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pdw @ zoomshare
blog pdw
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Older Entries
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Thu, 15 May 2008
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| Vid of the Day |
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If you spent your time while watching the above
"music video" trying to name all of the various
software applications on that Mac instead of
watching the lovely lady, you probably need to get
out more.
Yes, I was playing "name that app" the first
time I watched it, but I'm married....;-)
Via Thought Palace
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Posted 12:23
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Sat, 03 May 2008
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| Part IV: All Really is Well |
Previously on pdw @ zoomshare:
Recently we moved zoomshare into a new home.
We scheduled an overnight maintenance
window to move the necessary zoomshare equipment.
Each new home has its own little quirks and
idiosyncrasies to them. But as time goes by one
learns how to navigate the little quirks in a new
home. They can become reassuring where originally
they were unsettling.
As I closed in on being awake for 24 hours I knew I
didn’t have a taxing day ahead of me, I had planned
my schedule accordingly at least. However, I still
had some work to do and tops on that list was a
check-in with zoomshare in a few hours, so I set my
alarm for 9 am and closed my eyes.
I don’t remember the alarm going off.
10 am. I could have used some more sleep, but that
could wait just a few minutes. A quick check-in on
how zoomshare was handling the morning traffic and
then a few more hours of shuteye.
I don’t think I even got in my chair, let alone
logged into my computer.
I had voicemail. In fact I had a voicemail from kree10 that was just a few
minutes old.
Not good news.
Not good news at all, in fact. He was on his way
back to the colocation facility. No one from the
office was able to connect to any zoomshare site,
verifying in turn that everything was in working
order. Moreover, it was looking like a good
percentage of our users were having issues as well,
which meant it wasn’t localized to just one network
connection or path.
In the case of zoomshare one of the connecting
pipe’s had a pin-size leak. When the “water
pressure”, network traffic, was low some droplets
of water, network packets, escaped via the leak.
Annoying, but manageable. However, when the
pressure was turned up the leak started to turn
into a flood, more than half of the network packets
never made it to their destination.
And Now The Conclusion...
Troubleshooting computing issues can be difficult,
more so when systems and services are divided up by
different providers. Consider for example the
problem most users have with their own system. A
user encounters an error while using a specific
piece of software, they call up the software
provider's support number, navigate their overly
complicated phone system only to be told, once
they've gotten hold of a real person, described the
problem and tried restarting the system that the
problem is not with their software package and is
obviously a hardware issue and recommend calling
the hardware company.
A second call later, this time to the hardware
company and the user is nowhere closer to a
resolution since the hardware company's tech
support blames the issue on the software provider.
All long the user of course doesn't care about
who's fault it is but simply wants the problem
fixed so can get on with their task.
Alas, even us tech folks have to navigate the
labyrinth of voicemail hell and deal with providers
and support technicians who can be less than
forthcoming with assistance when "its not our
problem/fault".
The Root of the Matter
Zoomshare moved into a new co-location facility in
which a company provided space and power. Another
the network connectivity to the Internet. Three
parties had entered the dance.
Our network connection was experiencing a "leak"
and we had to pinpoint that leak in our new home
for zoomshare. After two days of testing our
equipment we suspected the issue was elsewhere. But
our new "landlord", who tested their own setup
suspected the issue was elsewhere and our Internet
Service Provider (ISP) at first couldn't even
confirm any network issue, let alone the "leak" we
witnessed every time we turned up the "water pressure."
We had run ourselves ragged trying everything we
could, different equipment, different
configurations. No one knew find the location of
the leak, but
eventually everyone was able to acknowledge a leak
did exist. By the morning of the third day it was
time to call a meeting of the brain trust with all
three dancers together.
During the course of this third crunch day - as if
all the other days hadn't been crunch time - we
retested all the integrated systems. First our
networking equipment and wiring. Next, with the
landlord the wiring leading up to our cage. Lastly,
some testing with the ISP. The different this time?
Instead of playing he said, she said, we all had
repersentitives present physically all talking with
each other, not at each other.
Eventually Holmes' maxim - "Once you eliminate the
impossible, whatever remains, no matter how
improbable, must be the truth" did lead us to the
source of the network leak. We eliminated the
possible points by testing each segment of the
pipe, from "water main" to "faucet". Alas we had an
added complication, navigating and coordinating
support procedures of various service providers,
something it seems Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson never
had to concern themselves with.
By the end of the third day for our Zoomshare users
at least, all really was well again.
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Posted 10:22
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Mon, 21 Apr 2008
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| More "Stupid" //c Tricks |
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Via BYTECellar. More information in
this thread in the comp.sys.apple2.programmer
newsgroup.
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Posted 10:33
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Sun, 06 Apr 2008
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| More Random iPhone Speculation |
Seems iPhone rumors are in vogue again
as more than a few observers have noted that Apple’s supply of iPhones in the US isn’t
currently keeping up in the order fulfillment department. Given
Apple’s “just-in-time” supply chain, this has given
a few analyst reason to suggest that iPhone updates are just around the corner since
Apple traditionally slows down its supply chain ahead of new
product releases.
While I do expect a 3G iPhone from Apple this year, I don’t
think it’s going to be released in the next few days. Nope, June is my
guess. Why? Well, Apple just released the larger 16 GB iPhone in
February while also seeding the software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone/iPod Touch in beta
form that will be formally released in June at its annual developer conference. Since June
will also mark the one year anniversary of
the iPhone why not celebrate (and more to the point make sure
the press takes notice) with a newer 3G model?
More to the point of 3G, last year Apple
announced that as part of its worldwide rollout for the
iPhone, Asia would see the iPhone in 2008. While that
technically gives Apple till December, it does raise the point that
Japan (and I think South Korea) use at the minimum 3G backed
networks. Thus to release the iPhone in Japan, as part of an Asia
rollout, Apple will need to have a 3G capable phone. Recent
rumors also
include “wish list” items such as VoIP and video
conferencing, which on a 3G network (or WiFi in the case of
Voice over IP, why would AT&T allow you to bypass their voice
network?) might not be too bad.
But my question is what will come of those older iPhones? Apple
has a sales goal of 10
million iPhones by the end of 2008. Why completely stop
production of perfectly viable models that can be sold at a lower
price point with AT&T or, dare
I hope, unlocked for use with other networks? Thus I think
the supply issue is just a bump in the road for Apple, perhaps an
issue with an upstream supplier? Perhaps, an issue with its flash memory supplier, which is
working in tight market conditions as it and other manufactures
ramp up to meet demand for ever increasing memory capacity in
various devices (phones, cameras, USB drives, portable media
devices, et. al.).
As for the unlocked iPhone executives at Apple have mentioned
that they are “not wedded” to the
locked-networked bundle method. Other cell phone makers have
“exclusive” contracts with service providers that don’t completely
preclude them from selling unlocked models. The question here,
which I can’t answer, is what does AT&T’s 5-year
exclusivity mean for Apple? Could it mean AT&T just gets
exclusive dibs on new models? Does it mean feature set?
After all I suspect Apple can easily make its 10 million mark if it
sold the current 2.5G models in 8, 16 or perhaps 32 GB variations
at less than the current $399 price point and a “premium” model
with Visual Voicemail, iChat video conferencing, 32 GB or more
memory and 3G data network capability exclusively for AT&T
customers at the same time. As a bonus, with an unlocked phone
and SDK release Apple would deliver and one-two knockout
punch to the underground
iPhone market.
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Posted 10:26
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Mon, 31 Mar 2008
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| Share This! |
Not a fan of Digg? Wish you could give visitors
more options to share your thoughts without
registering with each community run news service?
Looking for a simple tool that let's you know what
your site visitors are recommending to their
friends? Well then I've got the tool for you,
ShareThis!
ShareThis is a web widget from Nextumi, Inc. that
allows one’s content to be instantly ‘shareable’
with users of various web services with the minimal
amount of work by the site owner. As a bonus the
ShareThis widget can provide tracking and reporting
information such that one can see what site content
is being shared.
For zoomshare users this means being able to let
users view, vote and/or share your work with other
potential visitors without the need to be a user of
each individual web service. So if someone thinks
your recent blog posting is Digg worthy, they can
submit your posting to Digg, right from within your
posting, without you having to provide all the
necessary Digg links.
Getting Started
The first step to using ShareThis is to register as a publisher. Once
registered the next step is to customize your
widget, choosing how visitors can share your
content and with whom.
Configuring ShareThis
For example, you can allow visitors to share your
content only by email. Or you can limit them to just
Facebook and MySpace. One can also choose the basic
color scheme for the widget in order to better
match one’s site template.
Once configured one copies the resulting widget
code and pastes it into a free form web page or
blog post as desired.
<script type="text/javascript"
src=http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=web%2Cemail&charset=utf-8
&style=rotate&publisher=23441421-9d3a-4d4c-8746-a097a0f4b702
&headerbg=%235c5c5c&inactivebg=%237a7a7a&inactivefg=%23FFFFFF
&linkfg=%230000FF></script>
ShareThis code for pdw @
zoomshare
Which results in the following button which
visitors can click on to reveal the ShareThis Widget:
Nice right? Well it gets even better. As an assist
the good folks at Nextumi have also added some
basic reporting features. As such you get not only
get an idea of who’s visiting your site, but what
they are sharing with their friends and what
service their friends are using.
Reviewing Share This Traffic
Check it out and be sure to share this with your
friends, I think you’ll all enjoy this little tool
as much as I do.
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Posted 13:36
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