Just snickering about the "Great FA Outage"

[altivo]

It's really hard to believe that so many people have nothing to do but sit around and complain because a web site is down.

For me, the interesting thing about this outage is that once again it proves the vulnerability of the internet as it exists today. High volume and long distance connections are supposed to be redundant now, not a single line from Washington DC to Sacramento or whatever like the way things were back in, lessee, 1858? There is supposed to be adaptive routing that automatically shifts traffic around a blockage. Things might slow down, but they shouldn't stop dead. Obviously, corporate profit of the backbone providers and phone companies comes before good design and preparedness.

Imagine if this outage were to affect some high volume commercial site right now, in the midst of the holiday shopping rush. Slamazon? WalWart? WorstBuy? There would be mushroom clouds over the corporate HQ of the providers in a matter of minutes. If it affected the federal government, the Homeland Insecurity team would be out there cordoning off half the country and making us all take off our shoes so they could be sure we weren't terrorists.

However, for those of us who live in rural America, it's just a day like any other day. Our internet connections are perpetually bad and there is NO broadband out here. So what's all the bitching about? Go read a book. Write a story. Draw a picture. Make love to someone. There's more to life than the internet.

Comments

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

im just glad im able to get highspeed internet in my area, well at least that's what they want to call it :P

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but what does it deliver to you, besides brain-numbing mush? Careful, you could end up like all those furries who are wringing their hands and moaning right now.

[alaskawolf.livejournal.com]

it adds a whole lot to my life, being stuck inside i really have an appreciation for what it offers

brain-numbing mush is all good to me and its just one of the many things i get out of the internet :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I think the brain-numbing mush is beneath you.

But that aside, I understand your point. The thing is, I know you wouldn't sit around on your paws moaning because just one particular site went down. You do other things too.

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Adaptive routing works - I've seen it in action quite frequently at work. :) But that's only when you actually have multiple routes to work with. From what little I've heard, there was only one route out of FA's colo (Quik-Host.com?) to start with, so they're kind of dead in the water now.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Ironically, the colo is called IronPath. And yes, it seems they had a single connection, though they claim in their promotions to have complete redundancy. Obviously, false advertising.

Still, my double point is: 1) All these people who can't think of anything to do because a single web site is down? Have their brains turned completely to oatmeal? Maybe the anti-porn anti-furry crusaders are right? and 2) A cable break can happen anywhere. It shouldn't but it does. So what if it affected Amazon or BestBuy? I'll bet it would get a lot more attention, not because of the users who were cut off but because, "OMG! Profits! We're losing pennies!"

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but ironpath.com is down and their two nameservers are also on the same /24 network together, and that network is unreachable. So the whole thing is very unprofessionally put together.

[kingodin.livejournal.com]

I use DeviantArt, so I'm not much bothered by the FurAffinity outage.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

OK. But if DA went down, would you sit around on your paws rocking and moaning? Or would you get on with your life? It's the reaction, not the web site, that I'm poking fun at.

[kingodin.livejournal.com]

I could definitely live without DA for a while, but I wouldn't piss and moan about it in my LJ since I rarely submit stuff there, anyway.

[doco.livejournal.com]

Actually, from the info I have seen, their "ISP" is some sort of malware hosting bogus company that has like a *single* line out to their upstream provider. Nobody in a sane state of mind would consider that link redundant, but I guess with the prices you pay for rack space in the US, they havre to take what they get, esp. With FA hosting porn content.

Internet infrastructure really varies wildly in quality. Over here, the server owners would show up with the panel van at the data centre and say "Hi, give me my servers, oh, and read the fax from my lawyer" over an outage like that. Americans just seem to shrug it off.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

America probably has ten times the number of lawyers per 1000 population that you do. The contract agreements for rack space or internet bandwidth are so long and tied up with so many exceptions and conditions that the countersuits could last for years. A cable cut is "an act of god" and therefore not grounds for breaking the contract of course. Oh, you want to sue? Sue the guy who cut the cable, not us. And by the way, we get to keep your equipment and data until you pay up the balance of your five year contract. Then you can take them.

My suspicion remains that rather than a cable outage it's an unpaid bill. Odd that the service stopped right at the end of the month and very close to 0000Z on Dec. 1. The fact that the colo site didn't return calls or answer their phones for 48 hours certainly makes me thing "What are they really hiding?"

[doco.livejournal.com]

This seems to confirm my suspicions about their upstream's shadiness too:



Also, this.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes and a number of folks have also commented on Hurricane Electric as being a source of all kinds of issues, both with connectivity and hacking/malware.

Seems likely they'll be getting out of there. Probably means an extended outage, but the moaning and groaning should simmer down after a week or so.

Of course, FA is in fact a "porno site" in the eyes of many, so the fact that they are at an unsavory colo isn't all that surprising, now, is it?

[duskwuff.livejournal.com]

Hurricane Electric is a very large backbone transit provider. They aren't considered unsavory in the slightest. Ironpath (IPN), however, looks considerably shadier.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Latest word is that they ARE looking at moving the servers out of there. I still suspect that the facilities may be in financial or legal trouble and that's why they aren't getting stuff fixed. I suppose all the complaints will die down after a while, as they did last time FA had an extended outage.

Some talk that they are considering a move to Montreal, Canada. Could be interesting: different laws governing what is or is not permissible.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

I'd do that last one, if I had them here. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmm? Aren't you at work right now? That would be interesting. ;p

[deffox]

To nitpick, I see three posts on my friends page that mention FA. Two of them are yours.

[deffox]

Whoops, make that 4 out of 5.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Technically, though I mentioned FA here I'm commenting on the complaints and the infrastructure more than the outage.

Evidently you're not seeing the dozens of "OMG! FA is down, now what do we do?" messages that I am.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Then you haven't seen the innumerable complaints on Twitter or the 600+ comments on furaffinity yet. ;p Not that you need to bother.

[deffox]

Thankfully not.

Most of what I see is that 'ask anything' meme. Also four or five people who have had serious pet problems at the same time.

[songcoyote.livejournal.com]

Rant, Pony, Rant!

In spite of my citified life I tend to be sufficiently distanced from such things (mentally and emotionally, anyway) that I don't freak out about *any* web site being down, even Yahoo, my primary e-mail account. But then, I'm also one of those who resisted getting a cell phone for years and when I finally caved to my sweeties' demands I got one that just... makes... phone calls :)

Apparently I am just enough on this side of the current generation to be seen as backwards because of this tendency. And you know what? I'm okay with that!

Light and laughter,
SongCoyote

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You and me both! *hugs*

I just wrote 52,000+ words for the NaNo last month... using a 20 year old portable word processor that only processes words. No wifi, no internet, no twitter, and... no distractions!

Even better, I only replaced the four AA cells once during the entire month.

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

I find it silly how these young'uns think a computer is only fun if it's plugged into teh intarwebs.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Heh. Or it's a game console of some sort. ;p

I like the oldies myself. IBM mainframe anyone?

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

Not many of the net kiddies take time to really *know* what's in the boxes these days. Which is a shame, cause learning that opens up a whole bunch of hobby fun. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, a lot of them know how to swap power supplies and video cards, because they seem to burn out a lot of them judging by the complaints I see. Also more HD crashes than I've had in 38 years of personal computing, starting with a TRS-80 back in what, 1982?

Certainly very few know how to code, or build any hardware enhancements. Not even many Linux users.

I loved the S-100 machines when I had them, but they took up so much space and made so much noise that I finally gave in and let go. Oldest I have now running is an Amiga 3000T and an Alpha PWS. There's TRS-80s out in the garage though and they should still be working.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oops. That should be 28 years. I'm old but personal computers haven't been around all that time. ;p

[nrasser.livejournal.com]

Yep, I started with a Timex Sinclair 1000 (with the 16mb memory pack, oooo). Then did lots on the Atari 400 (including wiring a custom keyboard for it), Commodore PET/C16, Apple II/IIe/IIc, TI/99, TRS-100, and then into the Intel world with the PC Jr, Tandy 1000 and onward.

I miss the days when computers came with System Manuals :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Or better yet, the source code for the operating system. XD

If I had room, I'd still have the TRS-80 model 4P set up and running because I liked LS-DOS so much.

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

No it's not. It's also fun if it's hooked to wireless broadband!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*gives you a big horse raspberry snort*

[merik.livejournal.com]

Make love to someone.

Thinking about the great electrical blackouts in the past, the birth rate often spiked 9 months later. Somehow, I don't think any sort of blackout involving Furries is going to result in similar consequences ;-)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I imagine somewhat different consequences. An epidemic of con-crud perhaps, or something even more virulent.

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

But...how do I make love to someone without an Internet connection??????

*snirk*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No doubt some of them have done that over the internet while sitting in the same room... and without knowing it. ;p

[rustitobuck.livejournal.com]

I'll admit, I'd find it hard to live without broadband after a while. The internet (and a little bit of cable) replaces the role of broadcast TV in my life. I can go off-grid for a while, probably doing some fun computer programming on my laptop.

Probably in your situation, I'd be more disciplined, because I'd probably take my laptop to town once a day, do the sending and receiving of larger chunks of data, and then come back home. Which means that my creative efforts would be uninterrupted by shiny new data. Probably somebody would have to put a hand on my shoulder and say "Rusty, it's dark o'clock, aren't you thinking of bed?"

But no, while it would be nice to check in on FA, I'm not paralyzed by the loss. It'll be back. It'll be fun when it's back.

And man, I don't know what I want to do for the holidays. Cookies are in the plan. Shopping, not so much. Maybe a few gifts for the close people in my life. I like to make things for the wider audience of friends. Maybe I'll decorate some this weekend.

Oh yeah, I like the "make love to someone" part. I haven't had a convenient someone on a consistent basis in a decade.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The internet (and a little bit of cable) replaces the role of broadcast TV in my life.

Yeah, and that's probably where my problem comes from in understanding all this. Broadcast TV has never played a significant role in my life, really, and in the last half of it, almost no role at all. I never got much out of it, and I just can't see myself spending the time on it.

It comes back more or less to that McLuhan thing about warm and cool media. Though I don't entirely agree with his definitions, the distinction between accepting "entertainment" passively and creating "entertainment" by your own involvement and activity is really a big one for me. As I grow older, it looks to me as if more and more of the world population, and especially that of the US, is completely shaped and consumed by passive forms of entertainment. Even videogames are largely inside my definition of passive unless they require a major element of creativity on the part of the player. Where they are just scripted puzzles that can only be resolved by predefined means, they count as passive, no matter how complex they may be.

I think it's the difference between "consuming" and "creating" that blocks my comprehension.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

The television is a harsh mistress, demanding complete attention but allowing no interaction. As such, I wandered away from it for a time. When I finally got the internet, in 93 or so, and then found the IRC, I found a world of things that were unavailable to me in my daily routines.

I recall one night when the net went down, or split, as I was told, and suddenly my fun little cyberworld was torn in two, literally... it was clear that I was hooked, thinking of my reactions.

But time online is time not doing. Not writing, not painting or drawing, not creating (or procreating).

Now I've got to check out FA, as it's not a place I've paid any attention to.... ;o)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, it looks like you'll have to wait a bit to check out Furaffinity.

FA requires a lot of heavy filtering in order to get much from it, in my opinion. There is a component of worthwhile art, mostly visual but occasional writing and music as well. But there is a huge percentage of dross. "Art" that looks like the stuff a 3-year-old draws and mom tapes it to the refrigerator, except that the subjects are usually weirdly pornographic. I honestly have trouble understanding the appeal of most of it, and the fixation on porn is way beyond my comprehension.

I do watch FA because of a selected group of really fine artists, most of whom draw little porn but all of whom have genuine talent. And I was immediately aware of the latest outage because I've been posting NaNo excerpts there. As a writer rather than a visual artist, and one who doesn't produce pornographic material, my audience there is tiny, but there is some new exposure all the time and most of the furry fandom is very familiar with the user interface.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

My visual wants and desires are generally fulfilled by illustrations in printed media, or certain movies. As such, I love my job because of access. My 'furry' tastes are well satisfied by being able to order and bring home a host of favorite authors' and illustrators' work (currently 14 items out, 12 of which I checked out solely for the drawings... yesterday's acquisition was a Thanksgiving book illustrated by Lilian Obligado).

To paraphrase Fallout Boy, I'm shooting furry sunshine into my veins. I might cruise VCL or Google Images for the soft stuff, but I get most of what I need right here :o)

There is one author on FA I read though.... ;o)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I can suggest some artists on FA for you if you like classic illustration (as I do.) There really are some very high quality talents there. You could just browse through my watch list, but about half of that is personal friends. If you're interested, when it comes back up I'll give you a list of some people to look at.

[mondhasen.livejournal.com]

I'd like that, thanks! :o)

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

Go read a book. Write a story. Draw a picture. Make love to someone. There's more to life than the internet.

And most of those are things I wish I could do but can't. :P

I have no life but I'm not complaining about the FA outage.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, I could make the list a lot longer. Those were just a few examples.

I disagree about your abilities, though. You certainly read. You could certainly write fiction or poetry though I don't think I've seen you do it. You can draw, I've seen that. Making love is not much of an outlet for me either, but it was a suitably powerful suggestion.

Bake a cake, make a gift, visit someone who is sick or captive, plant a garden, smile at someone, write a letter and mail it, the list is endless.