downtime ends

April 23, 2002 3:10 PM

We're back!

Now what the hell happened?
posted by joemaller to MetaFilter-Related at 3:10 PM (68 comments total)

T1 was down apparently.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:10 PM on April 23, 2002

btw...first post
posted by joemaller at 3:12 PM on April 23, 2002

Yeah, I assume Jason's apartment fell off the Net — I couldn't hit his blog or MetaFilter for a day or so. (I assume nothing interesting happened on the Web during that time.)
posted by nicwolff at 3:13 PM on April 23, 2002

(I assume nothing interesting happened on the Web during that time.)

Or we're in for one helluva case of memewhiplash.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:14 PM on April 23, 2002

Oh. The relief.
posted by muckster at 3:15 PM on April 23, 2002

Okay now everybody gather together for a singalong!

Welcome back! Your dreams were your ticket out.
Welcome back, To that same old place that you laughed about.
Well, the names have all changed since you hung around,
But those dreams have remained and they've turned around.
Who'dve thought they'd lead ya? (Who'dve thought they'd lead ya?)
Back here where we need ya? (Back here where we need ya?)
Yeah, we tease him a lot, Cuz we've got him on the spot.
Welcome back.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:17 PM on April 23, 2002

So, there was a bit of an outage, and the blame's pretty much at the feet of Verizon on this one. They're the provider of the physical line and the local loop to my T1 -- my ISP subcontracts with them, as pretty much all NYC providers are forced to do -- and not only would they not come out last night to fix it, it turns out that the actual problem was caused by a technician of theirs.

I'm going to post more about it on my site; I'll throw a link to the post here when I get it done.
posted by delfuego at 3:19 PM on April 23, 2002

Man, I actually had to rely on CNN for my daily news snippets. Oh, the horror!
posted by Watsonne at 3:21 PM on April 23, 2002

That was an awful, painful, unexpected hiatus. My condolences to Matt and fellow mourners.

Once again I call for hot fiery death to Verizon.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 3:21 PM on April 23, 2002

I hope we all learned a little something about ourselves in the last couple of days.

I'm in love with life again and I love love love it!
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:21 PM on April 23, 2002

Man, I actually had to rely on CNN for my daily news snippets. Oh, the horror!
posted by Watsonne at 3:22 PM on April 23, 2002

The outside was so bright. I don't want to go back there. So was the IRC screen, BTW, all bright and white. Might go back there, though.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:26 PM on April 23, 2002

for posterity's sake.
posted by inviolable at 3:28 PM on April 23, 2002

My shakes have stopped now. Oh, lovely blue and gray!
posted by bjgeiger at 3:29 PM on April 23, 2002

l learned all about myself and the world I live in.
That big room with the blue ceiling...
Not metafilter blue, but pretty blue all the same.

Fucking hideous. And hard to navigate.
Bad site design.
posted by dong_resin at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2002

I hope we all learned a little something about ourselves in the last couple of days.


I did, I went outside and learned that the seasons have changed...it's amazing I tell ya.
posted by jonmc at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2002

More info here.
posted by delfuego at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2002

Christ Verizon!! I think you've bought enough information about me to know metafilter is my entire life!! How would you like it if someone destroyed all prospects of a meaningful existance through willful ignorance?? I'll bet not too good.


posted by Settle at 3:31 PM on April 23, 2002

The thing that was masking my depression: gone. Thankfully, the mask is back!
posted by ParisParamus at 3:34 PM on April 23, 2002

Yet another reason to despise and boycott Verizon.


Yeah RIGHT. Like I could do without my DSL connection...
posted by Watsonne at 3:37 PM on April 23, 2002

(I assume nothing interesting happened on the Web during that time.)

Two words: Golf trophy.
posted by jjg at 3:37 PM on April 23, 2002

I'm in love with life again and I love love love it!

Skookums is so pwecious! We wuv you, too. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥!!!
posted by y2karl at 3:38 PM on April 23, 2002

allegedly funny.
posted by rebeccablood at 3:41 PM on April 23, 2002

It's always interesting to deal with Verizon, pay them $7,700 a month for "dedicated" T-1's, and then listen in horror on Friday afternoon as they tell you that someone will be out to fix your line on Monday morning.

Uhm, gee, thanks?

Reigning champion no-talent ass clowns, that's Verizon.

Structural separation, people, that's what this country needs in telco service.
posted by dglynn at 3:42 PM on April 23, 2002

Oh my GOD! HELP me...I just found out I've been in law school since September!
posted by anathema at 3:43 PM on April 23, 2002

I learned that gay.com chatrooms are not receptive to the repeated typing of the word 'pancakes'. As a result of my time there I also confirm my belief that Metafilter is indeed better than sex.

Welcome back old friend!
posted by evanizer at 3:46 PM on April 23, 2002

is ass clown the noun, or is no-talent ass the adjective?

if the former, what is an ass clown? I guess I've known a few no-talent asses in my time.


posted by rebeccablood at 3:47 PM on April 23, 2002

Maybe the petomane, rebecca?
posted by Kafkaesque at 3:49 PM on April 23, 2002

Phew!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 3:50 PM on April 23, 2002

"No-talent ass clown" is a line from Office Space. "No-talent" is the adjective; "ass clown" is the noun. It was in reference to Michael Bolton, if I remember correctly.

QUICK! Everyone post as much stupid crap as you possibly can to the front page of MetaFilter! You've been stockpiling that tripe for hours!
posted by Danelope at 3:51 PM on April 23, 2002

Go wake Miguel! On second thought....
posted by ParisParamus at 3:59 PM on April 23, 2002

What I found truly amazing is that a lot of us went to each other's blogs and kept right on jabbering. It was like distributed MeFi.
posted by jonmc at 4:00 PM on April 23, 2002

Thank you, thank you - moz and turlyming.com for the #mefi irc where consolation could be had and iconomy for her reviving blog, complete with comments box for the severely addicted.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:00 PM on April 23, 2002

I think it's great when MeFi goes down. Jason and Shannon and a friend and I went out for dinner. Mmm, steak.
posted by anildash at 4:02 PM on April 23, 2002

Maybe MeFi should go down one day a week so we can all build lives.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:04 PM on April 23, 2002

What?. . I have a daughter?. . .how could this have happened?
posted by Danf at 4:05 PM on April 23, 2002

Rebecca. . .ass clown is just as it sounds. . .it's perfect!
posted by Danf at 4:06 PM on April 23, 2002

"btw...first post"
posted by joemaller at 3:12 PM PST on April 23

joemaller: as far as I can tell, you were the first to clamber back on. What a first post! Unjinxed for life, I'd say. All the other posts seem...kind of stale. Good on ya!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:13 PM on April 23, 2002

I reread The Way of Zen (by Alan Watts), installed a big fat hard drive and a CD-RW, discovered that some of my three dimensional friends are still breathing, played a little cribbage and took a nice nap. And I discovered that I prefer my news filtered through the distilling power of MetaFilter, and that the commentary I appreciate is the product of the Mad Genius Minds of MetaFilteropolis. And that finding unique, interesting sites is a result of the efforts of many talented people with a lot of time on their hands.
posted by Mack Twain at 4:27 PM on April 23, 2002

is ass clown the noun, or is no-talent ass the adjective?

if the former, what is an ass clown? I guess I've known a few no-talent asses in my time.

I believe that no talent is the adjective, and ass clown is the noun. No doubt. And the ass clown, technically, is Michael Bolton.
posted by adampsyche at 4:36 PM on April 23, 2002

I woulda visited other members' blogs but since I didn't bookmark them, I didn't know what their urls were. Gee, I missed you guys!
posted by Lynsey at 4:36 PM on April 23, 2002

OH, the relief. I did enough work that I never have to leave Metafilter, ever again. Do you people know what it's like to do work at work. It's icky and sticky and you shouldn't make a habit of it. I had to start drinking around 9 AM, just to endure the monotony of it all. I kiss each and every one of you.

I forgot all about the IRC and just sort of roamed around and read all of the televisionwithoutpity reviews of all of the real world episodes. I really really missed you all.
posted by goneill at 4:54 PM on April 23, 2002

btw...first post

I believe that Matt strongly discourages fluff comments (like "first post"). Just so you know.
posted by gd779 at 5:04 PM on April 23, 2002

Do you people know what it's like to do work at work.

I know whatcha mean, goneill. Although, oddly enough...first day in months that I'm not surreptitiously reading MeFi on the job=best sales day in weeks(4 loaded systems)...coincidence, who the hell knows?
posted by jonmc at 5:06 PM on April 23, 2002

It is indubitably certain that statistical variation precludes absolute prior determination of the overall economic trend when considered at a gross national level. Indeed, we should always be cautious when attempting to ascribe responsibility for a particular end result to a controllable human response which hypothetically could be the root cause. However, taking into account as many factors as are available to us at this early date, it is clear that unbridled exuberance could be an acceptable reaction to the vast differential increase in worker productivity during the previous 48 hours. It may be that sometime early this week we escaped the dreaded, derided, business cycle forever, and that a horizon of prosperity stretches out before us as far as the eye can .... One moment, my cell phone, Senator ... Oh damn.

-- Alan Greenspan testifying before the Senate today.
posted by dhartung at 5:32 PM on April 23, 2002

Miguel: I order you to IRC: NOW.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:33 PM on April 23, 2002

NOW!
posted by ParisParamus at 5:42 PM on April 23, 2002

is ass clown the noun, or is no-talent ass the adjective?

I always thought it would mean that the ass of the person being refferenced (the clown) would have no talent. as in "your ass ain't got no talent, clown".
posted by Hackworth at 5:53 PM on April 23, 2002

That's hilarious, dhartung. Is that a real true quote? Dear God, he's more incoherent than your average art 'theorist'. I wonder who called him?

VOICE ON PHONE: "Hey Alan baby, when are you getting your exuberant self over here so I can give you a vast differential increase"

GREENSPAN: (puts hand over mic and whispers nervously into phone) "I thought I told you not to call me at this number, Peaches!"
posted by evanizer at 6:21 PM on April 23, 2002

I did 5 loads of laundry during the outage. If mefi went down every four weeks I would always be clean.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 6:32 PM on April 23, 2002

Is that a real true quote?

Confidential to Dan: Maybe he should have gotten an Instant Message instead? I don't know. Comedy is hard.
posted by bradlands at 7:34 PM on April 23, 2002

Huh?
posted by evanizer at 7:39 PM on April 23, 2002

Oops, sorry danelope, I didn't see your explanation. I was so excited to post, I just couldn't help myself! Getting all myh posting kicks in after so long!
posted by adampsyche at 7:54 PM on April 23, 2002

C'mon evan, that's Alan's person address to MeFi.
posted by anathema at 7:55 PM on April 23, 2002

personal
posted by anathema at 8:03 PM on April 23, 2002

allegedly cranky.
posted by y2karl at 8:21 PM on April 23, 2002

I had the day off, and had proof this is "More addictive than crack". I was jonesing (sp?) all day. Thought I would cover my bases and sit shivah. It's back, must have worked!!!
posted by RunsWithBandageScissors at 8:47 PM on April 23, 2002

You have one of my favorite nicknames here.
posted by y2karl at 8:49 PM on April 23, 2002

Oh, and Kafkaesque? Don't forget to vote.
posted by y2karl at 8:55 PM on April 23, 2002

It was so...reassuring to go to other mefi members' blogs and find that my reaction to the whole thing has not been disproportionate (as people around me in offline life has been claiming), but is quite normal!
posted by justlooking at 10:04 PM on April 23, 2002

(evanizer: Greenspan courts incoherence deliberately; whenever he says something clear, he lives to regret it.)
posted by dhartung at 11:38 PM on April 23, 2002

I actually found some cool stuff I'd like to post.. so I'll wait a couple of days and then maybe do it. Maybe. Ah the joys of avoiding the front page post.
posted by Apoch at 3:17 AM on April 24, 2002

Whether an Internet connection works or not is a quantum event. When the T1 went down, the universe split into two universes, one where it went down and one where it didn't. It appears that when the T1 came back up, the two universes were merged back together. I don't quite understand it but if someone gives me a sizable grant, I could research it.
posted by kindall at 11:15 AM on April 24, 2002

Schrodinger's Double Post?
posted by y2karl at 11:31 AM on April 24, 2002

Thanks y2karl

posted by RunsWithBandageScissors at 4:22 PM on April 24, 2002

Posting worked fine, as long as you were actually inside Jason's apartment.
posted by rodii at 6:10 PM on April 24, 2002

Not true, sadly. I couldn't get to the MeFi machine because I didn't know its network name. Else I'd have posted up a shitstorm!
posted by anildash at 10:37 PM on April 24, 2002

Ummm, anil, you could have just gone to... oh, wait, I don't want to give up that trump card. :)
posted by delfuego at 9:13 AM on April 25, 2002