Archive for August, 2008

Close shave

Friday, August 29th, 2008

[caption id="attachment_127" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Negative Exposure Assessment Drilling Protocol Training"][/caption] I wonder what the people at the grocery store thought when staff member Matt Merner purchased more than twenty cans of shaving cream. I suspect they guessed he was planning some sort of late night pranks. That would be an incorrect ...

Slaughtering the hogs

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

How much Internet is too much? Apparently it's 250 gigabytes, enough Internet content to fill up a $55 hard disk drive. Comcast made news today by announcing a usage cap for Internet users. You can read more about it at PC Magazine. See also the DSLReports coverage. The reason ...

Punt!

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

[caption id="attachment_113" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Sonic.net and BroadLink staff re-engineer BL network"][/caption] As mentioned in the status blog (formerly system MOTD), BroadLink Communications had a system failure in a critical component of their network today. A hard drive in their core router failed, and while they do have spare parts, they ...

Critical systems: Power backup

Thursday, August 14th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia Obviously, an ISP doesn't function without electricity, so we've got big investments in redundant power here. A datacenter power system consists of multiple inputs which are arbitrated by a transfer switch, and multiple loads such as UPS systems and air conditioners (CRACs). The primary input is PG&E, and the ...

Next generation product pricing

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignright" width="100" caption="Fusion Bundle Logo Concept"][/caption] As discussed previously, we have been working for some time toward the launch of new next generation products. As we get nearer deployment, some of the details are firming up. First, bundling. This is a hot topic - some customers really like ...