A week after a slew of popular Web sites were knocked offline temporarily by a power outage in San Francisco, the data center for the Web sites has finally disclosed what went wrong.
Basically, backup generators made by a Dutch company called Hitec failed to work, according to an update posted to the Web site of data center 365 Main.
Here's what happened: transformer breakers at a San Francisco Pacific Gas & Electric power station unexpectedly opened, causing a power surge that cut off electricity to a portion of the city. (PG&E does not know why the breakers opened.) Three out of 10 of 365 Main's 2.1-megawatt backup generators failed to start up, cutting power to equipment of more than 40 percent of the data center's customers for up to 45 minutes.
And why exactly did the backup generators fail to, well, provide backup like they were supposed to? According to the technical mumbo jumbo, the problem was attributed to "weakness in a small but essential component in the back-up system known as a DDEC (Detroit Diesel Electronic Controller)...(there was) a setting in the DDEC that was not allowing the component to correctly reset its memory. Erroneous data left in the DDEC's memory subsequently caused misfiring or engine start failures on the next diesel engine call to start."
Right.
Not to worry, Craigslist, Yelp and the others, you'll get refunds on your rent for the inconvenience.
Even with the outage, the San Francisco facility offers 99.9942 percent uptime, the company said. Personally, I'm holding out for five 9s.
(Credit:
Wikimedia Commons)
A power outage, possibly related to the sweltering heat, has knocked out one of New York City's most heavily trafficked subway lines as well as some lights in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The outage, which apparently began around 3:40 PM EDT, affected the 4, 5, and 6 subway lines (the green line), the D line, and power in nearby areas of Manhattan and the Bronx near Yankee Stadium. There's no word on when power will be restored yet.
The Metropolitan Transit Authority's Web site, meanwhile, is timing out, probably due to the overload of hits.
Put on your tinfoil hats, folks: the green line can take you from 59th St. and Lexington Avenue, just a few blocks from the midtown Apple Store. It can also take you to Spring St. and Lafayette St., in close proximity to the SoHo Apple Store on Prince St. That means that the artery connecting one Apple Store to the next has essentially been severed, so iPhone fanatics may find their travel plans stunted.
Which leads us to this totally obvious conclusion: Did Bill Gates shut down the subway?
If so, he missed something: the R train will take you to essentially the same location at 59th St., and even closer to the Apple Store in SoHo. Looks like a "security flaw" in his nefarious plot. Better patch it, Microsoft.
- prev
- 1
- next
