Skype has provided the full explanation as to what happened last week when the service experienced an outage lasting over 36 hours for which they say  there was also an issue with Skype’s software but this wouldn’t have happened if MS provided bug-free software. I love Skype but am disappointed with this final update message.

. They open the explanation with:

On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

The high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.

Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days.

Skype has provided the full explanation as to what happened last week when the service experienced an outage lasting over 36 hours for which they say  there was also an issue with Skype’s software but this wouldn’t have happened if MS provided bug-free software. I love Skype but am disappointed with this final update message.

. They open the explanation with:

On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

The high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.

Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days.

Geeksugar has a  good story on traditional Picture modelling . Unlike digital pictures that often get cut, pasted, edited, deleted and after all this, rarely end up back with the originals. CircaVie is a fabulous website because it helps you organize your digital pics chronologically through an interactive timeline. Birthdays, trips, events, whatever you fancy- just add the time, picture or video to get started and finish off by sharing with whomever you’d like! Be sure to sign in using your AIM screenname.

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why can’t iPhone developers just write programs that you could install directly onto the handset? Simple: Apple has yet to cough up a toolkit that would let coders to write software for the iPhone. “In essence,” Gilbertson writes, “Apple has forced a third tier of websites [in addition to standard HTML and WAP] on the world by failing to provide developers with an alternative means of creating applications on the iPhone

On Wired’s Compiler blog, writer Scott Gilbertson likens the recent glut of just-for-iPhone Web sites to a debacle from way back in 1997: sites that were “optimized” for the special, non-HTML-compliant features of Internet Explorer 4, and therefore incompatible with Netscape (IE’s nemesis during the bloody browser wars of the 90’s). 

Gilbertson’s post raises other interesting points: for example, why have these iPhone-optimized sites at all, when the iPhone’s Safari browser promised us “the Internet in your pocket”? Yeah, the iPhone is EDGE-only, but the standard HTML Facebook loads almost perfectly (and in less than a minute) on my iPhone—way better (and faster) than it ever would on my 3G-enabled Treo 700p. And Gilbertson points out that most of these iPhone “apps” aren’t really applications at all: “They just offer the same content as the normal sites, just optimized for the iPhone.”

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Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin was on board yesterday’s JFK-to-SFO flight, and reports that the white leather seats were spacious and comfortable (yes, she was in coach), the playful purple-and-pink mood lighting was a welcome change from the fluorescent norm, and that the interior of the plane as a whole was “like a big happy iPod.”

Jardin goes on with a list of 10 reasons why the Virgin Mobile rules; I’ll leave it to you to explore the entire list, but here’s a few of the highlights: two 110-volt power sockets for every three seats in coach (yes!), a pair of wireless access points that’ll have Net connectivity once approved by the FAA, seat-to-seat text chatting, Ethernet and USB ports for every seat, and starting early next year, an EV-DO data uplink for messaging with the ground. Also: a wide range of movies, games (including Doom), and Google Maps on the in-flight entertainment system. Best of all? A round-trip New York-to-San Francisco ticket is just $298.

Nokia UK director of communications Mark Squires said: “Fashion has always been important to us. It’s nice to see other manufacturers copying what we’re doing in terms of their fashion launches. But whereas many of them have worked with big brands, we’ve relied on our own brand and the strength of our design team.”
Nokia’s new ‘Prism’ collection comprises the prepay 7500, priced around £125, and the contract 7900, retailing around £240, but free on contract. They feature angular designs and diamond-shaped keys.
Squires said: “These are not for the Christmas market as such; they are for the fashion market, but that hots up at Christmas, so they will sell well throughout Q4.”

The phones follow on the heels of the new Nokia 6500 ‘classic’, a candybar with a two-megapixel camera, and the 6500 ‘slide wrap’, a slider with a 3.2-megapixel camera. Its portfolio has also been boosted by the 6110 Navigator, which has fully integrated GPS.