Friday Fun: Max Headroom - Paranoimia

Here's a little blast from the past that those of us who remember the 80's might enjoy:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Keep It Simple

Some times it's just best to keep it simple and consider the obvious solution:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: The Internet Is Down!

Given recent events this is so appropriate.



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Problems accessing Google via Qwest DSL

UPDATE TO THE ORIGINAL POST @ 6:30 PM PST 05/14/09: Computerworld - Google suffers major failure Well it does look like there was an issue with Google today, though not everyone affected in the same way. My plan now is to develop a protocol for dealing with such outages by taking such steps as "Don't panic", take a deep breath, do a little more research before calling tech support, and wait it out if all practical. I still believe though that ISPs should have a better way of alerting their staff when such acute outages occur so that they can change the way they deal with end users who call in.


ORIGINAL POST:

Sorry for throwing this entry up here, but I have been dealing with an ongoing problem, and I am trying to connect with others who have also been dealing with this same problem in the hope of getting to the root cause. I have been having problems with temporary outages to all Google services (search, GMail, Blogspot, etc.) via my DSL connection from Qwest. I am still able to access other sites when this problem occurs, it is only Google services that are affected.

So far the outages have occurred on the following days:

• Tuesday, May 12, 2009 from Noon to 1:00 PM PST
• Thursday, May 14, 2009 from 8:00 AM to 9:00 AM PST
• Note: My location is in Seattle, WA. and because I am expecting more outages I will update this list as they occur.

For the first two outages I went through the steps of calling Qwest customer service and went along with the standard triage of my DSL router/modem. Of course checking the DSL router/modem didn't fix the problem, and only after a lengthy conversation with Qwest was I told that there seems to be a problem with accessing Google. In each case prior to calling Qwest I checked with friends via chat to see if they could access Google and they could. Some of the friends were in the Seattle area while others were out of state, but in all instances they were using ISPs other than Qwest for Internet access.

If you live in the Seattle area and are a Qwest customer, and you have been having trouble accessing Google, please leave a comment or send me an email. I have been trying to find out what has been going on, but Qwest hasn't been very helpful. One manager even went so far as to tell me to call Google at 650-253-0000 which was useless, since Google doesn't offer tech support. By the way, if you work for either Qwest or Google, and you know what is going on feel free to leave an anonymous comment.

Thanks ~ Jim

Bits and blurbs for May 14, 2009

Here are few articles that I have come across recently that I found interesting and worth sharing:

• First off is Leo Babauta's article on Zen Habits - 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline. Whether you are a job seeker struggling with your job search, or still at your job and trying to stay motivated, or you just keep beating your self up because you feel you are lacking discipline in general, then give Leo's article a read because he gives some really excellent advice.
• OK I admit it, I am a geek and I am proud of it, so I have gone ahead and added GeekAdvancement.com to links lists on three of my blogs (this blog, Geeks Who Care, and 8-Bit Retro). There is a great little video on the site featuring The Woz, Will Wheaton, LeVar Burton, and many other famous geeks. Give it a view, but be forewarned that it can be a little chuggy at at times. If you want to find out more about GeekAdvancement.com then check out the About page.
• Over at Shore Street Software you will find Beware Programming Language Requirements On Job Postings which brings up some good points for employers and recruiters about how to compose job postings so as to bring in the best qualified people, in this case programmers.
• Apple's Woz Boosts Tech for Schools from PCWorld is about Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka The Woz) joining the Board of Directors of TechForEducators.com. TechForEducators.com sells software to educators, and partners with the Kids in Need Foundation to offer free school supplies to disadvantaged students here in the US.
• HotHardware.com has an interesting piece titled "iSuppli: SSD Energy Savings Could Power A Nation from" about the projected power savings that would occur if data centers were to switch from using Hard Drives to Solid State Drives. The author makes a good point of questioning the numbers, and how quickly this SSD technology will be adapted, but still the potential power savings of SSD technology is something to consider.

That's it for now. I am still trying to think of something for this upcoming Friday Fun. If you have some suggestions, drop me a line. Cheers ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Who, what, huh?

Fans of Abbott and Costello should enjoy this computer spoof version of their famous "Who's on first?" routine:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim

Friday Fun: Just say yes to telemarketers

Today's Friday fun was inspired by my previous post "Job seeker beware!", and is dedicated to Angela at Employment Select :)

Remember to just say "yes" to telemarketers:



I don't know how this guy keeps a straight face, but he deserves a banana for this one:



Have a great weekend ~ Jim