Geek Weekly: Our top weird tech stories for 19 March

Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.

TAFE’s computers still say “no”. We covered this problem back in January, and it looks like it still hasn’t been fixed. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that TAFE’s $500-million-plus Learning Management and Business Reform system remains broken, leaving thousands of students not officially enrolled in courses, and some in the dark over their course costs, more than five weeks into the first term. As well, Teachers Federation rep Rob Long says that some teachers fear insurance problems if students become injured on excursions, as said students aren’t covered until they’re properly enrolled. Sounds like this whole episode will become a case study for future business and computer science courses… assuming you get yourself enrolled, of course.

Ticket to ride… if the system works. Sydney’s replacement for public transport paper tickets, the OPAL smartcard, is producing havoc on the city’s buses. It’s not the cards themselves that are at fault, but rather the ticket readers in the buses. The Transport Worker’s Union says that a high number of bus drivers say the readers are breaking down at least once a day. “They’re telling us it is a mess, it’s a shambles,” TWU NSW secretary Michael Aird told The SMH. “We are not opposed to Opal. What we’re saying is just make sure the technology works before you put these things in place.”

Creepy, crawly batteries are coming. Well, sort of. Chinese researchers have replaced the graphite electrodes in lithium-ion batteries with spider silk, would you believe it. Chemically processing the silk into incredibly thin sheets is the trick, producing a material that makes the rechargeable batteries very stable and able to store far more lithium.

Self-driving car goes on a road trip. Car components manufacturer Delphi Automotive is about to send a self-driving car on an across-the-USA journey to test autonomous driving technologies. The eight-day trip will see passengers taking it in turns to be behind the wheel, ready to take over if the system goes berserk. The 2014 Audi SQ5 SUV has three camera systems, four radars, six lidars (a laser version of radar) and other safety systems.

Flying, wall-climbing robot. You might have guessed by now that we love robotic gadgets. This one seems quite clever - a quadrotor beast that can also climb vertically up walls:

But if that doesn’t grab you… how about a robotic cat?