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Geocaching.com website down
Geocaching.com website down
| Posted By:
Half-Canadian
@ Today, 01:46 PM |
Link to KIRO TV summary of fire
Here is the story of what happened that is posted at Jeremy Irish's own blog site...
When I get a phone call at 3am it is one of two things - either a relative has passed away or a server has gone down. Looking at those two options I would always take the latter. Bryan was on Caller ID, so I knew it was the latter. What I didn't realize was that this wasn't the ordinary check, reboot and "all's good" kind of server issue. I tried to VPN into the machines and nothing was resolving, which is generally a Bad Thing. I dusted off my cardkey (unused for at least a year), grabbed my car keys and headed out the door in that daze that only a mom or dad knows during a 4am feeding. The usual fearful thoughts went through my head about the worst case scenarios. Once I arrived at the Fisher Plaza building I circled the block and drove to the entrance to the parking garage, passing my keycard and receiving a satisfying beep and green light, but the gate didn't raise to let me enter. Through my dozy haze I realized that the parking garage was a dark maw with only the peek of a car in the shadows. It dawned on me that this was no longer just My Problem but Someone Else's Problem. This is one part frustrating and one part relieving. Although a power outage was a shock to the machines we've had similar problems at Fisher Plaza* and the machines were restarted with some coaching. So I settled into the parking lot across the street and walked over to the entrance. Arriving at the entrance I validated my initial observation that, yes, the power was out, so I struck up a conversation with some folks loitering near the entrance. "Is the power out?" I inquired, more as a conversation starter to get some additional information about what happened. "Duh," a woman responded with a linguistic flourish. Apparently this was a Kiro employee Who Doesn't Speak with Tech Guys, but I persisted and got some general information. Yes, the power was out. It was due to a fire and one of the generators was fried. And it had been down since around 11pm. And they were here since 3 and they were sooo bored. I realized that whatever welcome I had spent had emptied the account, so I noticed a person looking just as dazed and techie as me and struck up a conversation with him. Andrew was from PopCap Games and was also called out to check on his servers. Although most of their sites were up, they're Facebook games were hosted exclusively at Internap in the Fisher Plaza Building. After a while, more tech folks would appear and congregate, sharing any emails received by Internap which were sparse and devoid of any real content, but we'd get wisps of information from other folks who "know people" - generally the guys who actually have to get the work done. What I heard was this: An electrical cabinet set itself on fire between 11pm and midnight There was 6 inches of water in the parking garage where the generators are. This happened from putting out the fire. No one was injured (thanks for asking) One generator is fried and the other is sitting in the water so it is unusable The Fire Marshall wasn't letting anyone in (until around 8am when I got in) Rumors stated that the sprinklers did turn on but as alarming as it sounds, they didn't turn on in the colocation facility - so no wet machines Kiro stations like Kiro Channel 4 in the building weren't broadcasting - instead they were broadcasting content from sister stations. Once I got in I inspected the machines to make sure that they weren't buried in rubble or water. With nothing else I to do I headed home to wait for the "experts" to resolve the issue and update geocachers about the situation. Realizing I couldn't get the word out on the site outages via the normal channels, like email and the web sites, I resorted to posting to Twitter, which in turn posted to Facebook. Fortunately the geocachers continued to retweet and repost the updates throughout the day, so hopefully the information is getting out there. We even updated the text for the iPhone application but that won't satisfy many folks who are experiencing network errors when trying to look up caches. Fortunately we're in good company. Authorize.Net and Bing Travel and other larger clients are at the facility so Internap is being very serious about getting this resolved. Sometimes it is good to ride on the coattails of the bigger guys when you have a big problem to solve. I'll update when I have more information. In the meantime I'm monitoring emails and Twitter. When the machines come back online I'll get a flurry of emails so I can head down to make sure that the machines get back online. And I'll continue to update via Twitter and Facebook until this gets resolved. You can follow the latest developments with the hashtag #fisherfire or search for Fisher Plaza or follow me @locuslingua on Twitter. *Around 2006 Fisher Plaza lost power allegedly due to a safety switch meant to shut down power if someone was electrocuted. It's a nice safety feature unless some knucklehead hits it by mistake.
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WSGA Business Meeting
WSGA Business Meeting
| Posted By:
Allanon
@ Jun 9 2009, 08:24 AM |
For anyone that may be interested in attending, the Board of Directors will be having the second Business Meeting of 2009. The meeting will be held Online and is open to all members to attend.
Meeting details...
Date: Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Time: 7:00pm
Location: The WSGA Virtual Meeting Room in cyberspace.
To join the meeting, simply click the link labeled Live Chat at the top of the page.
Questions or meeting agenda items may be posted in the forums or mailed to the President up to two days in advance of the meeting.
Addenda to be posted in the forums prior to the meeting.
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Welcome to our newest WSGA Chapter
Welcome to our newest WSGA Chapter
| Posted By:
Half-Canadian
@ May 5 2009, 09:31 AM |
It's my pleasure to announce our newest WSGA chapter, covering Clallam County, Jefferson County, and Kitsap County on the Northern Olympic Peninsula. The chapter representative for the remainder of this year is Russ Wilson ... Mr. MountainShadow, of Port Angeles.
We all welcome you into the WSGA, and look forward to your news and events -- Congratulations!
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Order Your CITO Gear Now!
Order Your CITO Gear Now!
| Posted By:
Half-Canadian
@ Apr 21 2009, 08:38 PM |
Order your own CITO shirt to wear with pride!
With your help, this year's statewide CITO events will be the best ever! These events are a great opportunity to show that geocachers care about the environment and their local communities, too. The WSGA, in cooperation with Groundspeak, Inc., has produced a special shirt design to show how Washington cachers are pitching in this year to help keep our state clean and green! Place your order online and have them shipped directly to you, or have them shipped to your WSGA chapter representative for local pickup to save on shipping costs.
These high quality, all cotton or cotton/poly blend, are screened on the front with a special 4-color design just for Washington cachers to wear and enjoy! Shirts are available as shown in Khaki, or in Safety Orange. Please specify your color choice when ordering!
PRICES
Short sleeve t-shirts:
Sizes S, M, L, XL $10.00
Sizes kids S, M, L $10.00
Sizes 2XL, 3XL, 4XL $12.00
Long sleeve t-shirts:
Sizes S, M, L, XL $13.00
Sizes 2XL, 3XL, 4XL $15.00
Hoodies:
Sizes S, M, L, XL $22.00
Sizes 2XL, 3XL $25.00
Shipping:
Ship to your chapter representative for pickup at a CITO event:
$2.00 per item ordered
Ship directly to your home or office:
$5.00 for one item
$7.00 for two items
$10.00 for three or more items.
You may place an order for these shirts at any time during the year. Please allow at least two weeks prior to a CITO event for delivery in time for the event -- all shirts will be custom made to order!
To PLACE an order, send an email to WSGA CITO Shirts with the following information:
Your name, geocaching user name, shipping address, phone, and email address
Your WSGA chapter (if you will pick up your shirt locally at a CITO event)
Preferred color (khaki or orange)
Style (short sleeve, long sleeve, or hoodie)
Size (youth S, M, L; adult S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL, 4XL)
To PAY for your order, total up the amount for each item ordered, add the shipping cost as shown above, then navigate to Paypal and enter treasurer@geocachingwa.org in the "Send Money To" box. Be sure to include the total amount for your order, including shipping, and include a note indicating "CITO gear payment" so our treasurer knows what you are paying for!
If you prefer to pay by check, send your payment, payable to WSGA, to P.O. Box 850, Marysville, WA 98270
Special thanks to Groundspeak for allowing the WSGA to use the CITO logo and Signal the Frog for this year's shirt design! The CITO logo and Signal the Frog are trademarks of Groundspeak Inc. Used with Permission. All Rights Reserved.
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WSGA-PS Tutorials: Learn GSAK and Go Paperless
WSGA-PS Tutorials: Learn GSAK and Go Paperless
| Posted By:
hydnsek
@ Mar 7 2009, 08:25 PM |
The Puget Sound Chapter is excited to announce a series of training classes to help our members discover the benefits of GSAK and go paperless. Classes are limited to 20 participants per session, and signups are first come, first served. Members from other chapters are welcome.
GSAK Beginners
March 21 - Bellevue
For details and signups, please visit the GC.com event page (linked above).
Going Paperless
April 11 - Bellevue
Until March 27, registration for Going Paperless is being offered exclusively to WSGA members. For details and signups, visit the WSGA forum thread (linked above). After that, a GC.com event will be posted for non-member signups.
Depending on the success of these initial sessions, we may offer GSAK tutorials on more advanced topics.
These sessions are being led by The Jester (GSAK guru) and TotemLake (paperless guru). Many thanks to them for generously donating their time and knowledge.
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