As of now, Gmail is down!

Normally we don't report this but Gmail appears to be having a major system failure and downtime *AGAIN*. Both free Gmail and paid Google Apps email service are inaccessible. Customers are furious.

Ahem... I am glad that Blogger is still up... :)

Update: As of Feb 24, 2009 3AM PST, it's still down. Downtime is approx. 45 min.

Update 2: At 3:40AM: Service outage is worldwide, downtime reports from UK, Sweden, Hong Kong and of course, San Diego.

Update 3: At 4:20AM: Service seems largely recovered.

Google posted an apology and explanation on their official company blog.  Oh... a user reminded me that this service is still beta.

Dual WAN'ed, now what? (Hint: pump up the pipes)

Let's face it, we have increasingly more important files sitting on the hard drives.  Like many others, I need a backup.  If you have been doing so, congratulations to you but please make sure you have the right strategy.

I started using Backblaze a while ago.  It works great and I've been recommending it to friends.  The Backblaze folks have done a great job.  I like their KISS approach and that it backs up everything.

Now, isn't this a great way to eat up all bandwidth of your Internet links?

Disclaimer: I am not paid by Backblaze to write this post but rather, I pay them for their backup service!

09's 1st prediction: Google Knol is going to the deadpool

After Google Lively lost steam, I predict Google Knol is the next to follow.  

Knol: a unit of knowledge.  Launched by Google but was closed in 2009 due to poor adoption.  It failed because:

• 100 results to a search term.  Users don't know which one to pick.
• Difficult to collaborate.  Its authorship ideology makes it almost impossible for others to modify or enhance existing articles.
• Low quality.  Since the (user) efforts are so scattered, many articles seem to be unfinished or work in progress at best.
• Little market awareness.  Knol?  Who "knols"?  Who cares?

Update: 1/15/2009: I was almost right!  Google is shuting down a lot of services.  Too bad that Knol is not yet one of them.

PC Magazine in its glory days

You may have read the news. The PC Magazine is phasing out their printed edition. Here we present you an article from the very original PC Magazine, the first issue that started it all, publised 26 years ago. What you see is a scan of the Interview with Bill Gates. That's like a piece of historical article all geek should read...

Get the scan here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/6emdw2 

Faster Internet does not come cheap

It has been a while since we last post here and the Internet landscape continues to change. Most importantly, a new generation of broadband Internet is now available for the States! 

We have always heard how crazy fast Internets is in Japan and other South East Asia countries. They can get like 100Mbps for as cheap as 50USD. The price-performance ratio is like 10 times better than the Comcast we have. But things are changing and we no longer have to be jealous. The new generation of broadband has arrived. 

With the introduction of Comcast Extreme 50 (DOCSIS 3.0), AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS, Internet is faster than ever. These new generation of Internet services are quite expensive though, up to 140USD per month. It’s no good for home use. As business owners, you also have to think throughfully before getting one of these services, since there are other costs associated with this upgrade.

After you get one of these new broadband, you will still need a dual-wan router or multi-wan router. Why? This is because just like every new technology out there, they tend to fail more. Moreover, the Linksys or D-link you have may not be working for you anymore due to the new higher throughput requirement. You end up creating a bottleneck yourself using a cheap router for these services. You may as well update to the new Multi-WAN router with high throughput, such as the Peplink Balance 390. Another hidden cost is that you will have to upgrade your Wireless LAN too. The 802.11b/g Wi-Fi infrastructure has a theoretical limit of 54Mbps, which in real life, it never reaches that fast. You will therefore need to upgrade to 802.11n Wi-Fi too. 

Now that one massive network upgrade for a faster internet.