Not Been Used Since 2003.

On 1 August 2012, the New York Stock Exchange launched its Retail Liquidity Program, a new way of handling small orders from ordinary investors. Knight Capital Americas, a broker-dealer in Jersey City, wanted its customers to be able to take part. Knight was not a small participant. According to

Banned For Everyone

Blizzard Moved Dungeon Experience in World of Warcraft: Forever From the Monsters to the Quests. Two Weeks Into the Beta, It Halved the Quest Bonus Too.

On 12 September 2026, at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced World of Warcraft: Forever, a reimagined version of the 2004 game set before Molten Core, with a level cap of 60 and no plan to raise it. Blizzard's announcement described it as "a new permanent home alongside modern and

Community Bulletin

Milwaukee County Required Augmented-Reality Game Publishers to Apply for Park Event Permits After Pokémon Go Crowds Overran Lake Park. The Law Was Undone by a Cowboy-Themed Poker App and Cost $83,000 in Legal Fees.

In July 2016, Pokémon Go was released, and Lake Park, a public park on Milwaukee's East Side, turned out to be full of places the game told people to visit. Hundreds of players arrived, and sometimes thousands, at all hours. According to the Associated Press, the result was

Discontinued

Panera Launched an Unlimited Self-Serve Drinks Subscription in 2022 Alongside a Lemonade With Up to 390 Milligrams of Caffeine. The Only Limit at the Fountain Was One Cup Every Two Hours.

On 19 April 2022, Panera Bread launched Unlimited Sip Club, which it billed as the first nationwide unlimited subscription for self-serve beverages. For $10.99 a month, members could take one self-serve drink every two hours during café hours, refills included. The menu covered coffee, tea, fountain soda,

Security Theater

The Man Who Wrote the Password Rules Said in 2017 That He Regretted Them. His Own Guideline Had Predicted in 2004 That Everyone Would Capitalize the First Letter and Put the Symbol at the End.

In June 2004 the National Institute of Standards and Technology published Special Publication 800-63, the Electronic Authentication Guideline, by William Burr, Donna Dodson and Timothy Polk. It was written for US federal agencies. Its Appendix A set out a method for estimating how strong a password was, and it