Wednesday was a rough day for big technology in the United States. First, a computer problem in United Airlines’s reservation system caused the FAA to impose what is known as a ground stop at 8:26 a.m. ET. The stop only lasted about two hours, but this impacted 4,900 flights worldwide. Then at 11.32 am ET the New York Stock Exchange went out for 3 ½ hours. While this was unnerving, these days there are some 11 other exchanges that could still be used for trading, though. Finally, Microsoft announced it was laying off 7,800 jobs as its mobile phone unit and Nokia acquisition continue to struggle. Far, far away in Finland, the head of web communications in the Prime Minister’s Office, Pekka Pekkala minced no words about the impact of these layoffs on the city of Salo (pop.54,000).
