This kind of thing shouldn't happen...
The gang at Userland is working to recover from being hacked and assorted other system meltdowns over the past couple days. They are getting there... it looks like my stuff is upstreaming but it isn't actually happening. So I've turned that off and will turn it back on when that is working again. Not a big deal in my case. I haven't bet my business on blogging availability or the hosting capabilities of radio.userland.com. But I'm sure some people out there are suffering from blog-withdrawal.
I feel a rant coming on.....
I've always been impressed with the efforts of Dave Winer and his gang at Userland. There is so much promise in what they are doing and have done.
While I'm sympathetic to their problems
I'm seeing them have a meltdown that they shouldn't be having.
Their servers shouldn't be hackable and replacing hardware shouldn't put them out of business so easily. Any one of the companies that specialize in enterprise computing (HP, IBM, Compaq (the old DEC & Tandem divisions anyway) , and even SUN could set them up with system configurations that would have left them in business while they dealt with problems.
Of course, having worked in the enterprise computing arena for the last 14 years I'm sure it's not that simple. And it's not cheap. How many people buying a Radio subscription or Manila would it take to cover the cost of a system designed for the kind of availability that is available from the vendors I mentioned ?
Linux and Windows NT/2K/whatever might be cheaper but you really can't build the same kinds of enterprise level systems necessary for a highly available internet based enterprise, no matter what the Linux fanatics and Microsoft marketing mavens say.
It seems to be an Internet Company failing that a lot of companies seem to fall into. Even if they spend money on real equipment if it isn't designed for availability (which is not the same thing as disaster tolerance) up front it'll cost more in the long run if it all falls apart.
Of course, thanks to Microsoft, the computer using public has become conditioned to accept computer problems as the norm.
Ok... that wasn't really a rant....
12:02:17 AM 
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