Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on August 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

It’s always easier to blame someone else, especially someone like Microsoft. This is exactly what Skype is doing, at least so it seems,  explaining to their users that the massive outage that occurred last week was “triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short time-frame as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.”

Now, if Windows Updates are really to blame, why hasn’t this outage occurred before? This was certainly not the first time that massive amounts of people had their computers restarted because of the updates – Microsoft releases patches on the second Tuesday of every month. Also interesting is that Windows Update by default will restart your computer automatically at 3AM local time. This means that computers around the World were restarted at different times unless users manually changed the setting.

Skype went on to say that “The high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources.  This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact. The issues have now been identified explicitly within Skype.

Hopefully everybody learned a few lessons in this situation.  One of the first lessons Skype needs to learn is communication. They never bothered to email all of their users to let them know what was going on. While they updated their blog, they could have made communicating with their users a top priority. People like to be clued-in on what’s going on.

And for the outraged users who felt completely lost without their primary method of communication, perhaps they need to realize that interruptions can happen. While there are some users who do pay for a SkypeIn number and pre-paid Skype calls out (they should get compensated for the time they were without the service), most are using Skype’s service for free. And because it’s free, I don’t think people can really complain too much when something does go wrong, assuming a service maintains good communication and explains when there is a problem.

I guess the third lesson is – when all else fails, blame Microsoft?

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Carbon fiber, with its light weight and high strength, is the material upon which the modern motorsports world is built. Traction control, which decreases difficulty, threatens to destroy it. However, in the world of the urban commute, traction control is a great thing and carbon is generally unheard of. Not for Sanyo, which will soon introduce the CY-SPK227 eneloop bike with a frame made of the stuff, featuring two wheel drive and traction control. The rear wheel is powered by the chain, the front by an electric motor, and should the rider pedal more enthusiastically than slippery conditions allow the bike will compensate by adding more juice to the front. Total weight is about 43lbs, many times that of the composite wonders Lance straddled in France, but about 7lbs lighter than the company’s last entrant. It has regenerative braking, an LED headlight, magnesium suspension, a ¥627,900 price tag (about $6,600), and it releases in Japan in October — you know, right about when the skies start to threaten snow. A good test for that traction control, then.

[Via Fareastgizmos.com]

Filed under: Transportation

Sanyo’s new eneloop bike gets carbon fiber frame, traction control brain originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not often that we take time to highlight the creativity and innovation involved in an artistic projection, but this one excited a few too many nerve endings to pass up. The latest in a long line of fantastical wall splashings comes to us courtesy of Urbanscreen, who has designed a downright mesmerizing 3D projection to “dissolve and break through the strict architecture of O.M. Ungers’ Galerie der Gegenwart. The project is entitled “How it would be, if a house was dreaming,” and it’s without a doubt one of the most amazing spectacles you’ll see in the next six to ten minutes. Hop on past the break to have your skepticism put to rest, your world view changed forever and your hope in humanity temporarily restored.

[Via freshome, thanks Hale]

Continue reading Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Video: life-altering 3D projection gets splashed on German building originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as it’s starting to seem like MEMS motion sensor technology is gaining more widespread use, we’re now hearing rumblings of activity from the developers of its eventual successor: NEMS (Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems). To contextualize this discussion (and to give laypeople a shot at understanding), MEMS sensors are the magic behind the Wii MotionPlus as well as a stunning tech demo recently conducted on a Toshiba TG01. The nascent nano version promises even greater sensitivity, and now scientists from TU Delft in the Netherlands claim they have successfully measured the influence of a single electron on an 800nm-long carbon nanowire. Just detecting such an event is a feat in itself, while the ability to measure its effects can be used in a huge range of ways: from transportation and medicine to ultra-sensitive gaming controllers. While accurate comparisons between the Dutch breakthrough and current generation sensors cannot yet be drawn, we can confidently say that this marks an important step toward making our dreams of playing a nanoscale piano a gargantuan reality.

Filed under: Cellphones, Gaming, Science

NEMS takes step forward, MEMS looking nervously over shoulder originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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