Leap second crashes Qantas and leaves passengers stranded
Herald Sun
Sites such as Reddit, Gawker, LinkedIn, Foursquare and Yelp crashed after a “leap second” was added to the universal clock in order to keep up with the Earth’s rotation.
Slight fluctuations on the Earth’s axis meant that some days ended up being longer than others meaning that in a few hundred years time we’d be eating lunch at midnight if the problem went unaddressed.
All it needed was an extra second to pull everything back into line.
Simple right?
No, not so much.
Colorado tourism hoping to overcome effects of fires
Daily Camera
Boulder’s Chautauqua cottages and lodges, nestled in the foothills beneath where the Flagstaff Fire has been burning, received about 20 reservation cancellations from guests, who mostly cited the fire or extreme heat.
Summer is the peak season for rentals, said Susan Connelly, executive director for the Colorado Chautauqua Association, and guests staying in the 82 units range from international tourists to Coloradans taking staycations. Some of the cancellations that have trickled in are for visits that are still weeks out, she said.
Orbitz defends practice of showing Mac users pricier hotels
Los Angeles Times
Mac users who search for hotels on the Orbitz online booking service are initially directed to more expensive hotels than PC users, Orbitz acknowledged last week.
Orbitz defended the practice, saying the travel search engine is simply showing users what it thinks they prefer.
Orbitz Chief Executive Barney Harford said data collected by Orbitz shows that Mac users were 40% more likely than PC users to book four- or five-star hotels.
Airlines slow to cut surcharges
Great Lakes Advocate
QANTAS and Virgin Australia are facing calls to lower their fuel surcharges on tickets after a 25 per cent fall in jet fuel prices over the past three months.
Australia’s largest travel agent, Flight Centre, said airlines had been quick to impose extra charges to cover higher fuel costs but had been slow to respond when they dropped.
Since March, when Qantas last raised its surcharges, jet fuel prices have fallen 25 per cent to just $US103 a barrel, their lowest level since December 2010.
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