Internet Trouble

 

For some reason, been having some trouble staying connected to the Internet, loosing my connection twice in two nights and having to spent time with technical support. Things seem fine for the moment as the connection is back once again (as I write this), but things can still go wrong.

Technical Difficulties

 

If you can read this, then somehow I lost my connection to the Internet (or was too sleepy to reset the "deadman's switch").

Hopefully it'll be fixed, soon.

Bixyl Shuftan 

Technical Difficulties

 

If you can read this, then somehow I lost my connection to the Internet (or was too sleepy to reset the "deadman's switch").

Hopefully it'll be fixed, soon.

Bixyl Shuftan
  

The Big Chill: Arctic Weather Brings Power Outages

 

It's been a cold week across much of the US. A cold blast of air with temperatures most in the US would associate with Alaska and northern Canada has moved south not just into the northern states but also down south to the southwest and south-central states. Texas in particular has been hit hard as much of the state is without power. But the damage isn't just there and millions across the country have lost electricity, and of course Internet. The power outages aren't just from downed power lines, but blackouts being done to preserve power grids.

Over the news, there are stories of people in southern Texas burning furniture, children's wood blocks, and fenceposts to stay warm and cook.  More than thirty people across the country have died because of the cold, some from carbon monoxide poisoning when they kept the car running in the garage to stay warm. While "warming shelters" were an option in some cities, there was a risk from the Pandemic. In one town, people were advised to boil water before drinking it (which could be a problem without power).

In Second Life, a few residents I usually see haven't been on for a few days. Two from Texas messaged me, saying their power was out and wouldn't likely be getting back on soon, one saying she was told not to expect it to come back on for good until next week. Another ran out of firewood, until hearing where he could get some more and drove through icy roads for over an hour to get it. I've noticed some DJ events in clubs needing a substitute. 

As bad as the situation is now, it won't last forever. Warmer weather should arrive next week, and for most of the affected areas so should the power. And of course their ability to get back online.

Source: Associated Press, weather.com

Image sources: www.weathercentral.com, weather.com

Bixyl Shuftan

Computer Down

There's a saying known as Murphy's Law, "If it can go wrong, it probably will." And this week, Murphy was in full force for the Newser.

A week ago, the computer of yours truly would not start. Taking it too the shop, a couple days later I was told the machine was busted, save for the hard drive. For the first time since 2007, I was without a machine, at all. The old Mac I used to have as backup had also given up the ghost years ago.

So I went about the process of getting a new computer. Second Life can't use just any machine as it prefers certain graphics cards. I recall one friend who got a new machine, only to find the virtual world's viewer actually ran slower than on her old computer that was several years old. And on some computers, the viewers just won't work at all.

As of now, the computer still has yet to arrive. I'm still able to get on Second Life itself through the computer of someone I know. But for some reason I can't update the Newser on it. So that meant I had to wait to get access to a machine that's harder to get to.

So until the new machine finally arrives and is all ready and set up, that means the updates will be a bit sporadic. But as you can see, updating we are. Hopefully by Monday things will be more or less back to normal

Bixyl Shuftan

Ooops!

If you can read this, then somehow I lost my connection to the Internet (or was too sleepy to reset the "deadman's switch").

Hopefully it'll be fixed, soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

"Darn Teleport Disconnects," Lab Admits Grid Trouble

If you're been having trouble teleporting across Second Life lately, you're not alone. Lately, a number of people in group chats I've listened in on, as well as friends and associates in private messages, have been complaining about various glitches on the grid. Besides the lag, probably the most frequent complaint I've heard has been crashing while trying to teleport from one spot to another.

Well, it seems things have gotten to the point that the Lab has to acknowledge there's a problem. In the "Tools and Technology" part of the official Second Life blog on Monday April 9, they posted that they're aware of the problem.

Many Residents have noted that in the last few weeks we have had an increase in disconnects during a teleport. These occur when an avatar attempts to teleport to a new Region (or cross a Region boundary, which is handled similarly internally) and the teleport or Region crossing takes longer than usual.  Instead of arriving at the expected destination, the viewer disconnects ...

The Lab believes that the cause is "a timing-sensitive failure in the hand-off" between sims when a teleport takes place, and there doesn't seem to be a way to eliminate the chance of a crash. They have people trying to get to the root of the problem and get rid of it. "Quite unfortunately, this problem dodged our usual monitors of the behavior of simulators in the Release Channels, and as a result we're also enhancing those monitors to prevent similar problems getting past us in the future. We're sorry about this - we empathize with how disruptive it has been."

A few residents I've talked to wonder if Linden Lab's moving information of it's data centers to cloud servers has something to do with recent bugs. When Patch and Grumpity Linden spoke at the VWBPE last Thursday, Grumpity stated the Lab was "very carefully moving things and not disturbing the way things are set up." So if one takes the Lab's word for it, the problem isn't The Cloud.

In the meantime, it looks like residents will be dealing with the possibility of their teleports ending up as viewer crashes, and having to restart the viewers and slowly log back in.

Bixyl Shuftan

Technical Difficulties

If you can read this, then somehow I lost my connection to the Internet (or was too sleepy to reset the "deadman's switch").

Hopefully it'll be fixed, soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

Oops

If you can read this, then somehow I lost my connection to the Internet (or was too sleepy to reset the "deadman's switch").

Hopefully it'll be fixed, soon.

Bixyl Shuftan

Reporter Grease Coakes Temporarily Out of Action

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a number in the area hit by the storm are still unable to access the Internet, sometimes from lack of power. Among them, Grease Coakes, who emailed us from a library, saying he still didn't have Internet at his house.

On another note, Xymbers Slade, whom has been taking a break, recently informed SL Newser that some real life problems have come up that will demand his full attention for some time. So he has been given an indefinite leave of absence.

Hopefully both will be able to write again soon.

Both Grease and Xymbers (and others) had tangles with a hurricane last year with Irene.

A Brief Outtage, but Made It

I managed to stay online longer than I expected. Ended up losing power, but only for a few hours.

So, still in business.

The hurricane didn't seem to do much to my own house, a few branches off the trees. But there was still some damage around the area, and still thousands without power on the east coast. But like with Isabelle a few years ago, it'll be fixed.

Bixyl Shuftan