Google Goes Down…. Planet Craps Its Pants [UPDATE x2]

Earlier today there was a confirmed Google outage. Everything that is Google was apparently toast according to ComputerWorld:

..Google services like Google News and Gmail are completely failing. The Internet Storm Center is saying that it’s received multiple “reports of a total fail of Google Applications. Gmail, Reader, Docs, News, Apps. etc.”

That’s not good. What’s even worse is the reason might be Conflicker according to the author:

This leads me to conjecture that what’s happening is a massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack. Based on the size of the attack that would be needed to interfere with Google, I believe that it’s quite likely to be the result of an attack from the controllers of the Windows worm, Conficker.

There’s no proof that that is the case as of yet. But if true, it is cause for alarm.

Why?

Google has become almost ubiquitous with hosted e-mail (Gmail), and cloud computing (Google Docs for example). Some stunt by a pissed off 13 year old or a cyber criminal, or a problem with the Internet can screw users of Google’s services over for hours or perhaps days.

This is exactly what makes me nervous about cloud computing. It’s bad enough when I screw up something on my mail server and the box goes down. That only affects me and my wife until I fix it. But what about when something like this happens to Google, or SalesForce or i365? Businesses depend on these services. Really big businesses. Downtime to a cloud computing service could be worth millions of dollars.

I wouldn’t want to be the IT manager who made the call to move to a cloud computing service after it goes down for any significant amount of time.

UPDATE: The official Google blog has an explanation. A really vague one.

UPDATE #2: According to news.com, a networking error caused this outage.

Rogers Screws High Speed Internet Customers By Charging For Flickr Pro…. WTF? [UPDATED x2]

If you’re on Rogers High Speed Internet and you like to use the free Flickr Pro service that they provide, you can expect an e-mail like this one in your inbox shortly:

Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,

We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.

Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:

• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video)
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)

If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free. Click the link below to subscribe:
http://flickr.com/upgrade

For additional information or questions, please visit:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/ca/rogers/flickr/index.html

We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service

So to make sure that everyone is one the same page here, let me recap:

• Rogers used to give their subscribers a Flickr pro account free of charge to replace the Yahoo Photos service that was killed when Yahoo bought Flickr.
• As of July 1st, what used to be free will be $24.95 a year.
• If you don’t want to pay up, you get to use a half assed light version of Flickr

The issue has flared up on the Digital Home Canada message boards and the DSL Reports message boards where ticked off users are venting. Surprisingly, a Rogers sock puppet employee made an appearance in both places to try and defuse the issue. Keith McArthur, Senior Director of Social Media and Digital Communications at Rogers Communications posted this statement:

A very small number of our customers (less than 2 per cent) took advantage of the Flickr Pro service. For the vast majority of our customers, the bigger priority is faster speeds and more reliable service.

Last week, we doubled download speeds for hundreds of thousands of customers. We continue to invest in our network and look forward to bringing increasingly faster speeds to all our customers.

Keep in mind that these are the same guys who do DNS redirects when you type in a incorrect address to show you ads, and they are the same guys who do traffic shaping because they claim that they want to have high levels of customer satisfaction.

Oh yeah, as someone points out on the Digital Home Canada message boards, 2% of customers is 30,000 people. Not a small number to be sure.

If I were a Rogers High Speed Internet customer, I’d be ticked and looking for another ISP right about now. In fact, I’ll do you a favor and recommend that if you’re a Rogers High Speed Internet customer who’s not happy about this, and you can get DSL, take a look at Teksavvy and Acanac.

After all, if you’re going to pay somebody for Internet service, at least pay somebody who knows the meaning of the words “customer satisfaction.”

UPDATE: I should also mention that Rogers has been caught altering web page content in the past. That doesn’t exactly give me the warm fuzzies about them.

UPDATE #2: You’ll notice in the comments section that Keith McArthur of Rogers posted a comment. Thanks for posting! I try to be balanced when I post stories to my blog. Perhaps you’ll tell the decision makers within Rogers how unpopular this is and see what you can do to make this situation better. I can tell you right now you have a lot of unhappy campers out there right now, and that won’t be good for your business long term. BTW, does the fact that Keith McArthur has been posting on discussion boards and blogs like mine remind you of “Frank” of Comcast and his attempts to reach out to customers using social media to improve the image of Comcast? For me it does.

So It’s Been Over 90 Days Since My Nightmare With My Toyota Matrix….

… And I’m pleased to say that the problem has not returned. So I believe that the problem that my Toyota Matrix had is fixed for good. So let me tie up a few loose ends:

• The fellow from Halifax, Nova Scotia who had a similar problem has not had it return as of yet. But the last time I traded e-mails with him, he did say that while he is hoping for the best he does expect the problem to return at some point.
• True to my word, my car care needs are being handled by another Toyota dealer. While the dealer that I am now going to is somewhat less convenient (as their service center isn’t open late and their shuttle service ends at 5PM), I really have no reason to complain as they have attended to my car care needs thus far with zero problems. It is worth noting that I have had nobody from the dealership that was at the center of this mess contact me. I guess they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong or they don’t care that my business is going elsewhere.
• Some people have asked if I bought the Toyota Matrix from the dealer that I had problems with. The answer is no. We originally wanted to buy it from them, but they wanted us to pay list price for it. Plus they were not flexible on the trade in value of our previous car. So on the advice of a friend, we went elsewhere and got a great deal (if you want the name of the dealer and the salesperson we were dealing with, e-mail me and I’ll give it to you).  The problem is that they’re an hour north west of  Toronto. Not exactly easy to get to for service, which is why we went back to the guys that we had so much trouble with.

Finally, here’s some advice if you find yourself in this situation:

1. Take notes.. Lots of notes: Make sure that you document every interaction with the dealer and/or the manufacturer and ensure your notes are as detailed as possible. This will help you if you have to push things up the food chain.
2. If dealer claims to have fixed the problem and it comes back, give them one or two chances to make it right: Talk to the service manager or general manager as part of this and try to work with them as best as you can. The reason why you do this is that when you ultimately have to go up the food chain to the manufacturer, it will look to them like you have tried to work with the dealer to resolve the issue and the dealer is the the one who is dropping the ball. Keep in mind that in our case, we went to the dealer five times in total before we went to Toyota Canada.
3. Call the manufacturer if you can’t resolve the issue with your dealer: Car companies have customer service hotlines. Call it and explain what your issue is and use the notes that you created from step one to illustrate your points. Always remember to stay calm and do not yell at the person at the other end of the phone. Don’t forget to get a case number. Then call your dealer, ask to speak to the service manager or general manager and give them that case number so that they know that you’re pushing this issue up the food chain.
4. Call your lawyer: You likely want to have your lawyer involved at this point. Your lawyer can best advise you how to talk to the various parties involved and what your next steps are if things really get ugly. Plus they can act as the voice of reason so that you don’t do something that harms your attempt to get your car fixed right. One thing that you should also do is let all the parties know that whatever is discussed between you will be fed back to your lawyer. That way, everybody knows who’s involved (and perhaps they’ll move things along quicker).
5. Push for a loaner: If your car is going to be in the shop for anything more than a day, and it has been in the shop multiple times for the same issue, you should push for a loaner at no charge. You should also document what type of car you got and if having this car stopped you from going about your normal activities.
6. Know what your rights are as a consumer: Check to see if your state or province has a lemon law that may be of assistance to you. Canadians should also look into the Canadian Motor Vehicle Arbitration Process as well. Again, you should consult with your lawyer to ensure that you take full advantage of whatever rights you have.
7. Pack plenty of paitience.

Apple Takes Aim At Microsoft Laptop Ads…. And Every Other Problem With PCs

Clearly acting Apple God CEO Tim Cook has had enough of the Microsoft laptop ads. Since he’s a marketing guy I was sure that he’d respond to them in some way, and respond he has. Three new “Get A Mac” ads hit the airwaves last night. The first one is called “Customer Care” and it highlights Apple’s perceived advantage in that department.

Oh wait. According to Consumer Reports, Apple crushes the competition when it comes to tech support. So maybe that perception is fact.

Next is “PC Choice Chat” which has the PC character trying to answer questions about what PC to get on a radio show. This one presses the fact that if you want a trouble free computer, you need to buy a Mac.

Finally, there “Elimination” which is a direct attack on the Microsoft laptop ads.

I’m guessing that Microsoft is wishing that it never put those ads out seeing how much trouble they’re causing the company. Perhaps they’ll think twice in the future and focus their efforts on putting out products that people want to buy rather then trying to bash the competition.

Intel Gets Bitch Slapped By The EU To The Tune Of $1.44 Billion

The European Union has decided that chipmaker Intel has been abusing it’s position as king of the hill to keep rival chipmaker AMD down. As a result, the EU has fined Intel $1.44 billion USD. To nobody’s surprise, Intel doesn’t agree with the decision:

Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini said the company would appeal to the EU courts because “the decision is wrong” and “there has been absolutely zero harm to consumers.” The company promised to comply with the EU order but criticized it as extremely ambiguous.

However, AMD is doing cartwheels:

AMD’s Europe president Giuliano Meroni said the EU order “will shift the power from an abusive monopolist to computer makers, retailers and above all PC consumers.”

So what did Intel do to tick off the EU? According to them, they did a bunch of things:

The EU says Intel gave rebates to computer manufacturers Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC for buying all or almost all their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel and paid them to stop or delay the launch of computers based on AMD chips.

Regulators said the company also paid Germany’s biggest electronics retailer, Media Saturn Holding — which owns the MediaMarkt superstores — from 2002 to 2007 to only stock Intel-based computers.

This meant workers at AMD’s biggest European plant in Dresden, Germany, could not buy AMD-based personal computers at their city’s main PC store.

“Intel has harmed millions of European consumers by deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for computer chips for many years,” said EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes. “Such a serious and sustained violation of the EU’s antitrust rules cannot be tolerated.”

This will be tied up in court for years before it gets resolved, and they’ll likey be in line behind Microsoft.

MacOS X 10.5.7 Is Out…. And Causes Me Grief For An Hour

Yesterday afternoon, Apple released MacOS X 10.5.7 to the hordes of fanbois waiting for this latest update to the Apple operating system that has been blessed by the most holy one known as  Steve Jobs.

That’s when the fun began.

Normally, I usually wait a day or two before jumping into the fire, but I had some time to kill and most importantly I had a current backup from the night before. So I figured why not. I downloaded the combo updater version of the updater and installed it. It finished installing about five minutes later. Then it tried to reboot the machine and got stuck at a blue screen. No not THAT blue screen. Just a light blue screen that would occasionally flicker as if it was trying to do something. I’ve been around long enough that I figured that if I left it alone it would fix itself. But it didn’t after 20 minutes of waiting. That’s when I hopped onto another computer and started Googling and came across this post on the Apple Discussion Boards. Apparently I am not alone in experiencing this issue, but I did follow the advice that the post gave which was to use the power button to shut down the computer and turn it back on. It rebooted three times (normally an update reboots your computer twice) before I got to a login prompt. I then repaired the permissions and all seems fine. I have rebooted my Mac a couple times since then and I have not seen any issues.

So if you dare, the Mac users out there can download the 10.5.7 update and try your luck at updating your system. But if I were you, I’d wait a few days to make sure all the bugs are ironed out. Oh, make sure you have a current backup. I didn’t need mine, but you might not be as lucky.

Owners Of Apple, HP And Dell Notebooks Sue Nvidia Over Dodgy Hardware

Another lawsuit has been filed over the Nvidia graphics chipset circus. According to CIO Magazine, owners of Dell, HP and Apple notebooks are trying to combine their lawsuits against Nvidia into a single lawsuit. They’re also looking for class action status as well:

The plaintiffs in the combined lawsuit said that anything other than a replacement of the flawed chips was insufficient. “This is a grossly inadequate ‘remedy,’ as it results in additional manifest defects, including, without limitation, further degraded battery life, system performance and increased noise in the Class Computers,” the complaint read.

“Worse, this ‘remedy’ fails to solve the actual problem. Instead, this measure only ensures that the Class Computers will fail after the OEM’s express warranty period expires, potentially leaving consumers with a defective computer and no immediate recourse,” the lawsuit continued. “Finally, even after this purported ‘update,’ video and system performance is still degraded due to unacceptably high heat and part failures.”

The Plantiffs want unspecified damages on top of the replacement of their faulty graphics chipsets. Perhaps Nvidia should have heeded my advice from this posting:

Nvidia has to step up to the table regardless of whether this is fact or not and clear this up once and for all. Users of their chipsets have the right to know if the Nvidia chipset they have in their computer is faulty or not. If they are, users of their products have the right to a speedy replacement with a part that works. If Nvidia doesn’t do that and these chips are faulty, then they deserve to be run out of business.

Perhaps it’s time that they got run out of business as this has really been handled poorly by them.

Windows 7 To Ship “In Time For The Holiday Shopping Season” Says Microsoft

Microsoft has decided to let the know sort of know when Windows 7 is going to ship. They announced the following at Tech Ed today:

Microsoft Tech•Ed North America 2009 kicked off today with announcements of new technologies that enable IT professionals and developers to help their organizations save money and improve efficiencies during difficult economic times. As part of today’s news, Microsoft Corp. announced that the company is anticipating that the next version of its client operating system, Windows 7, will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season. In addition, Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) is available today with the final product releasing to market in the same timeframe as Windows 7.

At least we have some clue as to when Windows 7 is going to ship. If I had to make an educated guess, the “in time for the holiday shopping season” means in or around Black Friday in the USA. Anything later would limit how much money they could make. Anything sooner would likely take away any ability for them to fix any last minute bugs and get the master off to the presses.

I guess things are going better than expected with the release candidate. Could Windows 7 really be that good?

Bell And Telus To Provide Satellite TV…. Boy These Two Companies Are Getting Cozy

Kudos To “Don” for pointing this story out to me.

According to The Globe And Mail, Canadian telcos Bell Canada and Telus announced that they’re going to work together to provide Satellite TV service to Western Canada:

They unveiled an agreement yesterday that will see Telus sell Bell’s satellite TV service to customers in British Columbia and Alberta under the Telus brand, with the companies sharing the proceeds. Although Bell will continue selling the service under its own name in the region, the deal strengthens its national reach. The agreement also helps fill a gap in Telus’s product line while it builds out its own TV service over Internet lines, known as IPTV.

So, they’re doing TV together…. And they’re rolling out a 4G wireless network together… Does that mean we can call them Belus now? Seriously. I’m expecting to see more deals between the two of them since they’re both being squeezed for cash. Assuming that they don’t merge first. They might as well seeing how well they work together.

A New Build Of Parallels Desktop For Mac Hits The Streets…. And Causes Me Grief For An Hour….

A new build of Parallels Desktop 4.0 is now available for users to download. The release notes are here, but here are the key highlights:

• Improved 3D graphics in Windows virtual machines.
• Problems with Palm synchronization in Windows virtual machines – fixed.
• Random disconnection of USB 1.1 devices in Linux virtual machines – fixed.
• Invisibility of the text mouse pointer on black background in Windows virtual machines – fixed.
• Problems with SMB shares in native Windows Boot Camp installations that have Parallels Tools installed – fixed.
• Problems with Shared Networking on Snow Leopard host computers – fixed.

Strangely, it didn’t show up in the updating utility that is part of the application. I only tripped over it by accident yesterday. But that didn’t matter to me as I normally download the full installer and then I normally do a uninstall and reinstall of the software. Usually that avoids issues, but this time I ran into this issue that others have posted about on the Parallels message boards.  I didn’t use any of their suggestions to solve it. I instead followed this Parallels knowledgebase document to solve the problem. Once I got past that, I was able to update my VM’s and go to town.

Overall it doesn’t “feel” faster, but I haven’t had the chance to really push it yet. That’s something I plan on doing tonight. If you’ve tried this build, leave a comment with your impressions.