Sony UK warehouse blaze could affect deliveries

By Trevor Mogg August 9, 2011

For poor ol’ Sony, it seems if it’s not one problem, it’s another. A few months after it dealt with a massive security breach which saw the personal information of millions of PlayStation Network users stolen by hackers, looters break into its only UK warehouse for CDs and DVDs and then burn it to the ground.

The fire broke out at the company’s north London distribution center on Monday night as social unrest spread across parts of the city for a third night. Dramatic TV pictures showed a large blaze at the warehouse in the city’s Enfield neighborhood. Sony said no injuries had been reported at the site.

Recommended Videos

According to a Reuters report, the Japanese company announced early Tuesday that deliveries of music, games and movies on CD and DVD to addresses in the UK could suffer as a result of the incident at the three-storey, 20,000-square-meter warehouse.

Sony spokeswoman Yoko Yasukochi said, “There will likely be some impact on deliveries.” She continued, “We cannot determine the cause of the fire or the extent of the damage yet because it’s not possible to enter the building.” Judging by the ferocity of the fire, it seems like there won’t be a building to enter to once the flames have been put out.

It’s thought that deliveries of items other than CDs and DVDs will not be affected. An eyewitness had earlier reported seeing looters fleeing the building clutching game consoles, and while there may have been a number of these kept at the warehouse, large stocks are not thought to have been held there.

Speaking to the BBC, Stephen Kavanagh, the deputy assistant commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, said that Monday night’s trouble in the UK capital had caused the police service to be “stretched beyond belief in a way that it has never experienced before.”

The civil disorder began on Saturday night in the wake of a peaceful protest against the fatal shooting by police of a man in Tottenham, north London.

Topics

Sony

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.