Federal government makes $2 million in rogue electronic deposits: report

OTTAWA — The federal government transfers money electronically into the wrong bank accounts more than 3,000 times each year, newly disclosed documents show.

And these rogue direct deposits, which accidentally enrich the wrong people, have been worth as much as $181,000 in a single transaction.

Altogether, erroneous cyber-transfers from the Receiver General for Canada were worth $1.9 million in 2006-07, prompting time-consuming efforts to retrieve the cash. Despite the attempts, the government expects more than $400,000 will be unrecoverable and written off.

Internal spreadsheets detailing the problem of “misdirected direct deposits” were obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Windows Vista (In)capable

What went wrong? I’ll tell you what went wrong: Microsoft execs – starting with Steve Ballmer – don’t care enough about their customers. Which is too bad for the thousands of smart, hard working ’softies who do.

I went through the Vista Capable lawsuit Exhibit A emails. Lots of warnings that Vista was a train wreck, that its requirements exceeded the market, that the continual changes and slips were killing OEMs and that many peripheral vendors had simply given up trying to stay in sync.

Where was Steve?

Semi-Pro Shoots, Doesn’t Quite Score

Will Ferrell’s afro turned out to be more impressive than Semi-Pro’s box office.

The 1970s-spoofing basketball comedy led a weak weekend field with $15.3 million, per estimates compiled Sunday by Exhibitor Relations, the worst opening for Ferrell since Elf made him big.

Debuting in fourth place, The Other Boleyn Girl, a costume drama about a million miles, and a few centuries, removed from Semi-Pro’s shorty-shorts world, was actually the Top 10’s biggest hit.