Cemeteries are endlessly fascinating to me, not only because they serve as our very first public parks which eventually led to a broader sense of purpose and understanding of green space design in urban environments, but also for the profound sense of both memory and mystery which they so powerfully imbue.
RIM clarifies global service outage, doesn’t provide ETA for restore
If you don’t own a BlackBerry yourself, chances are you know somebody who does. And if that person lives in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America or South America, they’re probably quite unhappy with RIM at the moment. This week’s service outage began with a server failure in the UK, and spread like wildfire to Africa and the Middle East, before continuing on to parts of Asia, the US, Canada and a good portion of South America. This is only the latest BlackBerry service outage for RIM, bringing email, BBM and web browsing services to a halt. But with BlackBerry services playing a critical role in real-time business and government communications, any interruption is unacceptable, and costly for all.
RIM CTO David Yach responded to questions during a press conference this afternoon, explaining the original cause of the outage (that UK server failure, along with a series of failed redundancies), and how that grew into the global outage we’re experiencing now:
“It’s a backlog issue. Clearly we have a backlog in Europe, based on the initial outage and the time it’s taken to stabilize that. At this point, we have not throttled the other regions, but as you can imagine, with the global reach of BlackBerry, people using it to contact others around the world, there’s a lot of messages coming to Europe from Asia and the Americas, and those would be backed up on the other system. It’s looking like over time that backlog built, and started impacting those other systems.”
The obvious solution would be to clear the backlog and restore service, but in doing so, RIM would purge any undelivered messages. Yach said that all emails will eventually be delivered, however, so you shouldn’t have anything to worry about there (there was no related comment regarding BBM messages). When asked what the company would be doing to “make right” by way of its customers, Yach emphasized that his focus was only on restoring service at this point, and made no promises of restitution.
Is the BlackBerry outage affecting you? Let us know by voting in our poll, or leaving a comment after the break.
Continue reading RIM clarifies global service outage, doesn’t provide ETA for restore
RIM clarifies global service outage, doesn’t provide ETA for restore originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
BlackBerry outages spread to North America
Sporadic outages of BlackBerry messaging and email service spread to the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday, as problems stretched into the third day for Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.
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BlackBerry outages spread to North America
Asus Zenbook Hands On: Good Lord There’s a Lot of Awesome Packed Into Something This Thin [Ultrabooks]
It’s kind of insane it took a $300 million slush fund from Intel to get notebook makers to create MacBook Air-like ultrabooks, the first results from Asus are, well, pretty damn impressive. More
10-11-11 – All the news about he new iPhone 4s, IOS5 and more!
All the news about he new iPhone 4s, IOS5 and more!
Microsoft finds 64 billion fewer spam messages per month after botnet takedowns
The scourge of spam e-mail will likely never go away, but Microsoft says new data shows that a few targeted anti-botnet operations can reduce malicious e-mail volume by tens of billions of messages per month.
In July 2010, 89.2 billion spam messages were blocked by Microsoft’s Forefront Online Protection for Exchange service, which is used by thousands of enterprise customers. By June 2011, that monthly total was down to 25 billion. Microsoft, in the latest bi-annual Security Intelligence Report
How Windows 8’s memory management modifications make for a better user experience
Continuing the trend started with Windows 7 of each new Windows version placing lighter demands on the system than its predecessor, Microsoft has been talking up some of Windows 8’s new approaches to saving memory.
Some changes continue work started in Windows 7. Windows depends on a considerable number of system services to provide key functionality, and many of these system services start when the system boots and continue to run for as long as the operating system is running. This has two effects; it makes booting take longer, because the services all have to start before the operating system will log in, and these services use system memory.
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How Windows 8’s memory management modifications make for a better user experience
Facebook for iPad Hands On: I’ve Waited So Long [Video]
In many ways, Facebook for iPad looks the same as it does on any other device (download it here!). But it feels different. It’s immersive, and visual and intuitive and takes advantage of the unique capabilities tablets provide. More
The iPad gets a Facebook app, finally
Kind of like eating a peanut butter sandwich with no jelly, the most obvious app missing from the iPad has been Facebook — until today. The New York Times reports that the site has finally confirmed the app’s availability just in time for eager social networkers to like, subscribe and stalk from their slates. According to software engineer Leon Dubinsky, the app will highlight the multitouch awesomeness of the iPad, something that’s unavailable from the website alone even from a touchscreen device. The folks at FB also added that some of the newly released features will be integrated into the iPhone app as well, making it a win / win for iOS fanatics. Consider it liked. Check out the brief PR after the break.
Continue reading The iPad gets a Facebook app, finally
Filed under: Tablet PCs
The iPad gets a Facebook app, finally originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
UK 4G network auction delayed, spectrum sell-off pushed back to the end of 2012
The dizzying world of 4G speeds remains a distant prospect for Britons, with telecoms regulator Ofcom deciding to delay the auction for the next generation of mobile spectrum. It was looking to sell off two potent bands of wireless network by the end of this year, but those plans have been put on hold by some legal jostling and desk-banging from UK carriers, with the British equivalent of the FCC saying it received several “substantial and strongly argued responses.” The sell-off delay might not affect any launch dates for 4G (already being tested in rural parts of the UK), as the bands up for grabs still won’t be available until 2013. But eventually all of this to-ing and fro-ing will test even the Brits’ stoic patience.
UK 4G network auction delayed, spectrum sell-off pushed back to the end of 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.