offbeat
Prochain arrê: Gare du Bork! French capital city train does the tech can-can
BORK!BORK!BORK! Good news from the Paris Metro. To show off the nation’s technological prowess, Parisian techies have eschewed such fripperies as advertisements and transit information in favor of a good, old-fashioned directory browser.
Spotted by eagle-eyed Register reader “DJ Finsletown,” the screen adorned a carriage of Line 11 at the Chatêlet terminus earlier in June. It looks to us as though a web server threw a bit of a wobbly and showed users its undercarriage.
Then again, France did give us the can-can dance, in which participants perform high kicks that reveal their underwear, so perhaps this is simply the tech version of the music hall standard.
Our reader pondered whether the system behind the scenes was struggling with a recent heatwave, or the borkage was the result of some over-exuberance by football fans following PSG’s recent Champion’s League final victory.
What is perhaps more likely is that some techie in a backroom somewhere opted for a Gallic shrug rather than reaching for the inevitable CTRL-ALT-DEL to revive the stricken system.
Line 11 is notable for being one of the least-used lines of the Paris metro system until a recent extension. It also featured some of the oldest-running stock and was notable for rubber-tired trains and heat that might make London’s Central Line commuters mutter “steady on.”
It was also one of the last lines to be constructed in central Paris, on the former route of the Belleville funicular. The funicular, which ran along the streets in a manner familiar to San Francisco residents, ceased operation just over 100 years ago, in 1924. Line 11 got the nod in 1935.
As for the web server disgorging its contents, that is a far more modern innovation. Heck, it might even be some AI advert demonstrating what might, or might not, happen if an agent is let loose on a system. In the case of the latter, a borked display would, we suspect, be the least of the problems faced by passengers.
Or, as our reader joked, “Probably likely the train’s IT systems just went on strike, like all good French fonctionnaires!” ®
